In today's edition of Inside Higher Ed, assistant professor Amy Overman describes her first experience with online teaching: an online course in "cognitive neuroscience of memory" at Elon University, a private, liberal arts university in North Carolina.
Believe it or not, but many online instructors have fears and doubts about their own (teaching) abilities in the virtual classroom. No different than first-time online students, faculty must also make significant preparations in order to effectively navigate the online environment.
With access to "extensive course development and online training, including an assigned instructional designer for the entire process," Dr. Overman was alternately thrilled and worried. Ultimately, though, she learned "shockingly – that teaching online my first year had actually been a
great learning experience for both me and my students rather than a
quick and easy way to earn some extra money." She writes:
- "Students can learn just as effectively online as in a traditional classroom, with some tweaks. I normally encourage a lot of class discussion and I give immediate verbal feedback so I was worried about how this would be possible online. It turns out that discussion boards work really well for this but you have to be vigilant about monitoring (see above). I would post discussion prompts and students would respond to the prompts, or post about their own insights. Writing so consistently with frequent feedback and being able to see their own thoughts written out helped students to steadily improve the quality of their writing. Students were required to ground their comments in the context of the readings and to support their comments with evidence from the readings. The distinction between posting an “I think X” comment and an “I think X because Y, Z, & Q” was a real challenge for the students but I found it is easier for students to write logically than it is for them to speak logically in an in-class discussion. It was exciting to see their intellectual growth and the improvement in their scientific writing ability as the course progressed."
- "You can create a safe and open classroom dynamic without being in a classroom. Both my students and I thought that the anonymity and lack of group meetings would make the class unnatural and lonely for each individual. Many students commented that they thought they’d feel isolated from their classmates since they would not see them physically. Instead, the discussion board allowed them to interact with their classmates and to “feel like [it] was a real class.” Posting an initial introduction and then posting daily afterward resulted in class cohesiveness even though the students never saw each other face-to-face. At the same time, the lowered inhibition of posting online freed students to make bold statements and to disagree (politely) about research conclusions, which made for wonderful discussion."
Dr. Overman also points out that "project collaboration is not a good idea in an online class. Although I am usually a champion of group work because it mimics the collaboration that is key to scientific progress, I took a leap and required students to work independently on journal article presentations. I presented the first journal article and then let the students choose their own article for presentation. Viewing an individual student’s attempt to explain primary literature allowed me to quickly ascertain and target gaps in learning. I might have missed those gaps if the student had worked in a group because someone would have taken up the slack for the member who was falling behind. Fortunately, most students extracted a substantial amount of knowledge for the topic on which they presented (as evidenced by their exam performance and discussion board posts) and many expressed pride in their newfound expertise. Student presenters in each topic unit also monitored the discussion boards with me and responded to their classmates’ posts which allowed peer-to-peer teaching to take place."
In summary, Dr. Overman concludes: "I now know that online courses are not a pale and lifeless version of
traditional courses or worse, a “pay for an A” scam in which everyone
teaches him/herself and everyone gets a good grade. Online courses can
be distinctive and worthwhile ways of teaching in their own right."
To read the full story, go to http://insidehighered.com/views/2008/11/06/overman. Brava to Dr. Overman for her honest and well-written observations. We wish her all the luck in her future online teaching endeavors!
Ready to try out an online course? C'mon ... you know you're curious ... check out http://www.elearners.com/courses/ and get started today!