Featured Higher Education Presenter: Dr. Ike Shibley
Date: Thursday, 09/16/10
Time: 12:00 - 1:30 PM CDT
Cost: $279 ($304 after 09/09/10)
Three easy ways to register!
Phone: 800-433-0499 / 608-246-3590
If you’re thinking about teaching online or are looking for ways to improve your online instruction, join us on September 16 for Teaching Online vs. F2F: 15 Differences That Affect Learning, a Magna Online Seminar led by Dr. Ike Shibley, associate professor of chemistry and life science coordinator at Penn State Berks. In an email interview with The Teaching Professor, Shibley discussed how face-to-face (F2F) and online instruction differ, the benefits of online instruction, and how to meet the challenges of teaching online.
TP: What are the main pedagogical challenges of teaching online?
Shibley: The major issues seem to revolve around student engagement. In some ways engaging students in face-to-face learning is also a challenge. I think that the physical presence of the students in a F2F course helps remind them about the commitment they have made to learning. The F2F commitment is a bit like having a running partner: even if you don’t feel like running that day you know that your partner will be there and so you don’t want to let him or her down. I recently took a three-week online course and found that I completed the first several assignments at one time. But then I forgot about the course and had to struggle to complete assignments right at the end of the third week. My experience is probably not that much different from the experiences of students taking online courses. An online experience can be moved to the back burner all too easily. A teacher needs to design the course with clear checkpoints throughout the course and with continual communication to the class. Assigning students to teams for group projects helps them overcome a sense of isolation and motivates them a bit because they have a responsibility in the course beyond themselves (like having a running partner).
TP: Which differences are most significant in making the transition from face-to-face to online instruction?
Shibley: The lack of F2F contact is probably the biggest difference. You cannot find a substitute for that contact, but you can institute policies that help ameliorate the lack of contact. Email is a great way to communicate as are podcasts, message boards, and the course management system. Another difference is the need for clarity because any time you confuse students you will get a lot of emails. For teachers new to course management systems the technology can be a major hurdle to overcome, but there seems to be enough technical support at most institutions to help teachers surmount any technical difficulties.
TP: How can teaching online enhance face-to-face instruction and vice versa?
Shibley: I think that the organization required for online teaching helps you when you teach F2F because you become more aware of just how students might interpret the syllabus, assignments, etc. When I started teaching online I realized that good teaching has a lot of similarities in any kind of course. Good F2F teachers will probably be effective online teachers. Unfortunately, that means that teachers who face significant pedagogical challenges in the F2F environment will also face significant challenges online. So much of teaching is finding ways to help students connect with the course content, and whether F2F or online that connection is always difficult to create and to sustain. In either online or F2F the more reflective you are as a teacher–paying attention to what helps students learn–the better you’ll do the next time. That holds true for either online or F2F or a combination of the two (blended or hybrid courses).
TP: How might this online seminar affect the way instructors view online teaching?
Shibley: I’ve already had a comment from a Teaching Professor reader that the advertising for this seminar was disingenuous because I suggested that some aspects of online teaching are an improvement over F2F teaching. I stand by that assertion, and I hope that after 90 minutes of discussion about online education, participants will have a more positive view of online education. I am not claiming that online education is better than F2F, but I do believe that teaching online can help us improve our F2F pedagogy. The ideal learning environment continues to be one-on-one, but the reality of higher education is that we rarely achieve that ideal in undergraduate studies. Online education helps approach the ideal of one-on-one education if the course has been well designed. And when online sources improve learning they can be used to augment F2F teaching. I hope to help teachers who teach online to do so more effectively and to encourage those who are contemplating an online course to try it.
One price provides for unlimited attendees!
The cost to attend this live, 90-minute video online seminar is $279, regardless of the number of participants from a single sign-on location. To maximize your limited training dollars, we recommend planning to view this seminar from a conference center or meeting room large enough to accommodate a big group.
This video online seminar is appropriate for:
• Faculty considering teaching an online course
• Faculty getting ready to teach an online course
• Faculty who are currently teaching an online course
• Administrators who want to learn ways to support faculty who teach online
No comments:
Post a Comment