Managing instructor presence—students’ perceptions of how instructors interact with them and guide their learning during a course—is the key to overcoming frustration. It’s not unusual for instructors and students to have widely different perceptions of instructor presence during the same course.
With today’s technologically savvy student, the online learning environment should be an effective platform for course delivery. And it is—for some. But attrition rates for online courses remain high. How is it possible to have a nation of higher-education students who understand how to operate
Motivation and engagement are important elements of an online course. This newsletter has featured many tips on how to improve student motivation and engagement. Here are a few more from a recent Magna Online Seminar led by Barbi Honeycutt, founder of Flip It Consulting.
A wise teacher once told me that half of college success is just being organized, and I’m sure the same is true for any work. Yet we provide precious little guidance to students on this critical life skill. Lack of organization leads to students who
There is no question that self-regulation of learning is more essential in online than in face-to-face courses. In online courses, students cannot depend on having a teacher physically there to answer their questions and keep them on track. Online students are more responsible for planning
An overwhelming sense of fear can overcome us when we are suddenly asked to teach not only an online course but a compressed one on top of that. By compressed, I mean teaching in eight weeks (or sometimes even less!) a course that is usually
Not all students taking online courses are good self-regulated learners. Authors Rowe and Rafferty believe there are interventions online teachers can use that develop these very necessary skills. Based on an extensive review of research on interventions in postsecondary courses, they suggest four interventions.
Teachers of traditionally discussion-intensive courses can have a hard time translating their classes into an online format. Most courseware has only a forum module, and those may not structurally encourage the students to interact with each other much, for example with “reply” links and threaded
Trying to support students in an online course can create an unsustainable burden on the instructor. “I’ve heard faculty members say things such as, ‘When I first started teaching online, I drowned in my course. I was making myself available 24 hours/seven days a week.
In their 1995 Change magazine article, “From Teaching to Learning—a New Paradigm for Undergraduate Education,” Robert B. Barr and John Tagg described the Learning Paradigm, which emphasizes learning over teaching and student discovery and construction of knowledge over transfer of knowledge from instructor to student.
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