R685 Week 4

Online Instructor Roles, Training, Incentives, and Supports

The following readings are for the 17 September class. Before I delve into the readings I want to discuss class a bit more as I did not much in my previous post. The class was interesting esp. with the controversy George Siemens stirred. Dr. Bonk used the You Tube Video “The machine is Us/ing us” to so how a Professor Michael Wesch at Kansas State University teaches, and is not a bad tutorial of web 2.0 and where we are going. Anyway, it was all wrapped up when Dr. Bonk sent the questions we posed to Mr. Siemens and he responded. I liked his responses (but still do not necessarily agree). Mr. Siemens is very much aware of the controversy and embraces a “good chat” about it. Thanks Dr. Bonk for taking our discussion to a different level. I always wondered when discussing material when I was in my foundations course why we debated what the author thought. Most of these people are still around why don’t we ask them? Dr. Bonk, again, thanks.

The readings this week are focused on the benefits and challenges of web learning. The Wingard study was interesting because it polled instructors that were suppose to be more familiar with educational technology. The studies found that although online takes more time and a social aspect is lost, the learners are more engaged, relay learning to practice almost immediately, and the instructors use the web for pragmatic and pedagogical reasons ie. delivery of material, changes, and able to post more advanced models to the web. It seems the benefits outweigh the problems (the problems are being solved with blended learning and more social software). What is different with this other articles is the push to utilize an instructional designer. I lied; it was also discussed in Dr. Parker’s article that stated instead of additional pay, online instructors were given technical and design support. I think that is a good deal although the time commitment is great for an online instructor if the technology and instructional design responsibilities were stripped the course would be more manageable.

The JALN article and the Online Journal of Distance Learning Administration (OJDLA) both related to a survey of online MBA professors. Again, the same issues can out, not social enough BUT the learners are very engaged AND able to put learning to practice. In the JALN article they brought Salmon’s idea that facilitators are “weavers” and need to fill this role in an online environment. If the facilitator cannot “weave” the class is going to be less than exceptional. It was proposed the instructor has pedagogical role (as described above), a social role, a managerial role, and a technical role. Each of these areas was discussed more thoroughly but shows how being an online instructor is very complex, even more than a “live” facilitator. The OJDLA article again took 28 online professors and interviewed each. Although some classes were trouble at times overall it is a successful program. Again, assistance in instructional design and technology will go a long way.

The tidbits were about an online instructor from Penn State and show how much time it takes to run an online class (started at 0430). He was an extreme case as he had over 200 students that is a lot to handle, however, again (reoccurring theme) he had help from a technical assistant. The other was “Teach in your Pajamas” which gave ideas of how to develop and how to deliver an online class. I thought it was pretty good even for being 5 years old. If even a few of the items were used I think it would be a successful class. The theme I heard here was feedback. She was always referring to ways to get feedback and tweaking the class to the suggestions. Let the learner drive…

Robin G. Wingard (2004). Classroom teaching changes in Web-enhanced courses: A multi-Institutional Study. Educause Quarterly, 27(1). http://www.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/eqm0414.pdf

Liu, X., Bonk, C. J., Magjuka, R. J., Lee, S. H., & Su, B. (2005). Exploring four dimensions of online instructor roles: A program level case study. Journal of Asynchronous Learning Networks. 9(4), pp. 29-48. http://www.sloan-c.org/publications/jaln/v9n4/index.asp and http://www.sloan-c.org/publications/jaln/v9n4/v9n4_liu_member.asp

Liu, S., Kim, K-J., Bonk, C. J., & Magjuka, R. (2007). Benefits, barriers, and suggestions: What did online MBA professors say about online teaching? Online Journal of Distance Learning Administration, 10(2), see http://www.westga.edu/~distance/ojdla/summer102/liu102.htm

Angie Parker (2003, Fall). Motivation and Incentives for Distance Faculty. Online Journal of Distance Learning Administration, 6(3), http://www.westga.edu/~distance/ojdla/fall63/parker63.htm

Tidbits:

Chronicle of Higher Education (2002). The 24 hour professor: http://chronicle.com/free/v48/i38/38a03101.htm

Karen Hyder (2002). Teach in Your Pajamas: Becoming a Synchronous E-Trainer. The E-Learning Developer’s Journal. http://elearningtech.pbwiki.com/f/Teach%20in%20your%20pajamas.pdf