ET&S [3(2)] - Dorothy Fuller et al. - Internet Teaching By St...

Faculty development has often taken on the role of assisting in making the change from the traditional classroom to computer assisted educational environments, but faculty development professionals have had to create their own path in doing so. Experience with computer environments from outside academia may provide some insights into the problems that may be encountered and suggest solutions to the problems. Kiesler, Siegel & McGuire (Oct. 1984) found problems in making the change to computer mediated communication came from pressures of time, an absence of regulating feedback, the absence of nonverbal behavior weakening social influence, the absence of status and position cues, social anonymity leading to depersonalization, and lack of established norms and etiquette leading to a breakdown of established boundaries. However, Pfaffenberger (1986) found that these new communication environments, such as electronic mail, bulletin boards, and computer conferencing, have the potential to "democratize" the educational space because they obliterate social barriers and status distinctions. Kerr (1986) suggests effective leadership styles and skills necessary for moderating on-line meetings and facilitating electronic groups include sensitivity to the needs of participants, knowledge, persistence, willingness to spend the time and effort, enthusiasm, creativity, and flexibility.

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These changes in the educational environment have caused a rethinking of the role of the teacher. Cooper & Selfe (Dec. 1990) found that computer conferences created non-traditional discourse forums for students to resist teacher-centered pedagogy, creating new teacher/student dynamics which some instructors may find unsettling. Berge (1995) states that the online instructor must be clear, flexible, encouraging, non-authoritarian, objective, accepting, facilitative, informal, responsive, and patient.

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Overcoming the Faceless Classroom. For those extraverts who rely heavily on the verbal and nonverbal feedback of their face-to-face students, on-line communications can be frustrating and unrewarding. Additionally, many of the students may have the same difficulty in making connections in a faceless, asynchronous environment. Planning class discussion assignments that include sharing of some level of personal information early in the course may help faculty and students alike in constructing mental models of each other and in beginning to understand the personal tone of each participant's electronic writing style. One professor at Black Hills State University was extremely frustrated with this lack of personal connection with his students, and in desperation, challenged his students to go to his personal web page, read his curriculum vita and, based on the information they found, guess his favorite football team. The students responded quickly and enthusiastically, and their electronic responses took on an entirely different tone. The instructor responded to the students with his own style of informal banter, and the students responded back to him and to each other. He reported that this exercise, begun in frustration, proved to be such a good way of establishing an on-line rapport that he plans to use something similar in all of his future on-line classes.

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Adapting to a Student-centered Teaching Approach. The Internet and World Wide Web alter many of the control dynamics of a traditional classroom. Control of class time or class pacing are now in the hands of students who log on to the course at all hours of the day and night and work at their own pace. For those who feel more comfortable in an environment of predictable routine where they can maintain structure and control, on-line instruction may not be a pleasant prospect. Consideration of the faculty need for structure in addition to the learners' needs may ease the transition for those teachers with sequential styles of interaction. One professor found that by using the calendar tool in WebCT she could create a course structure with established deadlines and scheduled events that resembled the structure she was used to on campus. For another faculty member, one who traditionally does not enjoy or use a lot of structure in her classes, using the Gregorc Transaction Ability Inventory made her aware of others' need for structure. As a result, she began adding more structure to her Internet supported instruction, much to the relief of some of her students.

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Managing Time and Technique. Of all the issues surrounding Internet-based instruction, the one that usually rises to the top of faculty concerns is the amount of time these courses require. The time required for reading and responding to individual responses to discussion forums and to private e-mail is piled on top of the time required to read and respond to written assignments and class projects that are part of both on-line and face-to-face instruction. Additionally, many faculty find that the lack of an assigned time and place for class time creates a structural void in their schedules that is too easily filled by other work. For those who prefer to shun formal structure, this can mean that meeting an on-line course falls into a sporadic, helter-skelter pattern that may leave students feeling abandoned and discouraged. If faculty understand their preferred informal interaction styles, they can plan for providing some necessary structure by formally placing a specific time for meeting their classes on line and posting it along with their office hours and face-to-face schedules. They can close their office doors and hang a sign that says "In Class. Do Not Disturb." These schedules can quickly become as inviolable as traditional classroom meeting times.

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Managing Time and Technique > . Of all the issues surrounding Internet-based instruction, the one that usually rises to the top of faculty concerns is the amount of time these courses require. The time required for reading and responding to individual responses to discussion forums and to private e-mail is piled on top of the time required to read and respond to written assignments and class projects that are part of both on-line and face-to-face instruction. Additionally, many faculty find that the lack of an assigned time and place for class time creates a structural void in their schedules that is too easily filled by other work. For those who prefer to shun formal structure, this can mean that meeting an on-line course falls into a sporadic, helter-skelter pattern that may leave students feeling abandoned and discouraged. If faculty understand their preferred informal interaction styles, they can plan for providing some necessary structure by formally placing a specific time for meeting their classes on line and posting it along with their office hours and face-to-face schedules. They can close their office doors and hang a sign that says "In Class. Do Not Disturb." These schedules can quickly become as inviolable as traditional classroom meeting times. >

In regard to the many faculty who find all of their time eaten away by the seemingly endless stream of student e-mail, we offer one final example of how knowledge of preferred interaction and work styles can be the springboard to a solution. When one of our on-line teachers complained about the amount of time required to answer each e-mail or bulletin board question, he was asked how he normally tackled his student feedback. Being a strongly sequential person, he would open each e-mail, read it and answer it, file it, then move on to the next. Upon further questioning, he revealed that it never occurred to him to review the entire list of e-mails before answering any; he said that was too disorderly. Knowing his need for order and sequential activity, the instructional designer worked with him to find an alternative approach that provided a new sequential structure that was more efficient for the task. Rather than answering each e-mail, he read all e-mails and sorted them according to type of response needed. Then he provided comprehensive responses that answered all similar questions once. Then he addressed those single questions that required a more individual response last. Finally, he re-examined his assumption that all e-mails must be answered immediately and provided his students with a specific time schedule of when he would read his e-mail each day and when they could expect feedback. The time spent reading student contributions remained the same, but the time spent in responding was reduced significantly, and by providing a clear time structure for responding, he was able to free himself to complete other duties and still meet his students' need for timely feedback.

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Establishing the Learning Community.The challenge of teaching an on-line course is to find a way of maintaining the feelings of collegiality and community with the students that are part of the pleasure of teaching a face-to-face course. Most faculty are accustomed to taking cues from students' facial expressions, body language, and extemporaneous questions to help the teacher know how the students are progressing with the material to be learned. Suggestions for creating this learning community in the virtural classroom include the following:

• Practice writing rich statements to the students in the Internet delivered course. This interactive strategy can make the instructor feel that the student-teacher interaction is going on even though you are not in the same classroom.
• Ask the students for feedback several times while the course is in session to keep that contact, now in virtual form, alive and well.
• Send virtual greeting cards or virtual bouquets of balloons to let the students know that they were important to the instructor. This tactic produced pleased comments from several on-line learners. This seemed to be a successful way to keep the teacher-student interaction lively and personal.

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