Sandy Nightingale
Donna Ness
Introduction:
One of the many challenges for distance education instructors when
teaching in an asynchronous environment is that the instructor cannot rely on
face-to-face interaction with its visual cues and immediate feedback. Many instructors find this separation from
the learner to be the most challenging adjustment in the transition to the
virtual classroom (Smith, 2001). As we
look at the role of the instructor in the asynchronous online classroom, we see
that the focus lies mostly in the areas of administrative actions,
facilitation, technical responsibilities and evaluation. Other important elements include credible
content knowledge, understanding of how people learn, and a desire to
teach. The instructor’s role becomes
that of a facilitator, guiding and supporting students as they determine their
own learning pace and learning objectives.
This literature review will focus on several considerations to be made
by the distance instructor, including encouragement of student collaboration in
an asynchronous environment
Literature Review:
In our review, we have found certain trends recurring throughout the literature. . Among these trends, we see that web-based instruction has begun to shift the focus of learning from a teacher-centered methodology to a learner-centered environment. According to Valerie Beer in Transitioning Instructor Skills to the Virtual Classroom, “Web teaching is less about information dissemination and more about organizing students’ interaction with each other and the materials.” Distance educators face a variety of challenges, including the need to become expert moderators of communication and interaction among students.
In reviewing the literature, we found several instructor roles to be necessary for effective collaboration to take place. As part of the administrative role, the instructor:
§ Sets course agenda, objectives, rules, and decision-making norms.
§ Posts course materials (syllabus, assignments, discussion topics, etc.) at the beginning of the course.
§ Posts timely bulletins about changes and updates to the course.
§ During the first week, assures that all students are “on board” and responding (contacts privately by phone or email, if not).
§ Returns student calls/emails within 24 hours.
§ Refers student calls-/emails within 24 hours.
§ Monitors progress of groups and individual members.
§ Facilitates interaction and collaboration.
§ Provides mentoring and guidance. (Learning Peaks)
An instructor as facilitator plays many different roles beyond simply guiding students. The following detail some of the more critical functions of facilitators:
§ Manages discussion and student interactions with leadership and direction.
§ Posts thoughtful discussion questions related to the topic and appropriate to the desired cognitive outcomes (Bloom’s Taxonomy).
§ Moderates discussion, models desired methods of communication.
§ Engages students, fosters sharing of participants’ knowledge, question, and expertise.
§ Contributes outside resources (online, print based, others).
§ Contributes advanced content knowledge and insights, weaves together discussion threads. Helps students apply, analyze, and synthesize content.
§ Fosters group learning.
§ Minimum of 10% of discussion postings are from the instructor.
§ Provides public and private acknowledgement to students who contribute to discussion.
§ Privately (by email or phone) ask a noncontributing student to participate in discussion.
§ Provide flexibility in direction and time. (Learning Peaks)
The technical role of the instructor assures that the course runs smoothly and student barriers due to technical components are quickly overcome. The instructor’s actions make the technology relatively transparent to the student.
In the evaluator role, the instructor:
§ Provides students with clear grading criteria.
§ Remind a student about upcoming assignments.
§ Expects college level writing (in higher ed courses).
§ Provides examples of desired writing/assignments.
§ Provides resources for completing assignments.
§ Assists students who are having problems (by email or by phone) completing assignments.
§ Acknowledges receipt of assignments within 24 hours.
§ Returns students’ assignments, with detailed notes and grade, within 96 hours.
§
Contacts (by email or phone) students who have
not completed assignments within 24 hours after assignment due date. Helps student work plan to complete
assignments. (
One of the most important instructional
challenges facing the distance education professional is the need to develop a
rich level of personal interchange, not only between instructor and student,
but also among the students themselves.
Building collaborative components of e-learning into online instruction
can foster interactions and feedback, and dropout rates often decrease when
students are engaged with others learning the same subject. Communication tends to be much more open and
multi-directional in an online setting, since the responsibility for learning
opportunities comes from the instructor as well as from all of the
participants. “An open Web-based
environment that promotes communication and collaboration can result in
learners becoming part owners in the instruction, greatly enhancing their sense
of online community” (Shotsberger, 1997, p. 105). This sense of community can greatly
facilitate information exchange among all of the individuals—students and
faculty—in a virtual classroom.
One way to increase online participation is to create an atmosphere that encourages questions and promotes a sense of community among the participants. Opportunities for social interaction must be designed into the actual course (Palloff & Pratt, 2001). The need for an “icebreaker” is even more important in an online environment since all class members need to be introduced to one another. Using an interactive activity at the beginning of the course can increase the likelihood of higher levels of participation throughout the course.
Instructors can also increase the levels of student participation by acting as “guides on the side,” who assist in the learning process without hindering the students’ increased knowledge and understanding of the material. Collison et al. (2000) describes this type of facilitation as particularly beneficial, since it permits instructors to remain in a moderating role, with participants taking on more responsibility for responding to each other’s questions and comments. Although online instructors can be quite helpful through these mentoring roles, too much participation by the instructor can lead to a reduction in interaction among their students and an over-reliance on the instructor.
At times the instructor plays the role of ‘Social Director’, which is particularly important in fostering a collaborative environment. Underlying this type of learning is the belief that learners achieve best in social interactions based on consensus building and cooperation. As facilitators promote interpersonal relationships and help learners work together, they guide a developing sense of community within and between small groups.
Norton and Wiberg (1998) speculate that “collaborative learning requires students to enter the culture of teaching. Thus novices benefit from the expertise of fellow students, while experts strengthen their knowledge and skills through the act of sharing their expertise.” In collaborative learning environments, teachers teach for the most part indirectly, by reorganizing students socially and designing appropriate tasks. Therefore, understanding group interaction and dynamics becomes essential for proactive planning and acting in collaborative learning environments for both the teacher and the student.
From an e-learning perspective, collaboration technologies can be viewed as the primary tools that one can use to facilitate learning through collaborations between teacher-student and student-student. Asynchronous tools include course websites or WebCT, e-mail, discussion databases, and streaming audio/video. Discussion boards extend the interactive learning environment beyond the classroom by encouraging time for student reflection, enabling students to participate in more thoughtful discussions, questions, and responses, promoting collaborative problem-solving and sharing of information among students, and optimizing instructor feedback. Instructors should structure questions in a way that requires analysis and synthesis.
In the Collaborative Learning Model described by Reid et al. (1989), there are five phases for designing instruction for collaborative learning: engagement, exploration, transformation, presentation, and reflection.
The first stage is the "engagement" phase, where the teacher sets the stage by providing the class with a collaborative activity. It is important that this task be designed in such a way that it not only provides the basis for ensuing necessary group activities, but also brings home a sense of ownership to its learners.
In the "exploration" phase, students work on the initial exploration of ideas and information. Teachers have to decide how much input should be given for the learning task, and how much should be left to the resourcefulness of the students. To encourage group interdependence at this stage, teachers can ask students in teams to demonstrate their learning using different response modes.
The third phase has to do with the "transformation" of knowledge. This is where students in their learning groups engage in activities to "reshape" the information by organizing, clarifying, elaborating, or synthesizing learning concepts. It is crucial for this stage of learning that tasks require discussion and contribution from all group members.
In the "presentation" phase, student groups have the opportunity to present their findings to an interested and critical audience. A significant consideration at this stage is to ensure that the audience for the presentation is authentic and can provide responsive feedback to the information generated by the groups' efforts. This can be done with critical peer groups or with expert groups that have a genuine interest in the findings of the presentation.
Collaborative online group project activities should be challenging, interesting, and relevant, require a short time to complete, and be appropriate to the participants’ backgrounds. Be aware that student participants will have different learning styles. Some will learn easily in group settings, while others will excel when working independently. The following guidelines are suggested in preparing students to work in groups:
§ Create groups or cohorts – assign students by drawing a number, counting off, using group formation management system or allowing students to form groups of choice
§ Introduce group project and describe the project requirements – objectives, required product or output, learning outcome, content suggestions
§ Outline the collaborative process – mechanics, expectations, roles and responsibilities (details, organization, conflict resolution, instructor support)
§ Review “tools” available – discussion, chat, email, publishing space
§ Provide directions – provide written instructions including general instructions, time limits, problem, participant roles, questions for group discussions
§ Discuss evaluation rubric
As the instructor designs the course, each of the areas previously discussed need to be taken into consideration to develop the best learning situation possible. Among the most important components in the design of distance education programs are those that establish the organizational and administrative infrastructures to ensure that such programs can be efficiently and effectively developed, managed and executed. The overall preparation time for a distance learning course can be much greater than for a classroom-based one, particularly the first time a course is being offered.
Closing:
The role of the instructor in the asynchronous environment is very broad and focuses on many different aspects. We feel that in the end the instructor most importantly needs to develop learning activities that encourage collaboration, which is particularly important for students of the twenty-first century. There is much to be learned about delivering instruction online. It is important to keep in mind that the technology is continually changing. For the most part, designing online instruction falls to the instructor of the course. In designing the course it is essential that we provide our students with meaningful collaborative learning experiences. In the work environment collaboration with one’s fellow coworkers is essential for success. Furthermore, the corporation of the twenty-first century will likely be a virtual corporation with coworkers across the hall, as well as across the country. If we are going to prepare our students for working in the twenty-first century, we need to prepare them to work collaboratively in an online environment.
As participants of asynchronous learning throughout the MSET program, we see the importance of the instructor’s role in encouraging collaboration. Our first collaborative experiences may have caused us to be apprehensive but in looking back we see the benefits of collaboration. We learned from each other because of the varied experiences and backgrounds of other students, we were able to look more in depth into topics of interest, and it may have changed our perspective towards the subjects being discussed. In addition, we are able to utilize our newly learned collaborative skills in our work environment.
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