Many teachers who have spent their careers in face-to-face classes are being asked—perhaps strongly—to teach online. Based on comments from faculty members, the shift is often because of a shortage of classroom space. There are probably many other reasons as well, such as scheduling problems or a sudden increase in students enrolling in particular programs. It's certainly possible that tight budgets are partly responsible, too.
These instructors may have a steep learning curve, and it's not just a matter of mastering new technology. Well, there's that, but so much more.
Teachers are often confounded with practical matters such as making sure their courses can be accessed by students with both PCs and Macs, to give just one example. Some students seek out loopholes in the syllabus with the acumen of a "Philadelphia lawyer," as one teacher put it. These problems should be anticipated and sorted out as efficiently as possible, long before the class begins. Instructors who teach online will tell you that it's much harder work than face-to-face instruction, especially in the preparation.
There are the inevitable "It won't work!" comments from students, even if they didn't read the syllabus to understand why. Some students want to take the entire course on a cell phone, when "smart" phones typically can't handle the requisite software. (Why isn't there an app for that? OMG!) The list goes on.
It helps if the students who sign up for online courses are self-disciplined and mature, teachers say. It is troublesome when attrition is higher for online classes than for traditional offerings, since the former appears to be the wave of the future.
Rob Kelly has posted an article in Faculty Focus, giving practical advice for instructors making this transition. Some suggestions may not have occurred to practitioners, even if they are experienced in the field, such as the following basic components of a syllabus:
- welcome message
- objectives
- assignments
- class norms
- communication methods
- technical requirements
- skills needed to take the course
- course structure
- log in information
- technical support
But changes are inevitable:
As with the face-to-face environment, once the course is created it will require changes. “I think some people still have the notion that because you’ve taught the course face to face many years it’s easy to [create an online version]. I’ve heard many times, ‘Once I get the lectures recorded and everything uploaded in Blackboard set the way I want it, I won’t really have to work on the course much any more. I won’t have to think about it. It will be easy. This will be a one-time transfer.’ I think that’s definitely a mistake. Just as in the face-to-face environment it takes tweaking. You might need to change your teaching style for a particular group of students. One group may need more scaffolding than another,” Catherine Nameth, [education outreach coordinator at the University of California-Los Angeles] says.
There's much more. Please read the entire piece.
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