Download - Working Online
Working online
A collaborative venture!
Liana Agnes
Jill
This presentation will consider:
! Encouraging online participation
! Tutor skills for handling synchronous and asynchronous work online
! Course design
Online participation
Decisions....decisions….
There must be a way to encourage the kinds of participation that facilitates learning
Facilitate online participation
Introductions Share personal information (demographic data, interests, background)
– build community, raise interests, create friendly environment
Ways to communicate
Use a variety of channels: – email messages, forums, chats, (video)
conferencing, wikis
Active facilitation
Ask effective questions, create engaging tasks, model good communication Challenge participants Consider alternative concepts Match content to format
Feedback Affirm contribution Provide constructive feedback
Support - with technology - with tasks
Sustaining motivation online
Tutor support
Show interest in participants’ contribution Chart participant progress Conduct
• regular one-to-one tutorials (video/chat) • “Care and share” guided reflection
Schedule breaks for longer courses
Peer support Study (language) buddies Support forums
Tutor skills for handling synchronous and asynchronous work online
Knowing how to do something begins with knowing why you do it.
Being an online tutor means assuming various
roles
! Pedagogic :be a facilitator; use questions, probes, and tasks to elicit responses from students and to refocus discussions on relevant topics
! Social: create a warm and friendly learning environment - promote human relationships, develop group cooperation, help members to work together
! Managerial : organise, set agendas, objectives , procedures, and rules for discussions; use time management strategies, resolve conflicts etc.
! Technical: make participants comfortable with the VLE and the software. “Make technology transparent”
(from Zane L Berge)
Synchronous or asynchronous? When and why? -The decision is yours!
Use synchronous media
! When your audience needs to get your message
! When you need immediate feedback on an issue
! To get tutors and students interact by speaking and listening in real time
Use asynchronous media
! When the students need time to compose their answers to tasks
! To encourage more elaborate discussions on a topic
! When students have busy schedules and live in different time zones
! When you require a recording of the discussions
! to create a variety of tasks
Tutor skills for synchronous discussions
! Planning
! Select appropriate topics, set routines and arrange chat groups
! Establish meeting protocols for turn taking, holding the floor, etc
! Take down notes while listening
Tutor skills for synchronous discussions
! Listening
! Hearing student’s questions or concerns and responding appropriately
! Using names to keep the multiple threads of conversation
! Responding to reassure student
! Noticing student’s concern and responding by asking for more details
Tutor Skills for synchronous discussions
! Questioning
! Giving Feedback
! A student or the group to develop knowledge of subject matter, elicit personal opinion
! Use sentence starter prompts to give variety to Q/A
! To redirect the discussion or introduce a new topic
! Use words expressions to reaffirm students contributions
Tutor skills for synchronous discussions
! Giving feedback
! Negotiating
! Giving students clues on how to deal with a problem, subject matter; provide helpful information on a topic
! Using encouraging words to motivate learners
! Offering alternative answers to problems
! Finding a way to accommodate learners’ needs and concerns
Tutor Skills for synchronous discussions
! Reformulating
! A good mastery of the language
! Other interpersonal skills
! Expressing a point made by a student more clearly
! Helping student to say something in correct language
! Ability to speak clearly, write clearly, be concise
! Patience, tolerance , flexibility, …
Tutor Skills for asynchronous forum discussions
! Organisational skills
! Plan the course in such a way that it evolves - a beginning, a middle and an end. Have a variety and design appropriate activities for each stage. Make appropriate use of VLE tools for each task.
! Provide support to students on how to use specific tools
! Set deadline for tasks.
! Place current discussion forums at the top of the page .
Tutor skills for asynchronous forum discussions
! Time management skills
! Use a calendar to keep track of assignments and a daily work schedule
! Set a specific time each day/or each week for checking and responding to emails and posts
! Respond promptly and effectively to student queries
Tutor Skills for asynchronous forum discussions
• Be sociable and encourage socialising among course members. Create forums for socialising like ‘the cafe’ and emails
• Be tolerant, flexible and supportive:
• Provide support in the form of links for further reading
• Give students the chance to discuss delicate issues like plagiarism and netiquette
• Be sensitive and empathetic - allow students to express their points of view, and see things from the cultural and learning perspective of the learners
! Interpersonal
skills
Tutor Skills for asynchronous forum discussions
! Pedagogic skills • Be enthusiastic -“ an inspired teacher
produces inspired learners” • Be creative : select topics and tasks that are
interesting, challenging, and varied • Be present but do not dominate. Lay
emphasis on exchange of ideas, and on doing rather than transmitting knowledge
• Weaving – the ability to encourage learners to explore ideas, promote valuable threads, and redirect straying arguments in response to students postings
• Summarising • –the ability to use concise language to pull
together the different threads of a discussion, and draw conclusions on a topic
• -The ability to present the summaries in an appropriate a variety of formats
Tutor skills for handling synchronous and asynchronous work online
The final word:
“The role of the online tutor is to model effective teaching, accept the role of keeping discussions on track, contributing special knowledge and insights, weaving together various discussion threads and course components and maintaining group harmony”
[Rophel and Hientra 1995,p.91]
Does this statement say it all? What’s your opinion?
Course design
Decisions....decisions….
It’s a very good idea to have a check box of all the item there are to consider and make some informed decisions using our course planner
decision maker tool.
Decision maker tool
The staff Identify the work load required? Who will take which roles in the course? Who will co-ordinate roles and monitor the project?
The students What are their learning needs? What knowledge, skills and experience will they bring to the course?
Subject Description
What topic is the course going to cover? To what level is the subject being covered? How much prior learning of the subject is necessary?
Learning outcomes
What will the student’s achieve by completing the course? Are the outcomes measurable, realistic and achievable?
Content outline What is the time scale? How many modules will there be? Which sub topics within modules?
Decision maker tool The learning environment
Which learning methods will be used? (case study approach/ problem solving/reflection) How much study time will be spent on each learning method?
Interaction and activities
How will students interact with each other and with the staff? What groupings will be feasible? What range of interaction will there be?
Assessment
Will there be an initial assessment, formative assessment and summative assessment? Will there be self-assessment and/or peer assessment? Is there a clear transparent link between learning outcomes and assessment criteria
Learning materials
Which learning materials are required for the course? Are these materials easily available to students? Is there plenty of variation in the types of materials (video/audio/written)
Decision maker tool Student requirements
What technological specifications are required? Are these IT tools easily available? Student availability? Ease of access to internet and large file download?
Learner support What support will be available? What is the timeframe expected to reply online to student enquiries/assignments?
Development schedule
Is the time frame realistic for completion of tasks to prepare the course?
Evaluation How will you find out what works on the course and what doesn’t work? How will you collate information to edit materials?
Working online
Thank you for watching!