{"id":516,"date":"2021-10-20T17:36:46","date_gmt":"2021-10-21T00:36:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0162\/?p=516"},"modified":"2021-10-20T17:36:46","modified_gmt":"2021-10-21T00:36:46","slug":"3-2-1-revisited","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0162\/3-2-1-revisited\/","title":{"rendered":"3-2-1 – Revisited"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Photo by Vance Osterhout<\/a> on Unsplash<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\nhttps:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0162\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/178\/2021\/10\/LRNT-528-Final-Blog-Post.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n

As I come to the end of this course focused on online course facilitation, I can’t help but look back at the post I wrote at the beginning, to consider what I’ve learned and see if my perspective on any of those topics has changed.\u00a0 In that initial post, I covered three topics.\u00a0 First, what are the three most critical elements of online course facilitation.\u00a0 Second, what are two questions about course facilitation in an online learning environment I would like answered.\u00a0 And third, I described a photo that I found which I thought represented the philosophy of effective online course facilitation.\u00a0 Let’s revisit those topics now.<\/p>\n

Three Initial Thoughts<\/h3>\n

In the original post, I described the importance of course design, teaching presence, and the educator’s social presence.\u00a0 I don’t think my position on those elements has changed, but I don’t think my understanding of them has matured.\u00a0 How does an educator build a environment to meet the needs of all students in a course?\u00a0 All of my experience teaching has been in a media program.\u00a0 As a result, the students I’ve been exposed to all have relatively advanced technical prowess and adapt well to a digital environment.\u00a0 Recently, however, I’ve had time to work in a new position that’s exposed me to learners with a great deal more variation in technical skill.\u00a0 This has been an eye opening experience and has changed my perspective on course design.\u00a0 The educator cannot assume that students will be able to navigate a course with ease; jumping from content, to the gradebook, then to a synchronous session without clear and unambiguous design.\u00a0 Even the most seemingly simple design element needs to be evaluated with a beginner’s mind.\u00a0 This is a difficult task and one that requires practice and exposure to learners who struggle in these environments.\u00a0 So, my position on the importance of course design is more firmly set than ever.<\/p>\n

Teaching presence is also a critical element of online course facilitation.\u00a0 In this context, I’m referring to how learners are made to understand that their instructor is available, willing, and capable of providing assistance when the need arises.\u00a0 This is a position that the instructor can only achieve by proving in practice through the demonstration of those qualities.\u00a0 This can be developed partially through course design, the setting of clear response time expectations, and the inclusion of content produced from the educator’s perspective, but at the end of the day, when learners need help, the educator must be there to provide it.<\/p>\n

Finally, the instructor’s social presence is of critical importance.\u00a0 Learners need to feel like they have a personal connection with the instructor; that they recognize that this is a real person, with real human experience, passions, and a life of their own.\u00a0 This can be accomplished through the inclusion of personal touches from the educator, peppered through the course material both in asynchronous and synchronous content alike.\u00a0 The inclusion of humour is vital to developing a human environment, lightening the mood, and reducing stress.\u00a0 It also sets the tone for the course, and encourages learners to share a piece of themselves in similar fashion, which in turn acts as a catalyst for the development of a strong learning community.<\/p>\n

Two Questions<\/h3>\n

Of the two questions I asked in my initial post, one I’ve come closer to answering, the other… not so much.\u00a0 The one I understand a little better is the one concerning how an educator should know when to reach out to a learner to check on them, to assess their need for assistance.\u00a0 Now having given this some\u00a0 thought, I’ve come to the conclusion that you won’t know.\u00a0 The conclusion that I’ve drawn was partially informed by my experience teaching sales.\u00a0 In sales, I frequently tell my students that you should never assume you know why a particular prospective client isn’t communicating with you.\u00a0 We have a tendency to think the worst.\u00a0 They’re not interested.\u00a0 They’re tired of hearing from me.\u00a0 They’ve chosen my competitor.\u00a0 The truth is, though, you have no idea why they’re not reaching out… so you should continue to until told otherwise.\u00a0 I think this is equally true for an educator trying to glean why a particular student might not be engaging in a course.\u00a0 You can study all the analytics you want, but you can never know why they’re not engaging unless you ask.\u00a0 My group and I (including Kristin Beeby, Jean-Pierre Joubert, and Sandra Norum) facilitated a learning module during this course and noticed three learners who were not engaging.\u00a0 When we reached out to them to offer a helping hand, we got back three entirely different explanations as to why they weren’t participating.\u00a0 The takeaway for me is that we can use the analytics to identify learners who may benefit from direct communication, but to reserve judgement on why until we’ve had an opportunity to speak to those people and hear it from their own perspective.\u00a0 Only then can we intervene, if appropriate, to offer assistance.<\/p>\n

The second question, which explored how an educator can facilitate an ideal online course without the mountain of responsibilities consuming their life, remains a mystery.\u00a0 I have a tendency to attribute a high degree of value to most elements of course design and presence, and so I find myself dedicating a significant amount of time to facilitating my courses.\u00a0 This continues to be true.\u00a0 I still need to learn to prioritize the work and focus my attention on those elements that are critically important, and be more comfortable relaxing on those that are not.\u00a0 This is a challenge I’m going to have to continue to work on.<\/p>\n

One Analogy<\/h3>\n

I’m still quite partial to the image at the top of this post.\u00a0 I continue to appreciate the focus on the learner.\u00a0 I like that the learner has his hands on the knowledge he’s acquiring and the mentor is in the background, attentive and ready to assist, but far enough away as to not impede on the experience.\u00a0 It’s a delicate balance.\u00a0 I also love wood working and the idea of a young person getting covered in sawdust brings me joy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As I come to the end of this course focused on online course facilitation, I can’t help but look back at the post I wrote at the beginning, to consider what I’ve learned and see if my perspective on any of those topics has changed.\u00a0 In that initial post, I covered three topics.\u00a0 First, what … Continue reading 3-2-1 – Revisited<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":184,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-516","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-lrnt528"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0162\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/516","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0162\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0162\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0162\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/184"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0162\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=516"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0162\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/516\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":525,"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0162\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/516\/revisions\/525"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0162\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=516"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0162\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=516"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0162\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=516"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}