Tanya,
You make a great point. You are responsible to make the learning environment safe. We need to remind ourselves of this.
Dr. Kelly Wilkinson
As an online facilitator, I feel it is important to wear the following 4 pairs of shoes:
(1)As an instructor or resource provider, you provide your students with a weekly announcement(s) and an assignment or module with objectives, a lecture, and tasks to complete by a due date. You make suggestions to refer to resources (the textbook/online software).
(2)As a social director, you have your students provide responses to the weekly assigned discussion forums. You get to know your students’ learning styles; you use technology assessment tools to assess your students’ learning outcomes (portfolios, rubrics, gradebook).
(3)As a program manager, you provide your students with a detailed course syllabus, a calendar of module topics, assignments, discussion questions, resources, and due dates. You provide feedback on their performance.
(4)As the technical assistant, you want to be confident, comfortable, and proficient with the technology such as Moodlerooms Learning Management System (LMS). Moodle is an acronym for Modular Object-Oriented Dynamic Learning Environment.
As an online facilitator, I am the only person who is responsible for the success of the students. Their success in the class is also my success. The facilitator needs to do all she/he can do to facilitate learning of the material and to get a desired outcome. You just can't say "hi" and "walk away" from the course. It means "controlling" the course through guiding, follow-up, evaluating, grading, monitoring discussion, supplying additional material for all learners. contacting advisors, emailing... It is an ongoing process from day one through the end of the term. At the end of the course, I can put on my "comfortable pair of shoes."
I feel it's because we are perform four roles.
The instructors role is to guide and offer support. We act as social director by our interaction and encouraging interaction between students. As program managers, we are the administrators. The technical assistant role requires us to have technical skills. If we
"wear" these four pairs of shoes, our students
can achieve their learning outcomes.
I feel it is important because it helps guide any student through the class with the best possible experience. If each role was separate there would be another level of communication that student would have to be involved in, and that would likely cause confusion.
It is important for the online facilitator to be the instructor within the classroom, help learners to work together, resposible for organizational procedure and assist with technical problems which may occur and can be very frustrating to the learner. I have had numerous complaints regarding technical occurrences causing students to shy away from non-traditional classrooms.
In order to contribute to the ever changing culturally diverse learner we teach, an educator must wear several hats. The multiple hats represent the constructivist nature of education.
The four "pairs of shoes" are instructor, social director, program manager, and technical assistant.
I think that it is important for the teacher to teach and be a social director to those within the online class. This assists students in feeling conforable with the infornmation being taught and with the others in the class.
Being a program manager is important in order to organize the content in the course and make sure that the students are guided through the content. If the instructor doesn't do this---the students won't learn.
Being a technical assistant is important because if you don't know how things work--how are the students expected to know--and---if students have an issue--you won't be able to help them.
Madhuchanda,
True and that places quite a bit of responsibility on the educator!
Dr. Kelly Wilkinson
Niki,
Great post. Yes that is exactly how students view you. It does put quite a bit of responsibilities on the educator.
Dr. Kelly Wilkinson
Lois,
That is a great strategy. I don't give another name to contact and I should. That is going in my next online course.
Dr. Kelly Wilkinson
Lois,
Interesting about your dean may check on your class. I think it is very good for other faculty to see what good work you are doing online.
Dr. Kelly Wilkinson
It is important for the online instuctor to wear many "hats or shoes" because as online instructors we are the main, and sometimes only contact the student has with the college. Unlike the f2f student who has the benefit of the onground support staff, our online students rely on us to solve a variety of problems. As a student begins to feel comfortable with their instructor, they reach out for our input on a variety of matters. Online learning certainly affords a great deal of flexibiliy, but the student can also feel isolated.
Online learning is more one on one between the faciliator and the student. The student will rely more heavily on the teacher to accommodate them in various roles that would be managed by other people/departments in a traditional class.
By design, an online course incorporates technology that may not even come up in the traditional classroom. Someone who is not comfortable with the technological aspects of an online classroom may struggle to get students engaged. Just like an instructor in a traditional classroom wears many pairs of shoes in order to help students succeed (leader, advisor, consult, cheerleader) the same is true for an online course! Each environment requires different skills from the instructor in order to maximize student learning and retention.
Why do you feel it is important for an online facilitator to wear four "pairs of shoes"?
Learning in general, and especially online, is complex process. Online adds a significant technology component. For these reason, the online teacher fills several roles, including:
- instructor
- social director
- program mgr
- technical advisor
Anthony J Matias
In an online environment we must understand that we are not only responsible for the content we are teaching but we also may need to troubleshoot other issues, such as IT issues, etc.
Every student will have different needs. Some will need motivation, some will need additional resources, and some will need to be kept on track. The online facilitator must be able to respond to a variety of questions that are not specific to the heart of the course. Students may need technical assistance, a counselor, or even career direction. The online facilitator is a very important role to the students. They must feel comfortable in reaching out to their instructor and must know the instructor will be able to assist, even if it is by referring them to another resource.
The online facilitator is just that...a facilitator in the learning process. They are necessary to make sure that students are achieving objectives, that they are making progress in discussion questions to achieve understanding, completing assignments and assessments on time and increasing their depth of knowledge about the topic. The facilitator also makes sure that students treat each other with respect in discussion forums and that the learning environment is a safe one for everyone.
The only person the student 'sees' is the facilitator. Hence, this individual needs to wear many hats.
Chanda
