Comment on Lisa Brown's post: I learned that one way of projecting my presence online is to encouraging Collaboration with Others.
I learned how to create my bio, and ask students how to introduce themselves so that we can all get to know each other and build relationship.
In an online learning environment, it is important to project your professional authority by sharing your biography with your students.
This module was full of excellent information to help me to work on all areas of projecting and maintaining presence from a distance, projecting and maintaining authority from a distance and also establishing a relationship with each learner. I especially enjoyed the tips on how we can make our instructor presence felt more and also how to further comfort, influence, persuade, inspire, and energize our students in positive ways.
Posting a bio of yourself and having the students post theirs helps every one get to know a bit about each other right from the start.
Even though you are teaching a course online it is still important to make sure you are making connections with your students and supporting them.
This is great information even if your course isn't online. Such as getting to know your students and their expectations of you as an instructor.
It is important to still have a presence from a distance. By sharing information with students, it can lead to personal relationships and make them build trust with the instructor. You can do this by posting welcome messages, bio messages with personal credentials and hobbies, etc. and asking students to do the same during the first week of class.
I learned in this module that there are similarities in the establishment of our relationship with the students within the traditional academic setting and in e-learning. As instructors is vital to try our best to connect with the students to be able to deliver our message in the best way possible.
Some people might think that they are boasting by telling the students about their credentials, but in reality, they are setting the framework for mutual respect. Finding various modalities to share professional credentials and learn about each other on the human-to-human level in an online setting is a paradigm shift from the in-person classroom.
During the pandemic, there was a new paradigm in education. Teachers had to transfer all their knowledge into an online format. For me, I wanted to be sensitive to the loneliness the students were feeling. One way I developed relationships is that all cameras were on so we all could see each other, another way was to do text blasts on emotional awareness, or to see if they were paying attention. Lastly, having each student have time to share out and lead.
Let students know a bit about me by including a short bio about my professional experience. Also, have students participate in a discussion on day one where they introduce themselves and then respond to others in order to get to know other students in our course.
It is important to introduce yourself to your learners with a short biography. This will help lay the foundation for you to facilitate as your role as an instructor. Allow students the opportunity to participate with a response introduction as well.
I greatly underestimated the importance of having a biography posted for the students to get to know me at the beginning of a course. In the online courses that I have taken previously, I have just glanced through the teachers' biography, and never really payed attention to it. In the courses that I currently teach, I feel that it is important to make this initial connection with the studnets.
building trust and maintaining authority and relevance seem like the most important parts of managing the student experience
I learned to remind myself to keep the class as interactive as possible even if it is in an online setting.
I've learned how important is to stablished your presence and authority among your students.
Get to know your students, even if you are an online instructor.
Letting my students know that they can do it because i have and is doing it. Let my achievements be motivational. Is a way of connecting with the students
Posting a biography with your academic credentials, teaching experience, and a photo is a good way to project an online presence and gain students' respect.
