Instructor interaction in an online learning environment is very different from the traditional learning environment. Traditionally, the major interaction that an instructor has with learners is through the transmission of content via lecture. In an online learning environment, the delivery of course content is not the instructor's primary activity, so you will need to be able to transition from being the "sage on the stage" to the "guide on the side." What do you feel will be your biggest challenge in transitioning to a "guide on the side"?

Online learning will eventually replace traditional classroom delivery of instruction? Do you agree or disagree? Explain your answer.

An issue that I have found in teaching online is learners who have different expectations for the online course and instructor. To keep learners from becoming frustrated with their expectations not being met, we have created a faculty expectation statement that all faculty post at the beginning of the ocurse to ensure that learners understand what they can expect from the course and the instructor. What do you feel are important elements of a faculty expectations statement that can help set the appropriate expectations for learners in your online course?

What is an optimal online student-instructor ratio? Justify your answer.

I will email learner 1 and explain that I feel based on their posts that they are having problems with this class. I would ask them what I can do to help them. I would then work with them to help them in any way that I could.

i agree because in traditional setting you can set an punishment in face to face while online you really cant do that

For this type of learner, I find that the tone of the response is almost as important as what is said. It is important to be firm (to show you deserve respect), but kind and encouraging (to prevent escalating the situation). I would begin by thanking the student for his feedback. I would let him know that we do use student feedback to improve the course and I will keep his comments in mind. I would then use the information that I had gathered from his biography to explain why this assignment and the reading are important in his work or personal life. I might go back to the specifics of the topic and explain its relevance in an historical perspective if that seems like it might be helpful. By being polite and making the topic relevant to his life, hopefully this will allow him to be more open to completing the assignments and being positive in the discussions.

I would go over the rubric with Mike and point out the areas where his weaknesses were. I will go over any areas where there are differences between the way he looked at his assignment and the way I viewed it. I will show him what to look for in future assignments and rubrics so that he will do his best. I will just point out that she did a great job and show her on the rubric how well she did. I will tell her that there are always ways to improve. I will pick an area where maybe she did not do 100% on and show her how to make that area 100%.

I disagree, if you cannot reach a student with offers of help you can still encourage the student with any and all of the assignments and tests the student completes. This encouragement might build a trust with the student that can lead to the student accepting help later in the course. The use of a biography for the student and instructor may also lead to a way to reach a student and establish a dialogue that will again develop a trust between the student and the instructor.

This is a good question- one that I spend a lot of time thinking about, as forums are a very important part of my online classes. First of all, I put a lot of thought into the questions that I post in the forums. They are always relevant to the topic of the week, but they bring out elements not covered in the lessons. The questions are very open ended, and are usually so interesting that students normally do check back in to see what other students have posted. For example, I teach an online Intro to Computers class, and one of the discussion questions this week is, "How does modern digital image-processing technology affect the reliability of photographic evidence? How does digital audio technology affect the reliability of sound recordings as evidence? How should our legal system respond to this technology?" Students usually have quite a number of different opinions about this topic. I always participate in the discussions at the end of the week. I monitor the threads in case there are questions directed to me, but I don't post my summary until the end of the week. My students know that in order to receive full credit for participation each week, they have to post well-thought-out responses to the questions. I don't give any credit for "I agree with you" unless new content is provide along with the agreement. The truth is, it isn't hard to know who is participating in a productive way and who isn't. I also weight my grades, and 30% of the the total grade comes from participation in the discussion threads. The students who care about their grades participate.

Online learning provides a viable alternative to the traditional classroom but will not replace brick and mortar institutions. On campus learning has many benefits that can not be gained online. Teacher-student interaction as well as student-student interaction plays an important part in the learning process. Learning online can cause students to be detached and may hinder the learning process.

Being a "guide on the side", is a huge challenge when a great deal of security comes from knowledge of content in a traditional classroom setting and face to face contact with students which make it easier to communicate; especially when you can use body language and facial expressions to emphasize lecture material. An online instructor needs to learn how to apply technological skills while also facilitating communication with distance learners. Class material must be prepared and ready for students before the course even begins. Onine instructors need to make themselves available to student questions on a consistent basis through out each day to insure that students have a consistent resource for learning. This can be quit consuming if the instructor doesn't manage their time efficiently. Students need to be monitored for their participation in the class and the material being presented,an online instructor needs to monitor students on forums and message boards. Finally instructors online need to create a sense of community for the online student that a traditional student experiences, assigning group projects can create that sense of belonging. Overall there are a great deal of challenges with transitioning to a "guide on the side".

I think the student to teacher ratio for online courses should not exceed 30:1. My argument is mostly from experience with classes of difficult students that require extra support and guidance. When the class size grows past 30 students, the amount of time needed to support the difficult or problem students, starts to reduce the time spent with the rest of the class. This leads to an overall difficult class with the majority of students not learning as much as they could have.

Class I like to have my name, email address and office hours. Also I include my cell number, resolving technical issues, course overview, chat sessions, assignments info, discussion board, group projects, late policy, grading, and plagiarism. In addition I include the top ten reasons for success. Course exp[actions is a good way to understand policies and procedures. Thanks Fred K

In teaching for a number of schools, I have found that the way in which discussion boards are structured have a significant effect on student interaction. For instance, it is the requirement of one school that students must post an initial response to the DB by Thursday and respond to two other students by Monday (in a Tues-Mon class week) in each of two discussion threads for each week. I am required to respond to every student post between the two posts by the end of the week. Another school I teach for requires the same student participation (in a Mon-Sun class week with the initial post due by Wednesday.) I am required to make at least one post on five separate days during the week to each thread, but there is no requirement for responding to individual students. For which of the two would you expect more student interaction? I have found that student interactivity is significantly greater in the second scenario and as a result I try to structure my responses in the first scenario along the same lines while meeting the criteria for the school. Interestingly, this does not seem to have much of an effect in increasing student interactivity at the first school. I guess this is leading me to a question, which is do you think that students at a given school are conditioned to participate in a certain way? If so, how can we change this pattern of participation?

I often see students who procrastinate in discussions and quickly lead the class off the topic of discussion. Chris

I know I have often narrrowed a topic of discussion too much for learners. I should be more open and broad while also directing learners to the concept behind the discussion. Chris

I have integrated Tegrity video clips in one of my classes. Students tell me that they appreciate what they view as "closer" interaction through the clips. Chris

I have been with many institutions who only provide perfunctory training and it hardly covers the CMS (LMS). I tend to be wary of these institutions. Chris

Most online instructors use a discussion board, but not all are active in participation. It is important to get involved in the discussion and engaged in the conversation, commenting on students' posts and guiding their learning. The instructor should always continue to explore how to use discussions effectively.