The Art of Teaching Online

How to Start and How to Succeed as an Online Instructor

Larry Cooperman

• Publisher: Chandos Publishing
• Year: 2017
• Print ISBN: 9780081010136
• eBook ISBN: 9780081011201
• Topic: Pedagogía
• Subtopic: Teoría y práctica de la educación

The Art of Teaching Online: How to Start and How to Succeed as an Online Instructor focuses on professionals who are not teachers, but who wish to enter the online education field as instructors in their disciplines. This book focuses mainly on how potential online instructors can create and maintain the human aspect of live, face-to-face education in an online course to successfully teach and instruct their students.Included are interviews with experienced online instructors who use their emotional intelligence skills and instruction skills (examples included) to teach their students successfully.- Includes interviews with experienced instructors- Features examples of effective instruction skills from online educators- Focuses on professionals wishing to enter the online education field

Chapter 1

So You Want to Teach Online

Abstract

This chapter discusses the growing awareness of online education as part of postsecondary education and its benefits; the chapter also discusses the benefits of a professional becoming an online instructor. The chapter also suggests that professionals interested in online education conduct a self-assessment before considering online instruction as part of their careers.

Keywords

online education; online instruction; MOOCs

When I tell people that I teach online, I usually receive two general responses. The first is amazement and wonder—what’s it like to teach online? How do the students learn? What technologies do you use? The other response is that online education is so impersonal; why would I want to teach students I couldn’t see or talk with? I usually answer that online education (for the rest of this book, “online education” will deal with postsecondary education) may seem, at first glance, distant, formal, and impersonal, but this rapidly evolving form of education also allows for personal interaction and, as an online instructor for five years, I strive to provide as much personal interaction as I can, given the constraints of a computer. In fact, I am more comfortable teaching in front of a computer than in a lecture hall, having spent more than a half-decade teaching undergraduates online, as well as teaching librarians continuing education courses (most of which I have created). And technologies such as live classroom lecture platforms allow for a more personable online education experience. I am very fortunate to work for a school whose goal is to provide the most personable online education experience, and their embrace of technologies to accomplish this is very wise and helpful.

What are the benefits of an online education? Price is probably the major benefit—most schools (but not all of them, unfortunately) can lower their tuition if they can teach more students at a given time. This is the theory underlying the popularity of massive online open courses (MOOCs) at large universities; they can educate a large number of students for a lower price than a traditional college education, and can offer free or low-cost education to nonmatriculated students.

Another major benefit of an online education is its flexibility and portability—of course, the semester or quarter system of scheduling classes will not change, but the ability to study, to learn, to listen to live classroom lectures, and to take examinations anyplace, anywhere, and at any time is a great boon for those who work and attend classes. Online students are not tied to a lecture hall or a study hall; for them, anyplace with a Wi-Fi hotspot is their lecture hall and their study hall. And the availability of numerous online subject databases and e-books allow students unparalleled access to research resources from any location; students do not need to set foot on a college campus and still receive a quality education. Many of today’s students work full time, have attended some college courses in the past, or need to return to school to earn a degree for their profession; these students do not need the traditional, ivy-covered campus amenities of a cafeteria, student union, and football games. This is not to say that the traditional college route is dying; what is occurring, courtesy of 21st century technology, is an alternative to a very expensive education over a four-year period, which may even be shortened due to shorter, accelerated classes that still provide a quality education. Many of today’s students need a practical, relatively inexpensive education to fulfill their needs, and online education increasingly fits those needs efficiently and effectively.

The explosion of online education in the last few years has required schools to hire more instructors, primarily those holding a master’s degree or higher. Many of these positions, granted, are adjunct positions and are not always full time positions, which is the desired goal for many educators, given that many educational institutions cannot afford to pay online instructors benefits for full time positions. Nevertheless, many professionals already do work full time, or have other work that provides additional income, so starting an adjunct faculty position in online education is not a monetary or work issue for most professionals.

Looking beyond the monetary aspect of online instructor positions, why should a professional become an online instructor (or faculty member, as these phrases can be loosely interchanged)? The desire to impart a professional’s experience and expertise in a given field to students eager to learn new skills, the desire to learn new skills from teaching students, the ability to learn new technologies, mainly from learning management systems (LMSs) and electronic lecture software such as Adobe Connect or Cisco WebEx. Speaking for myself, I had wanted to teach online for a very long time (close to 10 years). I believed that my research and writing skills as a librarian would allow me to teach these skills to undergraduates in a postsecondary setting; many librarians teach students information literacy in college or teach their colleagues in a continuing education setting, whether live or online. I had taught in both of these areas, and originally rejected teaching online. But five years ago, I had another chance to do so, and immediately accepted the position—and I have not regretted it. I had skills that could be taught online to students who needed those critical thinking, research, and writing skills to succeed in their careers, and I had the background in teaching information literacy and library continuing education to allow me to succeed online.

This leads to a self-assessment: do you, a successful professional who wants to learn new skills and to work in a new environment, believe you can become a successful online instructor? Think about how much experience you have gained and developed in your professional field; there is no specific yardstick to how much experience you need to have accumulated in your field, of course, but if you believe you have skills and experience that you can impart and relate to students, then you will succeed as an online instructor. Remember that these skills and experience cover a wide array of professions; information technology and healthcare are very popular educational fields, but online educational institutions will always need mathematicians, English instructors, and other general education instructors in addition to specific business or healthcare instructors.

Once you have decided that you know you have enough professional experience to begin as an online instructor, think about if you can devote enough time to successfully teach an online course (or courses), given your work schedule and other commitments. I usually teach two or three courses each semester, some six weeks and some the entire 11 weeks of a semester, and I average about 20 hours per week teaching my online courses. This includes reading assignments, grading, and preparing and delivering weekly online lectures; with my courses, my students do not take quizzes or examinations (they have to submit final projects), but if your subject matter involves quizzes and examinations, as many do, you will need to factor additional teaching time into your schedule. Think about your organizational and time management skills as well; successful online instructors, based on their years of experience in their fields, are able to prioritize and balance several tasks or projects at one time. Your students could (and probably will) bombard you with email messages, instant messages, or texts for guidance on how to finish their homework, projects or reports; a successful online instructor needs to be able to have ample time to promptly respond to their students’ questions, as well as to have as much of an online presence as possible. It is obvious that a successful online instructor needs to have a good deal of skills and experience to successfully teach online students; some not-so-obvious, but crucial, skills for a successful online instructor to have are empathy, understanding, and a human presence behind an electronic computer screen, an emotional intelligence and understanding to ensure that their students succeed.

Online education is not for everyone; it is not a panacea to solve the educational needs of students around the world. But online education, for the right students and the right instructors, can be an enriching and enlightening educational source, where they both learn skills and experience that can help them succeed in the world.

Chapter 2

Additional Self-Assessments and Getting Started With Online Instruction

Abstract

This chapter deals with additional self-assessments to determine if a professional is ready and capable of becoming an online instructor, dealing primarily with technological skills. Factors determining a proper school for online instruction (such as school accreditation) will also be discussed.

Keywords

Self-assessment; technology; accreditation; online instruction

Additional Self-Assessments

Now that you have made a start at a self-assessment on if you will become a successful online instructor, you need to make some additional self-assessments. If the first set of self-assessments dealt with your skills in your professional area, what other skills do you need to become a successful online instructor?

The next set of skills deal with instruction and teaching itself—this book is not meant to become a handbook of online teaching pedagogy, but there are several general aspects of instruction that will provide a good self-assessment for successful online instruction; these aspects will be discussed at more length later in this book.

What is the final remaining aspect of online instruction that needs a self-assessment? That is the proficiency of using various technological online instruction tools. The main technological tools online instructors use is the web-based teaching platform commonly called the learning management system (or LMS). Many common LMSs are Moodle-based or Blackboard-based; it usually is not a prerequisite to have experience using these systems before beginning instruction, but a professional can gain experience with them by using them if they do teach continuing education courses online, as I have done in the past (which accounts for my experience using Moodle-based platforms). However, these systems are very easy to use and to navigate, and require only patience and an open, curious mind to use them successfully.

Other technological tools include live lecture-based platforms, such as Adobe Connect or Cisco’s WebEx, and tools to create and to embed videos in either PowerPoint p...

Table of contents

• Cover image
• Title page
• Table of Contents
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Introduction
• Chapter 1. So You Want to Teach Online
• Chapter 2. Additional Self-Assessments and Getting Started With Online Instruction
• Chapter 3. Time Management for Online Instructors
• Chapter 4. Professional Development
• Chapter 5. Incorporating the Human Factor in Online Instruction, Part 1
• Chapter 6. Incorporating the Human Factor in Online Instruction, Part 2
• Chapter 7. Strategies to Teach Online Students Successfully
• Chapter 8. Online Faculty Provide Insights Into Successful Online Instruction
• Conclusion—Creating a Philosophy of Online Education
• Index