"If you can't reach them... you cant teach them"
Building relationships is possible, even in the online community. Be response and make sure communications are fluid... students will apprecitae that.
It is just as important for the instructor to know about the students, as the students to know about the instructor. This creates an envirnment of transparency. Building a sense of bonding, so that the communication can open up and become more fluid.
I learned that a biography from the students is as important as one from the instructor. I also learned that it is encouraged to have students reach out to one another in order to build important learning relationships.
This section reinforces the importance of creating a relationship with students through sharing my credentials, experience with online learning, and hobbies and interests that I have along with office hours and contact information. Making yourself "human" in the virtual world is extremely important. Having students provide specific information about themselves, responding to classmates, and me responding individually to each student creates the "I'm involved and here" environment from the start.
Using Zoom, I want to make sure participants of how their name is labeled so I can use the best way to address them. I believe a more concrete way of posting announcements, reminders, and emailing or commenting towards every individual is a task that is important.
It is important to estabilish your authority in an online course.
It seems teachers should try to protect the privacy of those in virtual enviroments. Educators should ask before sharing comments that are made by students to check if that is alright first. Teachers should be prepared and should spend time practicing before the actual day of presentation. Most student are very good at manipulating in a virtual environment and could actually teach others in the process. Have fun, be creative, and learn from these new teaching experiences that we are now doing.
Make it a personal experience with students to create an open and positive learning envrionment. By allowing them to see who you are gives them a connection to the faculty.
What I have learned is the importance of projecting my appearnce in an oline enviornment. This so impirtant. This will let students know that this not a fly-by-night course; it will set the presedence of who you are the course expectations.
It reminded me the need to establish credibility in the eyes of my students via sharing my education and experience with the content while also making sure I understand who my learners are and what their needs are. I like the suggestion of giving students a separate area for generalized discussions on the discussion board so that they can be sure to focus on the content in the discussion board and you don't feel overwhelmed by having to sort through the different discussions to get to the ones relating to the content.
To establish a rapport and relationship by providing your background information as well as learning about your students through biographies as one means.
Whne you are doing e-learning, it is best to create a bio of yourself and your achievements. Also, have students introduce themselves by allowing them to create a bio of themselves.
Developing relationships is very important at many levels. Learning and teaching others the relationship is vital regardless if it is online or in the classroom. Great advice on bio's and short introductions provide a bridge to those opportunities to make those relational connections.
It is important to "connect" with the students so that they feel engaged. Providing credentials and professional information helps to build trust.
I is important the learners recognize the presence of the instructor and that the instructor is responsive.
This module was very imformative on making sure your presence is known in the virtual classroom. I really like the idea of having the students post their biography and having their peers comment on their post. This is a great way to develop a personal relationship amongst students and their peers.
Online courses are void of the typical cues presented by both the teacher and students in the traditional classroom, so instructors must be deliberate in their interactions. I can make my presence be felt by providing clear and concise directions, thoughtful responses to students in a timely manner, positive feedback and actively initiating/participating in discussion sessions, and modeling responses to assignments or discussion questions.
For students to connect more with the instructor, post credentials and info about yourself. Also, have the students participate in posting info about them selves and participate in discussions online.
This module gave me more information on how to utlize classroom strategies, presence, and projecting authority in order to have a successful distance learning experience. It gave me tips and suggestions to be successful in the distance classroom while using what I know in the regular classroom and applying strategies in different ways to be effective. It also gave me very good information on how to reach out to students who are not fully engaged and how to reach out to them for success. This made me think about how we need to be aware of tone, body language, listening, cues, gestures, etc. if we utilize video presentations or recorded sessions. In the written aspect it is not always easy to determine the tone and different cultures could interpret things differently. How we respond to students when they do something "wrong" or respond incorrectly can greatly influence how they respond to the online experience.
I appreciated learning the best way to create a bio to present to the students. I also like the idea of having the students post a short bio for the first assignment.
