Research supports that there are many ways to build an online community. In the article, Contribution of Learner–Instructor Interaction to Sense of Community in Graduate Online Education, they mentioned a variety of contributing factors to building an online community. Their research showed that having a professor who models the types of interactions wanted for their online class is the most successful for building a sense of community. I couldn't agree more. As a student in an online learning community, I feel my professor set the stage from the very beginning of the course through our synchronous classes, her announcements, and even with her quick feedback. Not only did this get me excited about the content I was learning, but it also put me at ease when it came to participating in class.
As I read the article, The Effects of Instructional Immediacy Behaviors in Online Learning Environments, I realized that my experience in online learning has felt more personalized than face-to-face courses. Through our synchronous meetings, I am able to talk directly to our professor and/or colleagues in this course. We have participated in more conversations (started by our professor) than I ever did in face-to-face courses. I only remember 2 or 3 courses in my undergraduate and graduate courses that I actually spoke to my professor. My experience is aligned with the results found in this article. I have a professor who provides a high-immediacy course and therefore I feel the social presence of my professor and colleagues.
As I continued to research instructional immediacy, I found the seven principles in the article, Instructional Immediacy and the Seven Principles: Strategies for Facilitating Online Courses, to be true to my experience as a student in an online learning environment.
My experience in an online learning environment has been very different from my experience in face-to-face courses. I have always been very quiet and shy, especially as I completed my undergraduate courses. I cannot think of a single time I spoke to my professor as I completed these courses. I came out of my shell a little as I completed courses in my graduate program, but mainly to clarify assignments. I have felt very comfortable speaking up during our synchronous class of my online learning course. When I do speak during this course, I feel comfortable. I believe this is because of responses by my professor as well as comments by colleagues in the chat bar which is encouraged by our professor. I feel that our professor set the stage for this comfortable environment through our Meet and Greet videos as well as her continuous feedback and encouragement to communicate with each other.
For me, as a teacher providing a mixture of face-to-face and online learning, I believe I need to continue working on instructional immediacy when providing the online portion of our learning environment. I love the video below!! It is very relevant to the type of instructional immediacy I could provide for my students. I love the idea of providing more meaningful videos! I could record myself at home with a problem and use a math strategy to help solve the problem. For example: I could video myself as I was helping the girls count out their Halloween candy. We could start by just counting 1, 2, 3, etc. Then we could realize it would be so much easier to put the candy in groups of ten and then count. What a great way to make my online videos more meaningful to my students!
As I read the article, The Effects of Instructional Immediacy Behaviors in Online Learning Environments, I realized that my experience in online learning has felt more personalized than face-to-face courses. Through our synchronous meetings, I am able to talk directly to our professor and/or colleagues in this course. We have participated in more conversations (started by our professor) than I ever did in face-to-face courses. I only remember 2 or 3 courses in my undergraduate and graduate courses that I actually spoke to my professor. My experience is aligned with the results found in this article. I have a professor who provides a high-immediacy course and therefore I feel the social presence of my professor and colleagues.
As I continued to research instructional immediacy, I found the seven principles in the article, Instructional Immediacy and the Seven Principles: Strategies for Facilitating Online Courses, to be true to my experience as a student in an online learning environment.
My experience in an online learning environment has been very different from my experience in face-to-face courses. I have always been very quiet and shy, especially as I completed my undergraduate courses. I cannot think of a single time I spoke to my professor as I completed these courses. I came out of my shell a little as I completed courses in my graduate program, but mainly to clarify assignments. I have felt very comfortable speaking up during our synchronous class of my online learning course. When I do speak during this course, I feel comfortable. I believe this is because of responses by my professor as well as comments by colleagues in the chat bar which is encouraged by our professor. I feel that our professor set the stage for this comfortable environment through our Meet and Greet videos as well as her continuous feedback and encouragement to communicate with each other.
For me, as a teacher providing a mixture of face-to-face and online learning, I believe I need to continue working on instructional immediacy when providing the online portion of our learning environment. I love the video below!! It is very relevant to the type of instructional immediacy I could provide for my students. I love the idea of providing more meaningful videos! I could record myself at home with a problem and use a math strategy to help solve the problem. For example: I could video myself as I was helping the girls count out their Halloween candy. We could start by just counting 1, 2, 3, etc. Then we could realize it would be so much easier to put the candy in groups of ten and then count. What a great way to make my online videos more meaningful to my students!
Even though they are learning online, I can still make it in-the-moment!! :)
So. . . I decided to video "in-the-moment"!! This is a video of me trying to explain a real-world packaging problem. My students need to be able to count by 10's and understand how many boxes or containers would be needed for a given number of objects. Check out my first attempt!
I'm using this video for my math quests this week!! Hope they like it! :)
Resources:
Shackelford, Jo L., and Marge Maxwell. "Contribution of Learner-Instructor Interaction to Sense of Community in Graduate Online Education."MERLOT Journal of Online Learning and Teaching 8.4 (2012): 248-60. Print.
Shutt, Maria, Brock S. Allen, and Mark A. Laumakis. "Effects of Instructor Immediacy Behaviors in Online Learning Environ0ments." The Quarterly Review of Distance Education 10.2 (2009): 135-48. Print.
I love your in-the-moment video!! How did your students react to that?
ReplyDelete