Central Ideas

Author(s):  
Sorin Walter Gudea

In the previous chapters, teachers shared their online teaching stories. They talked about how the online environment affects them and their teaching, about the tradeoffs they find, the issues associated with technology and teaching online, and about the adjustments they feel they make. They also shared the benefits and the losses they notice as a result of their teaching online. While all these data are fascinating, it is now time to put things in perspective and find out how, if at all, these stories intersect and help us coin a better understanding of the teachers’ experiences in the online environment. This chapter focuses on the central ideas that are related to teaching and will discuss the first four core categories identified: Teaching, Teaching Demands, Teacher Needs, and Teaching Dimensions.

Author(s):  
Sorin Walter Gudea

In the previous chapters, teachers shared their experiences and feelings about online teaching; we have seen some of the perspectives related to online teaching and to teaching in general. Teachers talked about how the online environment affects them and their teaching style; about the tradeoffs they find; the issues associated with technology and teaching online; about the adjustments they feel they have to make; and about the benefits and the losses they notice as a result of their teaching online. Thus this chapter tries to put things in perspective and find out how, if at all, these stories intersect. The chapter also focuses on the central ideas that are related to technology and its use in the online classroom, ideas that have been derived from the interview data.


2019 ◽  
Vol 28 (2) ◽  
pp. 51-62 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mansur F. Galikhanov ◽  
Gulnara F. Khasanova

An important trend in higher education is an increasing use of digital technologies and an expansion of online-learning formats, which poses new challenges for university faculty to master the pedagogical competences in teaching online.Universities are forced to expand their educational activities in the online environment, and to involve an increasing number of teachers in the design and delivery of online courses. However, faculty members often do not have the necessary skills and competencies, and their experience in the use of digital technology is insufficient. Meanwhile, the success of online teaching depends not only on advanced methods and technologies, but first of all on the quality of faculty involved. An important issue is how teachers are trained to perform these tasks. To ensure the effectiveness of online education, the Institute of Further Professional Education of the Kazan National Research Technological University is developing approaches to training faculty for the transition to virtual learning environment. They should take into account factors, incentives and barriers affecting faculty’s participation in online teaching, and analyze changes in the activities of teaching stuff in the online environment.The paper dwells on the foreign experience in training faculty for online teaching. We analyzed publications considering new roles and competencies of online teachers, barriers and motivations that encourage faculty to participate in online learning. The paper gives an overview of the content of foreign training courses aimed at the formation of a complex of subject, pedagogical and technological competences of faculty related to online teaching. The main goal of the analysis was to determine the core competencies of online teachers, so that to reflect them in the program of training faculty for teaching online.


Author(s):  
Anita Samuel

As instructors are forced to move their courses online, they are confronted by a sense of isolation and distance from their learners. Research has shown that feelings of loneliness are mitigated when presence is created in the online environment. An interpretive phenomenological analysis was conducted at a public university in the United States to answer the question: What are the determinants of presence for instructors in online teaching? Twenty-five online instructors from various disciplines, with diverse levels of experience teaching online, were recruited for the study. Interviews, analysis of course syllabi, and observations of course sites revealed five determinants of presence for online instructors: content, format, strategies, technology, and students. The crucial factor in deciding an instructor’s experience of presence was the degree of agency instructors had over these determinants. This paper introduces the Zones of Agency for Online Instructors model and describes how the model can be used to enhance instructors’ experiences of presence.


RELC Journal ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 003368822098527
Author(s):  
Benjamin Luke Moorhouse ◽  
Yanna Li ◽  
Steve Walsh

Interaction is seen by many English language teachers and scholars as an essential part of face-to-face English language classrooms. Teachers require specific competencies to effectively use interaction as a tool for mediating and assisting learning. These can be referred to as classroom interactional competence (CIC). However, the situation created by the ongoing global COVID-19 pandemic which began in early 2020, and the recent advancement in technologies have led to teachers conducting synchronous online lessons through video-conferencing software. The online environment is distinctly different from the face-to-face classroom and teachers require new and additional skills to effectively utilise interaction online in real time. This exploratory study used an online mixed-method survey of 75 university level English language teachers who had engaged in synchronous online teaching due to COVID-19, to explore the competencies that teachers need to use interaction as a tool to mediate and assist language learning in synchronous online lessons. Teachers were found to require three competencies, in addition to their CIC – technological competencies, online environment management competencies, and online teacher interactional competencies – which together constitute e-CIC. The findings provide greater insights into the needs of teachers required to teach synchronously online and will be of interest to teachers and teacher educators.


Author(s):  
Patricia Cranton

The purpose of this article is to explore the potential for fostering transformative learning in an online environment. It provides an overview of transformative learning theory, including the variety of perspectives on the theory that have evolved as the theory matured. Strategies and practices for fostering transformative learning are presented, followed by a description of the online environment and how strategies for encouraging transformative learning might be carried into that environment. Students’ voices are brought in to corroborate and to question the importance of these strategies. The article concludes with a discussion of how an educator’s style and strengths can be brought into online teaching, especially with a view to helping learners examine their meaning perspectives.


Author(s):  
Jane Brindley ◽  
Lisa Marie Blaschke ◽  
Christine Walti

Collaborative learning in an online classroom can take the form of discussion among the whole class or within smaller groups. This paper addresses the latter, examining first whether assessment makes a difference to the level of learner participation and then considering other factors involved in creating effective collaborative learning groups. Data collected over a three year period (15 cohorts) from the Foundations course in the Master of Distance Education (MDE) program offered jointly by University of Maryland University College (UMUC) and the University of Oldenburg does not support the authors’ original hypothesis that assessment makes a significant difference to learner participation levels in small group learning projects and leads them to question how much emphasis should be placed on grading work completed in study groups to the exclusion of other strategies. Drawing on observations of two MDE courses, including the Foundations course, their extensive online teaching experience, and a review of the literature, the authors identify factors other than grading that contribute positively to the effectiveness of small collaborative learning groups in the online environment. In particular, the paper focuses on specific instructional strategies that facilitate learner participation in small group projects, which result in an enhanced sense of community, increased skill acquisition, and better learning outcomes.


2018 ◽  
Vol 5 (4) ◽  
pp. 249-255
Author(s):  
Lei Pan ◽  
Hui-Qin Xi ◽  
Xiao-Wei Shen ◽  
Chen-Yu Zhang

AbstractA teaching strategy is a method, which can help students to gain knowledge, deliver information, and improve their learning. Different learning environments, such as clinical teaching, online teaching, and face-to-face traditional learning environments, require different teaching strategies for students. Choosing teaching strategies for a course is very important for nurse educators because various factors should be taken into account to make students meet the learning outcomes. The use of modern technologies in teaching strategies can improve students’ competencies and confidences. The purpose of this article is to create a toolbox integrating ten teaching strategies that can be used in different teaching environments.


2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (4) ◽  
pp. 728
Author(s):  
Niely Fawaidah Virgin ◽  
Imam Qalyubi ◽  
Zaitun Qamariah

This study aimed at investigating the challenges and  identifying the way the English teachers solve the challenges toward online teaching during Covid-19 pandemic. This study was qualitative research. Three instruments were used to collect the data, those are: open-ended questionnaire, interview and documentation. As a result, this study showed that there were eight challenges experienced by the English teachers in remote areas toward online teaching during Covid-19 pandemic, those are: (1) inadequate infrastructure; (2) student’s learning attention; (3) financial condition; (4) students readiness; (5) parent’s concern; (6) designing materials; (7) measuring student’s understanding, and (8) the instability of student’s motivation. During teaching-learning process, there were various ways in overcoming the challenges done by the English teachers, those are: (1) create an interactive media; (2) decide the most suitable online learning tool; (3) give additional time for the students; (4) provide adequate facilities for both teacher and student in remote areas. Keywords:  Challenge, Covid-19 Pandemic, English Teaching, Online Learning


2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 279-301
Author(s):  
Ola Hafez ◽  
Yasmine Salah El-Din

The present descriptive study investigated the challenges experienced and the coping strategies used by Egyptian university educators from different institution types while teaching online during the pandemic. The cross-sectional study drew participants (N = 222) from three different academic institution types, private universities, public universities, and adult education institutions, who responded to a survey that examined the technical, professional, administrative, social, and psychological challenges teachers encountered as well as their coping strategies. Data were analyzed quantitatively and qualitatively. Results indicated that the challenges and coping strategies reported by teachers varied according to the teaching context and the requirements of each academic institution. The most reported challenges experienced were exhaustion, internet problems, technical issues, and anxiety. Despite the challenges, participants reported a few positive effects, including feeling more productive, being motivated to learn something new, feeling appreciated by the students and administration, and feeling confident using online teaching tools. Results also revealed that the participants used social and professional strategies to cope with the circumstances accompanying the sudden shift to online teaching. The results indicated how challenges faced by educators from different institution types may diminish with more training on, and experience with, online teaching, forming communities of practice as well as other coping strategies they developed. Such findings should be helpful to educators, institutions, and policymakers in different academic institutions all over the world and in various teaching contexts.


2021 ◽  
Vol 30 (2) ◽  
pp. 63
Author(s):  
Patricia Danyluk ◽  
Amy Burns

The shift to online learning that occurred in March of 2020, created an unprecedented period of intense work for faculty and sessional instructors at the post-secondary level. This shift necessitated courses be adapted under short timelines, new technology be integrated into course design and teaching strategies and assessment methods be adapted for an online environment (Van Nuland et al., 2020). This study examines how sessional instructors, referred to in this chapter as contract faculty, and continuing full-time faculty members delivering the same online courses experienced this shift. While the demands of a continuing faculty position call for balancing of teaching, research and service responsibilities, contract instructors have their own unique stressors (Karram Stephenson et al., 2020). Contract faculty lack job security, are paid by the course and often receive their teaching assignments with short notice. By examining their perspectives on delivering the same courses online, we learn that the shift to online teaching resulted in additional work in order to adapt courses to the online environment, with faculty describing the challenges of balancing the additional work with other responsibilities of their position. Concerns of participants focused on a perceived inability to develop relationships with students in an online environment.


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