1.6 Developing skills and confidence

Supporting learners online requires a different skillset to supporting learners in a face-to-face learning environment. A study by Price et al. (2007) into the differences between learner perceptions of teaching in these environments found that online educators should have a greater pastoral focus than face-to-face educators and that both educators and learners needed guidance and training in communicating online.

Without a physical classroom environment, learners can feel isolated and unsupported. An increased pastoral presence by educators, initiated via online communications, can help reduce those feelings and develop a more comfortable experience. A large-scale follow-up study by one of Price’s co-authors (Richardson, 2009), which looked at the experiences of learners receiving tutorial support on humanities courses, concluded that, with adequate preparation, the online environment need not be a lesser experience for learners in terms of support:

An online learning experience may lead to technical problems. While it is not usually necessary to become a technical expert, it is useful to find out how to deal with the common technical issues that learners are likely to face. For example, if learners are given advice about common techniques to resolve audio issues during synchronous online sessions, it can save time, reduce stress and build learner confidence.

Your students’ confidence to approach new technologies and deal with any associated issues will grow as they gain experience, and this will make learning online much more enjoyable for them. When introducing a new tool or technology, set aside time for students to become familiar with it. Introducing playful activities at the start will allow them to experiment in a low-risk way. There may also be training or development opportunities focused on specific learning technologies that can raise the confidence of both educators and students.

Activity 3 Motivating and engaging students online

Timing: Allow about 20 minutes

Watch the video ‘Engaging and motivating students’ [Tip: hold Ctrl and click a link to open it in a new tab. (Hide tip)] , which summarises views from a range of experts on student engagement.

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Transcript

SIMON MCINTYRE:

This episode explores ideas for actively engaging students in online learning. We discuss:

• the importance of creating a collaborative learning environment;

• the role of the teacher in effectively facilitating student interaction;

• strategies for motivating students when they're not participating very well with their peers; and

• how to encourage a sustained level of participation in collaborative online activities

DR RICHARD MOBBS:

Education can be very lonely; a student to just to receive a whole load of course materials and start wading their way through it, it's not very engaging.

DARRALL THOMPSON:

The role of an academic now is really designing learning environments that engage students. If I'm saying that engagement is the Holy Grail, I better be engaging in ways that they enjoy, not that I'm used to.

[SCREEN TEXT]:

The importance of teacher presence

PROFESSOR EMMA ROBERTSON:

I think the notion of teacher presence in an online environment is absolutely critical. I can't underscore that enough.

PROFESSOR MATTHEW ALLEN:

If you want to be successful at it, you need as a teacher to have students sensing your presence there.

DR GAY MCDONALD:

It was important for me to indicate to students in a variety of different ways that I was engaged and interested in what they were doing.

PROFESSOR EMMA ROBERTSON:

You have to be there you have to be paying attention to what they are saying and what I find is if you do that effectively in the first two weeks, the rest takes care of itself. You've established the benchmark that you're expecting.

PROFESSOR MATTHEW ALLEN:

Teacher presence is a very important part of the socialisation of students into online learning and it's not that you are therefore dominating and telling the students what to learn, it's that you're playing that role of the guide on the side, the person who's there to help the students along but not to become the one they rely upon.

[SCREEN TEXT]:

Creating a learning community

DR RICHARD MOBBS:

The best way of learning is to actually form a community to share information.

LUBNA ALAM:

now some students are shy, for example international students, non-English speaking background students, they're shy to speak up in face-to-face interactions

JULIE HUGHES:

What I found was that students who had quieter voices in the classroom flowered online.

STUDENT A:

I'm not going to talk to everyone face-to-face but online were kind of a bit less scared to have our opinions.

ANDREA NORTH-SAMARDZIC:

Online learning environments are really democratic, so I try and embrace that social element as much as possible.

LUBNA ALAM:

If there are 500 million users in Facebook and there are so many billions of YouTube videos and I saw opportunity to be able to use this same set of tools in teaching to make more engaging for the students.

ANDREA NORTH-SAMARDZIC:

By drawing them out using these social networks then I think that that builds not just an online learning environment but an online learning community.

LUBNA ALAM:

I think it has actually helped them to learn from each other, plus to open up a little bit in this online environment.

DR ALEJANDRO ARMELLINI:

They feel that they know the people that they're working with. They are no longer isolated learners in the world.

STUDENT B:

If you share, you learn more you get different views, so it is basically global learning.

[SCREEN TEXT]:

Strategies for motivating students

ANDREA NORTH-SAMARDZIC:

You to give them enough rope to be able to engage when they want to, but also ensure as a teacher you are responsible for their learning.

DR GAY MCDONALD:

If I felt, for instance, that some students weren't participating actively what I would do is privately or offline contact them and ask them whether there was anything that I could do to facilitate greater involvement, or I'd post general comments to a message board and make positive comments about how things were going.

CHRIS MITCHELL:

In terms of the way that the students perceive that the comments that they make and the interaction that they're involved with interests other people, and I think if you see the value in that continuing conversation then students will keep on engaging.

STUDENT C:

When someone responds to what you've just said it makes you feel included and that is what spurs me on.

[SCREEN TEXT]:

Sustaining participation and engagement

CHRIS MITCHELL:

I think there are ways of keeping students engaged with online learning. They need to perceive there to be a value in them being online, engaging other students, and it you can create that value in different ways you can tie it to assessment. It's a very simple way of making sure that students perceive a value because they're going to get a mark at the end of it. It's quite a cynical way potentially, but it is a useful way.

LUBNA ALAM:

You probably have to have some participation marks involved because otherwise students may not contribute as much as you would like them to

CHRIS MITCHELL:

One of the really important things about engineering that kind of momentum is about establishing ground rules. I think often with online dialogue, people aren't sure what the conventions are.

ANDREA NORTH-SAMARDZIC:

I set very specific criteria about what I expect. That I expect them to log on and post something for each topic at the bare minimum. Then I have levels of criteria to show what a pass level of engagement would look like, a credit, distinction and high distinction. For example, to get a high distinction you have to post multiple times, reflect on other students’ contributions, offer up your own suggestions, as well as synthesize the whole topic.

JULIE HUGHES:

What students have said was that they were able to see themselves and others differently.

PROFESSOR EMMA ROBERTSON:

You never meet these people and yet you feel that you've developed almost a friendship with them by the end, which is great.

STUDENT C:

Normally, you only meet once a week, here you can be there every day if you want to, and I do want to.

End transcript

 

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This activity should help you to begin thinking, in broad terms, about what you might like to try in terms of motivating and engaging students online.