Facilitating Online PD

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Subject: [PD 3444] Facilitating Online PD
From: Jackie A. Taylor jackie at jataylor.net
Date: Wed Jun 17 10:23:46 EDT 2009

Hello Susan, All,

Susan, based on your message, it sounds like you were not the online teacher; rather you accompanied your students in these online courses, is that correct?

Assuming so...then as a teacher-participant:

Was it the self-directed course that you "went kicking and screaming" to?

How was your experience different in the self-directed course versus the facilitated course?

What did the facilitator do that may have increased your comfort level and acceptance of online learning?

What was your experience of dialogue in the facilitated online course? For example, what worked well that may have challenged your thinking (or that of the students), caused you to question assumptions, reflect, etc?

Others: what have been your experiences with facilitated online learning? What strategies have you used (or have you experienced online facilitators using) to make connections, increase tech comfort, build dialogue, challenge thinking, question assumptions, etc? And as Leslie asked, how might you help distance educators learn these skills?

Hungry for details, thanks in advance! Best, Jackie Taylor

<snip>

My name is Susan Hershey and I run a pilot Transition-to-College program in Peabody, Massachusetts. We just completed our first semester with at least 11 of our original 20 participants going on to take college courses. Students studied two on-line courses, one a self-directed math course, the other a Health Science course with an online teacher. Both courses were very successful and courses were firsts for me. I must admit I was dragged kicking and screaming to the concept, being a strong believer in face to face teaching with dialogue being an important part of the teaching process. I am slowly beginning to understand the importance of learning the new ways! Thanks for this discussion. It is helping me to formulate new ideas about teaching.

Subject: [PD 3447] Re: Facilitating Online PD
From: Araminta Matthews amatthews at lewistonpublicschools.org
Date: Wed Jun 17 11:05:06 EDT 2009

Hi all,

My name is Mina Matthews and I'm piloting the same program as Susan here in Central Maine. It is true that we are not the instructors for one of the online-courses; but rather, we are the onsite facilitators while the instructor exists in the ethereal world of the interwebs. One of my many other hats is as a College English instructor for two area colleges -- one of which, a college of nursing, houses my ENG101 class as a hybrid online course (four in-class sessions and 11 online lesson units).

Speaking to the role of facilitating an online course -- this is much more complicated than I think the majority of us would imagine. In most cases, we serve as glorified "middle managers" in that it is our role to interpret the instructors notes and grading criteria for the students (when they cannot do so on their own), but we, ourselves, often have different ideas as teachers what the expectations are or should be for the course. Facilitiating an online course is, then, a delicate balance between interpretation, pressing accountability back onto the student, and mediating communications. Finding that balance in a pilot program is not terribly easy, but that's why it's a pilot.

Speaking to teaching college writing online -- I'm sure that most of you are slapping your palms to your foreheads, exclaiming "Huh?" at the idea of teaching an intro college writing course on the internet. Students, as we know, often have their very first college learning experience in a college writing class -- how could we be so ostentatious as to make them take their first class online? Ironically, it works very well. I've structured the class so that our first four sessions meet live in a classroom where we lay the groundwork for the assignments. Each week, we meet in an online chatroom to discuss readings and problems with assignments and interpretations of them. The online chat has been very successful as everyone participates (unlike traditional classrooms where there is always lots of dead air). I also add some video to the course using powerpoint (they can access the program at the school if they don't have it at home).&nb sp; Because the course is a writing course, it is surprisingly beneficial for students to take it online in that they are forced to read and write significantly more than my students in traditional college writing classes.

Thank you for all of your helpful tips!

~Mina Matthews

Subject: [PD 3451] Re: Facilitating Online PD
From: Susan Hershey SHershey at NSCAP.org
Date: Wed Jun 17 12:17:04 EDT 2009

Jackie -

My original reluctance was with the on-line math course. Having had experience directing a program where math was taught tenderly by two women for over 9 years, and where a lot of hand-holding and work on elimination of math phobia was necessary, I was wary of computer-assisted learning. This was obviously due in part to my inexperience with this technology. Our students, for the most part, increased their test scores after taking the course and found it very helpful. The students who had serious problems with math, tended not to show up for the tutor-guided math "classes" and therefore did poorly. In their cases, I think that a living, breathing math "teacher" would have been beneficial. Exiting barriers to learning math accompanied with computer issues can lead to disaster. And computer issues, such as the student having no computer at home, different operating systems, and computers here that did not work properly, certainly add to the frustration.

The facilitated course, Health Science, was successful for most students. My concern with that course was that I knew very little about it and had to trust the teacher (here in our program) with facilitating it entirely on her own. Emails were exchanged between the teacher and the students on a regular basis. And of course, the students communicated exclusively with the on-line facilitator. Thus, I felt somewhat distanced from the inner workings of the course. I could not step into the classroom, for example, and get a feel for how the course was going. Again, this is partly due to my inexperience with on-line learning, which I am hoping to improve on by reading the myriad of emails I receive from the host of highly experienced on-line facilitators and teachers on this list serv. Again, thank you!

Susan

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