This module focused on the importance of protecting our presence as an online instructor. There are many ways to do this such as ; monitoring communication among students, giving feedback in a timely manner, and ensuring that I manage a one-on-one relationship with my students.
It is important to discuss your experience and qualifications with students so they know why you are a respected instructor.
Projecting your presence and authority from a distance was interesting to me. I look forward to learning more about the components of these topics.
The facilitator should provide the students with a bio and allow the students to create their own bio.
Many of the things mentioned, I am already doing. It was good to know that I'm going about online instuction correctly.
The importance of becoming real to your students even via on-line classes.
Getting to know your audience is key, as well as, the students getting to know the instructor. There are several ways to project your presence, I am sure each class will be a little different and the instructor will have to accomodate for the differences.
I feel that one of the most important thing to consider is to make sure that there is some sort of introduction that needs to occur. I would not make it about the class, just a get to know each other post. I also think that it is important that a student knows the teacher's credentials. That will build a little more trust in the student/teacher relationship.
It is so important to develop relationships early with the students. A great way to create the ice breaker is to let the students know who you are through a biography of your credentials, experience, and reasons you chose teaching. They will. in turn, feel more at ease in revealing themselves through writing one of their own. It helps to establish trust and rapport that is so essential to the instructor/student relationship.
As an online instructor at the collegiate level for many years, I cannot agree with this point more:
"Before the end of the first week of the course, send a personalized message to each student. Identify any aspect of the student's comm biographical sketch you believe is safe to comment on. Send your personal comments. Remind them of your virtual office hours."
I have had so many students comment no other online instructor took the time to make it personal, and it put them more at ease and felt they were part of a real class.
Sometimes, students feel better being in an open Google Meet (or whatever platform you're using for video chats) to just have you in the same "room" with them....even if they don't need help. I had a small group of kids that needed that and were all working on different things, but having me right there to answer questions immediately really got them working.
I learned that it's not necessary to respond to every single student's post in a discussion board. Having not used Discussion Boards before with my students, I've responded to all of their ungraded work with words of encouragement, but in the future may need to move to the Discussion Board format. Guidance in that is appreciated.
Using a personal summary of myself and e-learners.
Projecting your credentials to students are beneficial to creating a positive learning environment.
I think the sharing of my experiences, credentials and submitting a biography is a very good idea for the new students to get to know me as their instructor online.
The importance of building relationships even while conducting an online learning class
I like that using your credentials / bio is encouraged to humanize the instructor. The faster the student can get comfortable with who they are being instructed by may just increase the rate at which material is absorbed and ultimately retained.
By posting a summary and my academic credentials for the student to see and having them post a short biography of themselves so that we learn more about one another.
In this session, I learned that it is important to establish a good relationship with students by allowing them to do a short biography and for the teachers to talk about the credentials and experience. The teacher should establish a level of expertise in her/his biography. This level of expertise will help establish a level of control in her/his distance learning or virtual classroom.
It's great when you know these students teaching them in a face to face classroom. For students that are learning from an online format, it's always great to learn about them from a personal biography. Maybe one day being able to meet them in person. It's great to have an interactive relationship with each student so that they know you are there and that it makes them feel comfortable and you gain their trust as an educator.
