Online learning has become increasingly important and relevant in today’s digital age. It offers numerous benefits and has transformed the way we acquire knowledge and skills. Online learning expands access to education, offers flexibility, supports diverse learning styles, reduces costs, promotes lifelong learning, encourages global networking, develops technological proficiency, and drives continuous innovation. It has transformed the educational landscape, providing opportunities for individuals to acquire knowledge and skills in a convenient, accessible, and personalized manner.
Video Transcript
Slide 1 – Intro
What we’ve typically thought of as being a ‘non-traditional’ student is quickly becoming the new normal, according to Alexandria Walton Radford, head of RTI International, a think tank in North Carolina. In a September 2018 interview with Elissa Nadworny of National Public Radio, Radford stated that almost three-quarters of today’s college students have one of the following characteristics:
- They’ve delayed enrollment in higher education
- They have a child or other dependents
- They’re enrolled in school part-time
- They work full-time
- They’re a single caregiver
About a third of today’s students have two or three of these challenging circumstances to manage (Nadwormy & Depenbrock 2018). These factors are the very reason many of our online students choose to take college classes online. They need a flexible option that accommodates their work and family obligations. However, with the current situation today, the students you will be serving are the opposite. These are students that are used to learning in a F2F setting which means there is still a need, as an online instructor, to design engaging learning experiences.
Slide 2 – Challenges & Motivations
With that, we need to think about online learning in the context of challenges that exist and how to motivate students.
Slide 3 – Challenges
Let’s discuss challenges first.
Slide 4 – What Do We Know About Online Learning?
So, what do we know about online learning? Most don’t know what the norms and structures are in online classes; the added barriers and challenges for instructors and those new to teaching online.
Slide 5 – What we Know
What else do we know about online learning? We know that enrollment in online classes are increasing
Slide 6 – What We Know
Online classes improve access to education
Slide 7 – What We Know
Under-prepared students struggle in online classes
Slide 8 -What We Know
There is an increased likelihood that students will drop out of online classes.
Slide 9 – What WE Know About Online Students
And, what do we know about online students?
Slide 10 – What We Know
Online students need executive functioning skills like;
- Time management
- Task prioritization
- Ability to know when you need help and where to get it from
Slide 11 – What Do We Know About Online Faculty?
What do we know about online faculty?
Slide 12 – What WE Know
79% of online faculty agree with increased access
Slide 13 – What We Know
Almost half of online faculty think online classes don’t work and they don’t help students learn or succeed
Slide 14 – What We Know
9% of online faculty prefer to teach online and 91% would rather teach F2F
Slide 15 – Motivation
Which leads us to the importance of motivation – why do faculty and students need to feel motivated?
Slide 16 – Why should we care?
- Instructors are struggling
- Instructors are working in isolation
- Instructors don’t have a community that they belong to
- Instructors are being thrown into teaching online courses and don’t have the support needed
Slide 17 – Foster Connections & Community
One way to address the aformentioned challenges that faculty and students tend to experience as well as show support for students is to do our best to “foster connections and community” within online classes. Let’s explore what this means and what it looks like.
Slide 18 – Community of Inquiry Framework
Fostering connections and community within online classes can be established by applying the Community of Inquiry Framework in online learning contexts. The three primary aspects of this framework continue to guide research and practice today. The effectiveness of an educational experience depends on presence in three core areas; Cognitive Presence, Social Presence, and Teaching Presence. I’ll explain each one in detail and provide examples.
Slide 19 – Cognitive Presence
Cognitive presence is defined in terms of a cycle of practical inquiry where participants move deliberately from understanding the problem or issue to exploration, integration and application. Learners are able to construct and confirm meaning through sustained reflection and discourse.
An online instructor might design activities:
- That trigger an event and learners recognize the problem and have a sense of puzzlement by the given question or task.
- Where learners explore, use different sources/strategies and discuss with others to solve ambiguities
- That include integration; learners reflect on the task, link ideas, and try to come up with solutions.
- Where students have to provide a resolution; in this final phase, learners apply the knowledge created to new situations; they test solutions or defend solutions.
Slide 20 – Social Presence
Social Presence in online learning can be described as the ability of participants to:
- identify with the community
- communicate purposefully in a trusting environment,
- and develop interpersonal relationships by way of projecting their individual personalities
For example, in an online course, the instructor might design:
- An activity where students create profiles or upload biographies that can be viewed by other students and the instructor
- Group activities where students can collaborate on a project together.
- 1-2 Synchronous sessions to help establish group cohesion.
- Icebreaker activities including self or pair-based introductions
- Opportunities for students to talk about personal contexts or personal experiences
- Digital storytelling activities
These ideas/activities help carry out the concept of social presence in online learning.
Slide 21 – Teaching Presence
Teaching Presence is the design, facilitation and direction of cognitive and social processes for the purpose of realizing personally meaningful and educationally worthwhile learning outcomes. One of the key components of teaching presence is the setting and managing of both individual and collaborative learning activities.
For example, online instructors might:
- Model effective problem solving
- Provide constructive feedback
- Offer probing questions
- Facilitate tasks so that students can witness scholarly and ethical thinking in action through a video
- Or, create a guided lecture in the format of a narrated powerpoint
Again, the Community of Inquiry (CoI) model outlines three interdependent dimensions of presence: social, teaching and cognitive. When all three elements interact, it’s then that students are able to experience deep and meaningful learning.
Slide 22 – Community of Inquiry (CoI) Framework
Let’s go back to this notion of fostering connections & community within online courses through the application of the Community of Inquiry Framework.
The three primary aspects of this framework continue to guide research today. The effectiveness of an educational experience depends on presence in three core areas; Cognitive Presence, Social Presence, and Teaching Presence.
These three distinct elements work most effectively when they work in concert. The instructor begins by establishing his/her presence in the design of a learning experience through taking into account the actual learners who will be in the course and builds into the structure of the course plenty of opportunities to engage with those learners through direct instruction and feedback. A well-designed course will provide opportunities for learners to interact with one another, both to help each other learn and build that sense of community all while engaging in deep learning through the course content. When these forms of presence have been established, the learners in the course are more likely to engage in the kinds of active, collaborative processes that help them construct new knowledge and deepen their learning through their cognitive presence.