Online PD for Adult Educators Who Teach Online

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Subject: [PD 3374] Online PD for Adult Educators Who Teach Online
From: Crystal Hack chack at cait.org
Date: Mon Jun 15 13:34:04 EDT 2009

How does online PD for adult educators who teach online differ from that of other adult educators teaching in a face-to-face setting?

In addressing this question I seem to go back and forth from what the participant should experience and how to develop the PD for the instructors. Ugh! This was a hard one.

I think it differs in the types of modeling the online facilitator chooses to use. Often in a F2F setting we seek to model what we would like to see replicated once the participants leave the training and go back to their world. For example in a F2F training a trainer might choose to do a think-aloud in modeling how to solve a long division problem so that the instructors participating can see the think-aloud, ask questions about it and discuss the rational for use. In the online world a think-aloud strategy takes on a different look and feel, but the learning concept is still there. Rather than speak out the steps, the steps are written and the rational for the steps are written as well. The online PD differs in that everything you have demonstrated before as rationale has to be written or shared someway beyond up-in-front of the audience live way.

Let me explain one of my biggest struggles when working with a trainer/presenter who is bringing a F2F training to life in another environment. An outline will often come to me in skeleton form with a PowerPoint accompanying it. This is said to be the basis of the F2F training and like we would expect the PPT provides the trigger points for the presenters discussion of the topic. I can go with this outline and PPT as a starting point for an at-a-distance offering, but it is definitely not the finished produce. The outline and PPT is often seen as the completed product by the person who is used to presenting F2F. In the at-a-distance PD world that is not the case. Let's say it looks something like this:

8:30-9:00AM Registration
9:00-9:15AM Welcome and Introductions
9:15-9:45AM Session Goals and Burning Questions
9:45-10:30AM Learned Helplessness and Success Avoidance Defined
10:30-10:45AM Break

So how would this look being presented in an online format. First, registration and sign in will have taken place before the actually distance learning session (whether that be email, phone conference, etc). Attendance is taken by those who join and those who did not join are sent an email that says that we are sorry they were unable to join us and we suggest another offering of the same topic with date or another similar topic with date that the person might be interested in.

Welcome and introductions often take on a different look in that they are done before hand via email much like we did on the list for this discussion or they are a quick visit at the start of a call. They can also be sent in before hand and emailed out to the participants of the chat, call, email training, etc. If it is part of an online course intros can be done in a discussion board area.

Goals and burning questions might be handled the same way. It is when we get to that first critical point that things change a bit.

Learned Helplessness Success Avoidance Defined--Let's say for the sake of conversation my trainer presents me this and there is a PPT slide with 3 bulleted points on it that define Learned Helplessness and Success Avoidance. My follow up to my presenter is you must tell me now from your experience and detail it out. What kind of conversation comes up around this slide. What are your goals for this slide? Do you do an activity with the group related to this slide? What does that activity look like? How is it related to the goals of this slide. It often takes several pages of typed text for a presenter to tell me everything that is associated with the discussion of this one slide.

So how does online look different? We have to take everything that is typically covered in group interaction, lecture, and small and larger group work and make sure the we have it detailed, described, shared in a text based format. We have to decide what topics/points from what generally comes out of the group interaction F2F can be turned into group discussion online and how does it take its form in the online environment. And it must be noted that some things just do not translate well.

We have to figure out ways to lead and facilitate that do not rely on visual cues.

Of what I shared here, I think the biggest difference is the presenter must have everything that is verbally share in face to face ready and thought out ahead of time in the online setting so that they are able to predict and guide the learners.

Also note it is harder to not pay attention and drift of in an at-a-distance setting. The faciliator often expects a response from everyone on every question posed. When a participant is setting in a room of 25 and the presenter calls on 6 people to respond to a question, there is no way of knowing if the other 19 are even paying attention. When a presenter in a distance learning presents an opportunity to response, there is generally some kind of electronic tracking of those who have responded.

This was hard to address and I probably rambled...hopefully you can see my main points. :) I look forward to discussion from others on this topic.

Crystal Hack
GED-i Project Director

Subject: [PD 3377] Re: Online PD for Adult Educators Who Teach Online
From: Vicki Trottier vicki.trottier at gmail.com
Date: Mon Jun 15 14:31:49 EDT 2009

Crystal, while your points are indeed valid and important for text-based online teaching and learning, there are instances of synchronous audio/visual based online teaching and learning that rely very heavily on the spoken word and traditional oral discussion. There are so many combinations of technology possible and options for delivering online training and education, particularly when Web 2.0 technology such as YouTubes, podcasts and more, are included, that we can make a shift away from a total reliance on written text.

Vicki Trottier
Getting Online Project

Subject: [PD 3380] Re: Online PD for Adult Educators Who Teach Online
From: Lobaccaro Gina (DOC) Gina.Lobaccaro at state.de.us
Date: Mon Jun 15 15:00:23 EDT 2009

I agree. We worked on learning to develop podcasts in the class I took this spring, and the teacher included them in the announcement section of classes, but not too much for instruction - but they certainly have potential for instruction as well.

The problem - we have in DE - if we are accessing the material online is that we cannot access YouTube from work. I think that one of the administrators has opened up the lines to regular education educators (I teach in a prison) so that they CAN access TeacherTube videos while at work... so they can use it with their students as well.

Gina

Subject: [PD 3382] Re: Online PD for Adult Educators Who Teach Online
From: Kathy Olesen-Tracey ktracey at cait.org
Date: Mon Jun 15 16:04:43 EDT 2009

I have read the exchange with great interest, but I think we are talking about two different issues. The first issue is the planning and development of the professional development opportunity into an online format. The second issue is the delivery of the pd opportunity.

Here is how I understand the connection of both issues being discussed:

As Crystal states: We have to take everything that is typically covered in group interaction, lecture, and small and larger group work and make sure the we have it detailed, described, shared in a text based format. I believe this is the planning phase. Often times, in a F2F training, I can have a bullet idea geared to generate discussion and pull from the expertise in the group and springboard from what they share, making sure I address all the points I want to cover. However, when I am preparing this training for a distance learning model - the outline for the training is much more detailed out. The text based planning is not e GED-i a part of the delivery of the pd, but rather, part of the development / planning of the pd.

What I see from your post is that there are many Web 2.0 tools that can be used. I completely agree. As we even venture into the so called 3.0 tools, the level of interactive, live, distance learning PD will continue to evolve. That is a great point, but I believe that as we utilize these many different tools, the foundation is in the planning and in the detailing of the PD.

Regards,
Kathy Olesen-Tracey
GED-i Project Coordinator

Subject: [PD 3384] Re: Online PD for Adult Educators Who Teach Online
From: Crystal Hack chack at cait.org
Date: Mon Jun 15 16:15:37 EDT 2009

Ahhh...Kathy thank you very much for clarifying my thinking for everyone. Yes, I was definitely talking about the planning of the delivery and how I ensure quality control in working with those who present online for me and in my own online presentation.

Vicki, I hope this helps you as well. We definitely do not put a bunch of text up and call it PD. :) That is not the message I was trying to send as that is not what we practice in our GED-i PD at all...active, engaging, informative, relevant, and meaningful is what we strive for. In some cases it takes some planning to bring a person who is accustom to presenting face to face to the same level of expertise and sharing when they move to presenting in an online format. Thanks for call me out on that.

Crystal

-- Center for the Application of Information Technologies

Subject: [PD 3385] Re: Online PD for Adult Educators Who Teach Online
From: Melinda Hefner mhefner at cccti.edu
Date: Mon Jun 15 16:16:47 EDT 2009

Vicki, thanks for emphasizing Web 2.0 technologies. They are extremely important in delivering quality online instruction and almost a necessity when learners are millenials.

Melinda

Melinda M. Hefner
Director, Literacy Support Services
Basic Skills Department
Caldwell Community College and Technical Institute
Hudson, North Carolina

Subject: [PD 3395] Re: Online PD for Adult Educators Who Teach Online
From: Barbara Sabaj bjteach at ameritech.net
Date: Mon Jun 15 21:23:25 EDT 2009

When talking about the different ways to teach online, we need to remember that as students have different learning styles, so do instructors. I have taught PD online through e-mail, asynchronous systems, chats, phone conference, discussion boards and Wimba (which is a live system). Each of them has good points and bad. Some of the instructor participants like one over the other. I believe that there is room for all types, but the content is the most important. Like regular classroom students, the content has to be pertinent to the instructor’s area before they will be interested.

Barbara Sabaj
bjteach at ameritech.net

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