Evolving Practice for Training Online Designers and Instructors

Author(s):  
Scott R. Garrigan

Online courses place greater responsibility and demands on both the instructor and students compared to traditional face-to-face courses. Online instructors and designers are often given checklists of required or best online teaching practices to help them meet the challenge. But these checklists tend to assume that online courses fall into a single model that is independent of course goals and of the unique teaching style and strengths of the online instructor. This chapter presents the author's methods and values in training online instructors and designers. Conventional online instruction model aside, the focus is on helping the instructor and designer identify salient aspects of the course, the students, and the instructor. The chapter presents methods, content, and values that may to be less known, less understood, or difficult to implement for new designers and instructors. Each model builds on elements such as student interests, deep engagement, group collaboration, and practical assessment.

2021 ◽  
Vol 25 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Florence Martin ◽  
Swapna Kumar ◽  
Liane She

Online instructors adopt various roles and perform various competencies in the design and delivery of online courses. In this study, online instructor roles are categorized into eight types including Subject Matter Expert, Course Designer and Developer, Course Facilitator, Course Manager, Advisor/Mentor, Assessor/Evaluator, Technology Expert, and Lifelong Learner. Through survey-based research with 141 online instructors, this study examines competencies that online instructors perform based on various roles. When rating competencies, overall categorical means for all the roles were rated above 4.00, which showed that they used all these roles. The highest rated items and lowest rated items are discussed in addition to the connection between research and practice in online teaching. Online instructors who participate in training and who collaborate with instructional designers rated the frequency with which they perform the competencies to be higher. This study has implications for online instructors, instructional designers, and administrators who design and deliver online learning and offer professional development for online instructors.


Author(s):  
Jennifer R. Banas ◽  
Angela Velez-Solic

There are many ways to deliver engaging, effective, and efficient online instruction, but most higher education instructors do not know how. So while the demand for online learning has drastically increased, the efficacious training of instructors into how to deliver online courses lags far behind. In this chapter, the authors demonstrate how adult learning and instructional design principles, coupled with known best practices for online teaching, can facilitate the design of effective training and professional development for online instructors. Case study examples are used to illustrate key concepts, and a sample outline for training is offered. Administrators and trainers of online instructors will form the primary audience; other stake holders in online education will benefit as well.


2014 ◽  
pp. 732-756
Author(s):  
Jennifer R. Banas ◽  
Angela Velez-Solic

There are many ways to deliver engaging, effective, and efficient online instruction, but most higher education instructors do not know how. So while the demand for online learning has drastically increased, the efficacious training of instructors into how to deliver online courses lags far behind. In this chapter, the authors demonstrate how adult learning and instructional design principles, coupled with known best practices for online teaching, can facilitate the design of effective training and professional development for online instructors. Case study examples are used to illustrate key concepts, and a sample outline for training is offered. Administrators and trainers of online instructors will form the primary audience; other stake holders in online education will benefit as well.


Author(s):  
Rebecca Van de Vord ◽  
Korolyn Pogue

<span>Enrollments in online programs are growing, increasing demand for online courses. The perception that teaching online takes more time than teaching face-to-face creates concerns related to faculty workload.  To date, the research on teaching time does not provide a clear answer as to the accuracy of this perception. This study was designed to investigate which aspects, if any, are more time consuming for instructors teaching in the online environment.  Time logs were kept by four online instructors (eight classes) and six on-campus instructors (six classes) through six weeks of the 15-week semester. Results indicated that, overall, face-to-face teaching required more time per student, but certain aspects of online teaching take considerably more time per student than in the face-to-face classroom.</span><br /><br />


Author(s):  
Carol Johnson ◽  
Noha Altowairiki

Transitioning from a face-to-face teaching environment to online teaching requires a shift in paradigm by stakeholders involved (i.e., instructors and students). This chapter provides an extensive literature review to help novice online instructors understand the nature of online teaching presence to help position their students towards more active participation. Premised on the Community of Inquiry framework (Garrison, Anderson & Archer, 2000) and constructivism, we highlight a conceptual framework of four iterative processes for developing online teaching presence: preparations for facilitation, designing the facilitation, implementing the facilitation, and assessing the facilitation. Based on this framework, strategies are articulated for overcoming the challenges of online learning through shared stakeholder responsibility.


Author(s):  
Jason D. Baker ◽  
Shauna Tonkin

By the time someone becomes a teacher, regardless of whether he or she enters the K-12 school system, higher education arena, or corporate training environment, he or she has literally had decades of experience with face-to-face instruction. While new teachers vary in their pedagogical training and student teaching experience, they still benefit from a lifetime of experience as students themselves. Accordingly, most of today’s teachers have a fairly common set of experiences and expectations to draw from when planning and evaluating traditional instruction. This is not so when the educational environment is shifted from the four-walled classroom to the online Internet environment. According to Bork (2002), the results of a survey of university instructors revealed that experienced online instructors had taught between four and seven online courses either partially or fully online. While not an insignificant number, it pales in comparison to the teaching experience of the same respondents (e.g., 36% having more than 20 years of experience and 34% with 10-20 years of experience), as well as the nonteaching history that such instructors invariably had.


Author(s):  
A. Juan ◽  
J. Faulin ◽  
P. Fonseca ◽  
C. Steegmann ◽  
L. Pla ◽  
...  

This chapter presents a case study of online teaching in Statistics and Operations Research (OR) at the Open University of Catalonia (UOC). UOC is a purely online university with headquarters in Barcelona, Spain, with students from many countries. As common to most math-related knowledge areas, teaching and learning Statistics and OR present difficult challenges in traditional higher education. These issues are exacerbated in online environments where face-to-face interactions between students and instructors as well as among students themselves are limited or non-existent. Despite these difficulties, as evidenced in the global growth of online course offerings, Web-based instruction offers comparative benefits to traditional face-to-face instruction. While there exists a plethora of literature covering experiences and best practices in traditional face-to-face instruction in mathematics, there is a lack of research describing long-term successful experiences in Statistics and OR online courses. Based on the authors’ experiences during the last decade, this chapter aims to share some insights on how to design and develop successful online courses in these knowledge areas.


Author(s):  
Thanh T. Nguyen

How can one leverage the technological benefits of an online classroom without losing both the interpersonal advantages of face-to-face contact and pedagogically sound classroom management techniques? A blended learning environment, combining both traditional face-to-face and online interaction, is a valid higher-education solution that many instructors are adopting in place of 100% online teaching environments. Like total online courses, blended courses offer students the convenience of online access to both lecture/course materials and asynchronous classroom discussions. However, the key feature of a blended learning environment is the ability to use traditional face-to-face sessions to foster and stimulate an online social culture that facilitates knowledge acquisition through interpersonal and group discussion and disclosure. This study examines pedagogical, social and demographic factors that contribute to students’ knowledge acquisition in an 80-20 (80% online and 20% in-class) blended learning environment.


Author(s):  
Geraint Lang

Twenty First Century Education is undergoing change not only to keep in step with the emerging technological innovations, but also to address the needs and meet the high expectations of a technically sophisticated student body. Physical manifestations of these changes may be seen in new institutional building work. Technologically, the Facebook Generation of students in our universities expect online access across the campus, not only to all manner of information and social networks, but to their course work. A growing body of the student population now remain in full time employment, enrolled via online courses. Their virtual access to teaching and learning requires a different form of tuition to that generally experienced in face to face lectures. Online teaching and learning is a facilitated process, which this chapter seeks to explain. The role of the facilitator is explained, along with the process of online learning, with reference to an established online degree course, Ultraversity.


2014 ◽  
Vol 3 (4) ◽  
pp. 200-208 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charity Bryan

The proliferation of online courses and programs has impacted kinesiology programs across the country. The process of providing online instruction, while popular with students, is often daunting to the kinesiology programs that must navigate this process. Recommendations for transitioning courses and programs from face-to-face to online are offered from both the faculty and administrative perspective. Maintaining academic rigor in online kinesiology courses and program is also essential to the dialogue and for ensuring success. Many kinesiology courses and programs are well suited for online delivery and demand for these programs is high. Kinesiology faculty and administrators should understand both the facilitators and barriers to online implementation.


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