yes I agree...the online facilitator becomes the face of the university for the student, and the students rely on guidance from us.
The 4 'pairs of shoes' help us guide the students on their learning journey.
Laurie,
You are right, a holistic approach is the best. We don't have to know all of the answers, just know where to find the answer to them. Isn't that what we teach our students also?
Dr. Kelly Wilkinson
Robin ,
True, the list seems to become longer! They are all important and all are needed to keep students from encountering barriers.
Dr. Kelly Wilkinson
Dale,
Yes, we all have nightmares of being passed around. How many of us have said, "when I teach, I will or won't do [whatever] because it happened to me". We have to keep that mentality when we work with online students also. That is why most research shows that good online instructors have been online students. It makes sense.
Dr. Kelly Wilkinson
Dale,
You are right. Many times we are the only person that connects them to the institution. We have to be able to defuse the frustration and if we can't help them, them guide them to help.
Dr. Kelly Wilkinson
Alfred,
True, the instructor may be doing the different roles in a f2f course but it is much more exaggerated in the online environment.
Dr. Kelly Wilkinson
I agree. It is important to have the ability to meet the needs of the students with a holistic approach.
There are many roles we need to play in order to help our students achieve the learning objectives. They are all important and necessary. I like to think of myself as a facilitator and a mentor.
John,
I could not agree more! When a student contacts me for help, I think about the frustration I deal with when I call for help with some issues, and I get a person on the phone that is not interested, and I get passed around to several departments before I get the person that needs to help me. I don't want that for students. We are the first line of defense, and we should do all we can to help them.
Dr. Wilkinson,
I feel it is important because we are the first line of defense. We are the ones that the student will turn to when they have issues in the class. An example of this is the large amount of questions I get about technical problems. I don't work in tech support, but yet, I deal with a lot of tech related questions. I do my best to answer them, before moving the student on to the tech support group. Students look to us to be the knower of all the information. Often times they are frustrated, and to just pass them off to another group before trying to answer the question, only increases that frustration.
Lois,
Great points. What do you do if you have push back from a dean and you are limited to the online enviornment...with no contact with other instructors?
David Pittman
The online environment is more of a challenge than face to face. Therefore the instructor has to be more well versed in all aspects of instruction. This includes the facilitator, social director. If students don't have a positive experience they will not come back.
Tony,
You are right. For many online students, the instructor may be the only person associated with the university they know. this makes our connections with them that much more important.
Dr. Kelly Wilkinson
I have always used the different hats analogy but I guess shoes works also. If we think of our students as customers, our job as instructors is to meet their needs, so the roles of instructor, social director, program manager, and technical assistant are all different but critical in meeting this requirement. To provide a well rounded learning environment, the instructor must do all of these things to teach, engage, oversee and solve technical issues so students can focus on learning objectives.
Lori,
Which one do you think is the most frustrating to facilitate?
Dr. Kelly Wilkinson
The "four pairs of shoes" : instructor, social director, program manager, and technical assistant are all necessary because they define your role and ensure good student learning.
Anne,
I like the four shoe way. You are right, this will facilitate good learning.
Dr. Kelly Wilkinson
David,
You are right! You have to think about that. The term edutainment is spot on. I will take a look at the book The Shallows, that is worth looking at.
Dr. Kelly Wilkinson
I think it is through the blend of the four shoes that allows most students to benefit from their online learning experience. We really need to be there for our students in an active, four shoe way.
The 4 roles of "instructor, social director, program manager and technical assistant" are valid, but one could also add that we are part-time entertainers (in that we must assess student engagement, make learning fun and work with that "short attention span"). The short attention span may only be a problem with a few students, but the philosophy "keep it moving" can benefit all. The book "The Shallows" by Nicholas Carr predicts that a short attention span will be a growing problem in our future(quote: "trading away the seriousness of sustained attention for the Web's frantic superficiality")...and colleges are noticing it
http://www.tjed.org/2011/09/attention-span-national-education-crisis/
I do not lament/resist this phenomenon, it is simply part of our current culture, but I do know teachers that ignore it (and students who end up surfing via their phones after 15 minutes of any one topic/approach). So, short modules, change the technique, keep it moving (while staying ever-focused on the outcome).
