Online Pedagogy: Creating a Presence

Table of contents

• Summary of this page
• Contribute to my page
• The Way We Were
• The digital classroom
  • What is Social Presence?
  • Encouraging Interaction
  • The virtual learning environment.
  • Curriculum Integration Course:
  • Where collaboration is effective
  • A Community of Inquiry
  • Learning Effectiveness: Interaction with Content
  • Learning Effectiveness: Interaction with Instructors
  • Learning Effectiveness: Interaction with Classmates
• Related pages in this community
• Related web sites
• References

Summary of this page

This page has been created to address the issues teachers face while stepping from the classroom to the virtual classroom. How does a teacher create an online presence and a positive classroom atmosphere?

Contribute to my page

I invite you to add comments to the end of my paragraphs. You can also add comments by clicking the COMMENTS button at the bottom of the page. Please feel free to add a link to your page in knowledgegarden.


If you want you can add your name or avatar to the list of contributors:
David Stepanczuk
Katayoun
Carmel
nick
lukewatson
Jan
Andy Davies
Userpage:StephenD

The Way We Were

My background has been in the traditional classroom where I understood that, as the teacher, my job involved creating an atmosphere of learning in that room. This might include:

• "decorating" the room: making it appealing but also putting information up that students would be able to find useful or meaningful in some way.
• my own appearance: how I dress/present myself to the students
• setting rules for classroom conduct whether through a given set of rules or through mentoring proper behaviour

When students entered my room they immediately felt my presence and often interacted with me before class. I was able to communicate what the class would feel like on a given day.

The digital classroom

How does a teacher create a presence online?
How can a teacher create a classroom atmosphere:
*where students feel it is safe to fail before they succeed?
*where conversation between students is respectful and positive?
*where collaboration is effective?

Katayoun 
Social presence refers to a feeling of belonging to a real community (Mykota & Duncan, 2007). Social presence enables learners to “overcome feelings of loneliness or isolation” and to feel comfortable with not only the medium but also the content, teacher and with each other. This makes it more likely for learners to take “social risk” and participate in online communication (Kehrwald, 2008. p98; Anderson, 2004, p.274).

High degree of social presence increases:

• “learner satisfaction” (Gunawardena & Zittle, 1997),
• facilitates “the process of critical thinking” (Garrison et al. , 2000 quoted in Mykota & Duncan, 2007, p160),
• increases meaningful interaction (Danchak, Walther, & Swan, 2001 cited in Mykoya & Duncan, 2007),
• reduces the likelihood of ‘drop outs’ (Visser, Plomp, & Kuiper, 1999 cited in Mykoya & Duncan, 2007).

Social presence is a measure of the immediacy and intimacy of social interactions (among learners and between teachers and learners) in computer-mediated communication. (Short, William, and Christie, 1976 cited in Kehrwald, 2008). So high interaction and timely responsiveness, increases social presence.

Nick 
I really like the term 'Hospitable'. In Ascough, R. (2007) the idea of hospitality is central to hosting the online learning experience and is much more important that the medium. The host must assume a central role in establishing the community, engaging the participants throughout the course and closing the course appropriately. Hospitality is not an extra, something that you can tack on to a course, but is central to effective online constructivist learning.

We've just started our semester and I have been trying to put into practice many of the lessons I have learnt from the USQ course. I started the week with a forum where everyone had to introduce themselves and respond to 2 other participants. It took me quite a long time to respond to everyone individually and welcome them but I already have the feeling that this class is going well and the students have responded quite well to this initiative. Although they occupy the same physical space the ice has been broken better this way.

lukewatson 
My school year has just started and I am currently trying to establish my presence with a group of 62 students. Aside from creating a presence, I am also trying to set the tone of the course, outline expectations and create a healthy learning environment.

The first year I ran this course my presence was primarily 'physical' and not 'online'. I used to meet my class three times a week and during this time we talked, I set tasks, they submitted work, I marked it, commented on it and returned it. Then this changed... due to some time-table changes, the following three years (including this year) my meeting time was removed and no time is allocated for me to meet with the students. I struggled in the first year as I tried to meet people in the hallways, handed out notes, made announcements at assembly and spent my lunch break - looking for students. This was clearly not working so I had to change my strategy and through necessity I stepped into creating an online learning group.

So now with my 62 students the first stage was to register their email addresses and register them for two of my websites. one is a blog http://ycissh.blog.com and the second is for record keeping http://ycissh.managecas.com . Once they have registered I will then show outline the websites and how they are to be used. Much of my communication is through email and by leaving messages online and it works. I feel that the online learning community is far better than what I was doing in my first year. One of the biggest benefits is that when I consider time and energy - I can reach far more people, with less effort and time in the online community.

Back to matter at hand 'creating a presence' I feel that this is crucial, especially at this point in my course... the first couple of weeks. If it is set up right - the remainder of the course will run smoothly.

Considering what Nick posted - about being 'Hospitable' (Ascough, R. 2007) I couldn't agree more! As the host I must assume a central role in:
a) establishing the community - the websites and my emails i create need to reflect me and what the course is all about. It needs to feel right. With http://ycissh.managecas.com the student and I are the only two people who have access to their records - so when I post a message to that student - it feels personal to them - it is one-to-one communication. I also use emails to the whole groups in a timely fashion - when assignments and due dates are announced - all students get the exact same message - so the students know 'we are all in this together'.
b) engaging the participants throughout the course - the personal messages are good for this - I can address specific areas. I also can arrange meeting with individuals when the need arises and appointments are made online.
c) closing the course appropriately - one good feature of the http://ycissh.managecas.com is that is activities are initially 'approved' by me and also 'closed' by me when it is finished. It also generates a report and when student complete the course - I present the record to them along with a small gift (e.g. mug or pen).

In closing I wish to share something I found online at http://www.facultyfocus.com/free-report/principles-of-effective-online-teaching-best-practices-in-distance-education/

10 Principles of Effective Online Teaching: Best Practices in Distance Education

1. Show Up and Teach — Since most of the course is already authored and designed for online delivery, instructors may believe they simply need to serve as the proverbial “guide on the side” as the students navigate the learning system. Not true!
2. Practice Proactive Course Management Strategies — The online instructor must monitor assignment submissions, and communicatie and remind students of missed and/or upcoming deadlines.
3. Establish Patterns of Course Activities — Establish and communicate a course pace and pattern of work.
4. Plan for the Unplanned — Have a strategy for informing students of changes a long way.
5. Response Requested and Expected — Timely instructor feedback is essential for the online learner to manage their learning experience. Instructors are expected to respond to student inquiries within one business day.
6. Think Before You Write — Be as clear and concise as possible.
7. Help Maintain Forward Progress — Timely return of assignment and exam grades in order to maintain positive forward progress in the pupil's studies.
8. Safe and Secure — Provides increased degrees of security and confidentiality and keeps “institutional business” within the appropriate confines.
9. Quality Counts — Instructors need to establish strategies for addressing the quality of the online learning experience, including content resources, instructional design strategies, and systems performance.
10. (Double) Click a Mile on My Connection — As with many aspects of the online classroom, the technological infrastructure plays a critical role in determining student and instructor satisfaction.

An insider’s guide to teaching and learning in the online classroom: 10 Principles of Effective Online Teaching: Best Practices in Distance Education. Retrieved 12th September 2009 from http://www.facultyfocus.com/free-report/principles-of-effective-online-teaching-best-practices-in-distance-education/

Userpage:Katayoun To participate in online interactions, learners need to feel safe so it is important to establish some rules from the beginning about the tone of the interactions. Teacher can model this by writing in an informal and encouraging way.

Learners also need to feel competent in using the technology. Therefore, it is important to provide learners with supporting document and simple exercises to help them get used to using the technology. Online icebreakers are a good idea.

Interaction needs to be meaningful for learners. So it is more effective when participation in online interactions is integrated into interesting assessment. Collaborative learning tasks encourage interaction.

Learners need to have opportunities for interaction such as places where they can chat, participate in a threaded discussion, initiate discussions, ask questions, and comment on each other's work or contributions.

Userpage:StephenD

I tend to agree with Katayoun in the importance of creating some rules early in the interaction. I attempted to construct and online learning group with some of my team members from other states and ran into a few problems. It was my 1st foray into the space and a part of last semester course, ‘Learning design for flexible contexts’. The issues that came up for my learners were:

• how much can I trust the others in the group? If I contribute, how can I be sure that someone on the other end of the blog isn’t having a laugh at my lack of knowledge etc.?
• how can I get feedback on my thoughts? How can I ‘think out loud’ in this type of forum if that is my way of learning?
• what is right and what is wrong? Can there be some sense of absolutes? Who decides which contributions are valid and credible?

On reflection, these questions came about because I hadn’t created that initial space where people felt comfortable interacting with each other (and the technology!).

My comments on the following page are also relevant to this discussion:

http://www.baker-evans.com/knowledgegarden/tiki-index.php?page=Breaking+isolation+for+digital+learners

‘One issue that constantly came up was that of trust. How can you build a sense of trust in an online, collaborative group? Or, a social network? Smith (2008) in a study of online, collaborative groups found that trust was ‘one of the most critical issues facing groups (p.325).’ She went on to say that:

‘The need to work with others through text based online environments can make trust issues more salient. The diminished physical cues provide limited information for learners to use and assess trust (p.325).’

I realised that the biggest issue with my ‘blog approach’ was that it relied completely on a text based environment. I have found this course (FET8611) an interesting comparison. By incorporating other social components like wimba, moodle, wikis, short messages, user pages etc. I have seen more trust develop in the group as the course progresses. This trust has been mainly generated by participation in the course.’

Userpage:Carmel  Facilitated Page Exploring the educational value of Web 2 applications
I believe that, just as in a physical classroom, an online classroom needs to be attractive and well organised. I have found my skills in web development to be invaluable to me in the development and design of my online courses. Both Jan and I did a course last year through the Qld Education Dept called 'Mentoring online courses'. This course was very useful in that it focussed on what makes an effective online facilitator and offered strategies to promote effective online presence and online conversations(I am going to do my Ass 2 on this topic)

My big frustration, at my school, is that many teachers do not realise that the transition from paper based to online does not always happen seamlessly. It is a new way of learning for students. Even though they are the so called 'digital natives' many of my clientele do not necessarily fit that description. The perception is that all young people are switched on and ditial learners.....that is not necessarily the case, and I have found that many of them need lots of support and major scaffolding to ensure sucess in an online learning environment.

Strategies for encouraging the social process online

I think that teachers need to firstly nurture the social process online so that a sense of community is built with the online participants. Establishing this at the beginning of a course is vital in making students feel comfortable. The personal touch is important. Examples of how a positive online 'feel' can be created is by:

• Use of a tool such as the Frappr map.
• Icebreaker games for online
• Students create their own home page with photo
• a teleconference or skype conference or other (elluminate, wimba)Helps to break the ice and also to establish some connection with other students.
• Discussion forum conversation starters
• Scavenger hunts...looking for certain things throughout the course (little kids...pictures of jelly beans :-) This encourages students to explore and become familiar with course structure.
• For older students, pair off students and ask them to contact each other. The idea is that they create a home page for each other...and get to know each other by doing so. (I have seen this done and it works quite well)
• Instruct students in the expectations for working online (etiquette) Model this.

Blanton, W., Moorman, G. & Woodrow, T. (1998) describe that building social relationships and generating dialogue is the key to a socially constructed conversational model of learning most commonly used in online professional development. It seems that 'shifting from a content-driven model of online teaching and learning to integrated models in a conversational framework' (Britain, S. & Liber, O. 1999, p. 10) is essential. (from Mentoring Online Courses, Education Qld)

Course design and 'look and feel'

Course design is also important. (like decorating the classroom) The course should be very well structured, be predictable, look attractive and generally follow the principles of best practice in web design.

• Text should be chunked for ease of scanning and there should be minimal text. Reading online is different to reading print copy.
• Different levels of entry point... recorded instructions (maybe video) to support students with literacy difficulties.
• Balance between text and graphics. Graphics need to be well chosen and support the topic.
• Make sure the online environment is not too 'busy' (sometimes less is best).
• Make good use of white space.
• Navigation should be very clear.

Learning online. eLearning spaces and digital content

• make use of eLearning spaces (wikis, blogs.... for team work and for reflections)Build this into assessment but provide opportunities for both individual and group tasks (not all students want to work in a group all the time)
• learning interactives (videos, podcasts, inteactive games, interactive presentations etc.)
• use of webquests.

Facilitation

What is very important in creating a positive and dynamic online classroom is the active facilitation by the teacher. One of the most important ways to create an online presence is by:

• responding promptly and positively to students postings. Students need to know that you are always there, checking the classroom and student progress/participation and giving positive and constructive feedback.
• make use of 1 to 1 emails. If students are reluctant, gently follow up on this and persist.
• engage students often and keep it up
• develop your own unique online teaching style.
• encourage feedback from the students on how the course is going, how they are coping etc. The idea of progress reports is good...students can keep a record in their blog.
• Be aware and realise that the written word can sound very different to the spoken. Choose your words carefully online, they can be very easily misinterpreted.
• Foster meaningful conversations by posing challenging questions requiring higher order thinking..make it part of assessment. Model and scaffold the type of positive responses to student postings that the teacher requires. Encourage students to respond to each others postings, blogs.
• MAKE IT FUN!!

Use of the technology

Students need to know how to use the technology with confidence, otherwise they will waste time in learning and becoming frustrated. In my context we teach the technology in the following ways.

• At the beginning of each school year I run sessions with both parents and students. Hands on sessions.
• Written help sheets are provided and linked to in the virtual classrooms
• Phone support where I can walk students through how to use the classroom.
• Short screencasts on how to use certain features of the classroom...eg. how to use the discussion forum, how to use the wiki tool etc.
• Section set aside in classroom for peer tutoring...hints and tips from others.
• Use Elluminate data conferencing to walk students through features of the classroom.
• Home tutors of the students are provided with PD in the use of the classrooms...so they can help and support their students.
• Home tutors have their own Virtual classroom to practice in.

Curriculum Integration Course:

An effective online professional development for Queensland teacher.
Jan

When communicating in an online environment it is very important to take time writing responses to questions to ensure you have answered the participants question and your information has clarity of meaning. Because we cannot see a person’s body language or hear their voice intonation, it is easy to misconstrue a quick response. Aussies are very sarcastic and this form of humour is difficult to interpret online so should be avoided.

Online Correspondence

In my online correspondence I endeavored to follow the following criteria that I learnt in one of my first online courses at USQ:

1. Timeliness of responses (usually within 24 hours). If a question required time for feedback I would send a quick email saying when I would respond.
2. Demonstrate social presence and/or peer support including, but not limited to;

• Emotion
• Empathy
• Personal connection
• Commonality

1. Effort to make meaning and refine current understandings

• Seeking clarification
• Restating information
• Offering tentative interpretations
• Confirming others’ statements
• Identification of helpful resources

1. Evidence of consideration of issues presented in previous postings

• Questioning’ posts which invite responses and so continue the conversation
• Offering suggestions, especially where these are linked to questions from the ongoing discussion
• In all my responses, especially in the discussion forums, I always began with a positive response first. Then I tried to use an economy of language i.e. succinct, but meaningful writing. I considered my sentence structure, paragraph structure, word usage, style, tone, formatting and layout, referencing convention and mechanics (spelling, punctuation etc).

In these online courses we have one area called a coffee club. It is a place where participants can go and socialize. That keeps personal, social, fun, joke type posts out of your course content learning area.

As a facilitator for the CIC I was aware that sometimes online participants feel a sense of ‘loneliness’ and frustration with not getting enough feedback, or not getting immediate assistance. Sometimes a day can seem like a lifetime when you are waiting for a solution to a problem and cannot get an answer.

I endeavoured to reply to online discussions and emails within a 24hr time frame. In the first few weeks of the course, I tried to reply much quicker, to develop an online presence and encourage active participation. If the feedback required more time, I would respond and tell participants when further feedback would be forthcoming.

I had each participants phone numbers on my mobile and encouraged them to call when needing urgent assistance. This was a time saver on my part as I could provide one on one feedback during my 40min journey to work that would otherwise have been unproductive. This often saved me time keyboarding long replies when a five minute phone call was sufficient to solve a minor problem. These techniques made my group participants feel at ease and valuable members of the group as is evidenced by the feedback sheets.

It is the timeliness and quality of the feedback received from the facilitator, especially in the early part of the course, that can effect participation and drop out of participants because they feel lost and left behind. The success and appeal of online learning exists in the quality of the online relationships between participants and the online presence of the facilitator. The CIC course was very effective because of the continuous flow of communication both between myself as facilitator and the participants and between participants and other participants.

I was also aware new participants in e-learning environments can develop anxiety because of the absence of physical cues in communication interactions, different levels of ICT knowledge and potential technological issues faced with Internet Service Providers. To counter these problems I created a series of screen casts and contributed to facilitator "help sheets" to guide participants to various areas of the course that were difficult to negotiate or technical skills to operate software.

In the first few weeks of the course I facilitated teleconferences, online chats and data conferences with small groups, to attach that real life physical presence to the black and white online text. The synchronous communications allowed me to get to know the participants as well as recognise their strengths, weeknesses and fears working in the online environment. It also allowed participants to become familiar with one another in their teaching context.

I was particularly diligent with checking my responses to provide encouragement and leading questions, to support and guide learning. I was mindful to check my feedback for ambiguous double meaning. Quick responses that lack thought can be very frustrating for the participant when they are waiting for an answer to their questions.

To keep a check on participant active involvement in the course both Mark and I kept a spreadsheet with all online activities listed. We checked this off after successful completion of each one. This allowed participants to keep a track of their progress through the course.

Collaboration is effective where students work both individually and as members of learning communities, to complete a range of assignments of progressive complexity. Students may learn to use information technology resources, through which they become familiar with the discourse patterns, rhetorical conventions, and conceptual contents of their chosen fields of study and further their knowledge by networking with peers and experts in those fields. Internet technologies enhance and expand the curriculum within and beyond the physical classroom as well (Kasper, p 2).

Students develop bases of knowledge that further expand as they work in collaboration with peers who are studying the same focus discipline. In the physical classroom, focus discipline groups meet to discuss salient issues under study. Students from each focus discipline group then summarize and share what they have learned with the class as a whole. In this way all students develop a foundation in all focus disciplines chosen for study during the semester (Kasper, p 7).