I think the sharing of my experiences, credentials and submitting a biography is a very good idea for the new students to get to know me as their instructor online.
Projecting your credentials to students are beneficial to creating a positive learning environment.
Using a personal summary of myself and e-learners.
I learned that it's not necessary to respond to every single student's post in a discussion board. Having not used Discussion Boards before with my students, I've responded to all of their ungraded work with words of encouragement, but in the future may need to move to the Discussion Board format. Guidance in that is appreciated.
Sometimes, students feel better being in an open Google Meet (or whatever platform you're using for video chats) to just have you in the same "room" with them....even if they don't need help. I had a small group of kids that needed that and were all working on different things, but having me right there to answer questions immediately really got them working.
As an online instructor at the collegiate level for many years, I cannot agree with this point more:
"Before the end of the first week of the course, send a personalized message to each student. Identify any aspect of the student's comm biographical sketch you believe is safe to comment on. Send your personal comments. Remind them of your virtual office hours."
I have had so many students comment no other online instructor took the time to make it personal, and it put them more at ease and felt they were part of a real class.
It is so important to develop relationships early with the students. A great way to create the ice breaker is to let the students know who you are through a biography of your credentials, experience, and reasons you chose teaching. They will. in turn, feel more at ease in revealing themselves through writing one of their own. It helps to establish trust and rapport that is so essential to the instructor/student relationship.
I feel that one of the most important thing to consider is to make sure that there is some sort of introduction that needs to occur. I would not make it about the class, just a get to know each other post. I also think that it is important that a student knows the teacher's credentials. That will build a little more trust in the student/teacher relationship.
Getting to know your audience is key, as well as, the students getting to know the instructor. There are several ways to project your presence, I am sure each class will be a little different and the instructor will have to accomodate for the differences.
The importance of becoming real to your students even via on-line classes.
Many of the things mentioned, I am already doing. It was good to know that I'm going about online instuction correctly.
The facilitator should provide the students with a bio and allow the students to create their own bio.
Projecting your presence and authority from a distance was interesting to me. I look forward to learning more about the components of these topics.
It is important to discuss your experience and qualifications with students so they know why you are a respected instructor.
This module focused on the importance of protecting our presence as an online instructor. There are many ways to do this such as ; monitoring communication among students, giving feedback in a timely manner, and ensuring that I manage a one-on-one relationship with my students.
Establishing a relationship while starting an e-learning course is crucial for success. I plan to adapt the biography concept to learn more about students since the initial meeting may not be in person.
I learned in this module that distance learning on a computer you need to project your authority. We can do this by letting students know our education background and work experience. Also we need to know about the students. It is good to have them post a short biography as well.
I come from a long traditional of OG (On Ground/ Inseat) teaching at ECPI, and the recent move to Remote Synchronous (due to COVID-19 restrictions) has been a steep learning curve for both me and my students! That's why I am taking EL102. As for "Establishing Relationships" (Unit 2), I have long had this as my first assignment: they fill out a CONFIDENTIAL Student Profile and upload it as a PDF. I make sure they know it is only seen by me and perhaps their program director. The questions include the usual things, such as preferred name, phone number, may I text you, etc. but, I add several important questions. I can post it in the next posting. LBeegle Raleigh NC
In this module, I learned that it is important to provide students with a short biography of myself. I like the idea of having them also do a short biography to share. I do activities that encourage building relationships but I also learned some other good things I can do to build a relationship.
I learned how important it is to have a personal experience with students even though it is in person such as providing a biography.
