Tek Zeno/Jacqueline Derby, Ph.D.

Lately it seems everyone is talking about communicating with students. Communication is an important part of an online program as well as the traditional school environment.  In a traditional school environment teachers talk with students during the school day.  Outside communication is discouraged or saved for the parent and teacher.

In an online classroom communication can take place 24/7.  There are discussions, asynchronous messaging, chats, and whiteboards in the online classroom and I am finding that instructors are being encouraged more and more to communicate via telephone with their students. In a time when online communications such as facebook, email and instant messaging are being discouraged by administrators in a traditional school setting they are being encouraged by online administrators.

I have noticed a difference between the communications with adults working in a online university program and high school students working in a virtual program. A few weeks ago I was going over my gradebook and I noticed a couple of struggling university level students.  I decided to call these students to check on them.  The students I was able to talk to were extremely grateful.  I had one student that told me that she had never had an online teacher that cared before. It made me sad to hear that this student had not had positive experiences in the past and I started to think about what she said.  In contrast my High School students seem to expect me to call if they are not participating although they are not ones to reach out and call me.  When I call them they usually tell me that they thought I would be calling soon.

I think some of this may come from the school culture.  In many traditional university settings students do not communicate one-to-one with teachers as they do in a High School setting.    I remember being in college sitting in a lecture hall and listening to my teacher lecture to me and about 100 other students.  Learning was impersonal.  This has changed with the online setting.

No longer can a person sit in the back of the classroom and not participate.  Online course discussions require communication from everyone.  There are no boundaries in time so a teacher can respond to as many students as he/she wants to and a topic can expand daily.  Students can also take their time and take control of their own learning by researching a topic online before they respond to the teacher or a classmates.   This type of communication and learning is lacking in the traditional learning environment and it makes the online learning environment personal.

The question is then what is lacking since you never see your students in person.  Can you get to know your students and can your students get to know you? Do students feel isolated since they never see their classmates?  Can students get help when needed?  This all depends on the online program and the instructor.  Some students report that they feel they get to know their classmates and their teacher on a deeper level since they communicate with them more often then they communicate with their classmates and instructors in a traditional environment.  Everything depends on the climate and culture that the online classroom promotes.

I can’t believe that I am the mother of a 16 year old daughter who is just starting drivers education.  Driving with my daughter has been a learning experience for me.  There isn’t any amount of teacher training that prepares you for this!

Earlier this week I sat down with other parents for the driver’s education parent meeting. This was being held at the local high school.  As I walked in the door I thought about how I teach students every day but it has been a while since I took on the role of student and sat in a desk in the middle of the room.  I walked into the classroom and was saddened that nothing has seemed to change since I last sat in a student desk.

I took my seat and looked around the room.  The teacher had tried to make the cinder block walls inviting by putting up posters and decorations.  The two windows on one wall of the room had the blinds drawn.  The floor was industrial tile and the room seem cold.  There were rows of seats with the teachers desk in front of a traditional white board.  There was one computer that sat by itself in the corner.  It looked like it had not be turned on in a long time.  I felt bad that my daughter spent most of her waking hours in rooms such as this one.

Thinking about this I have come to realize that the classroom environment can have an impact on student learning.  I started to wonder about my office space as an online teacher and about the environment in which my students are in when they take part in my classes. My office is in my house.  When I assess student work I usually turn off the music, have a cup of tea close by, and turn down the lights.  When I am building classes, reading over discussions, and doing general maintenance in the classrooms I usually have the same coup of tea, same lighting but I listen to the local radio station.  I change my environment to help me be effective at what I am doing.

Being able to control and change my learning environment helps me meet the needs of my learning style and my students can do the same.  If they work better listening to music, chewing gum or even standing up they can do this.  In contrast if they need a quite, dimly lit environment this is also an option for them. I had never thought the role that the learning environment has in online learning.  Now, when I see a student that is struggling, I am going to ask them about their learning environment.  I am going to have them think about what can they change to help them focus and complete the tasks they are doing.   For now there is nothing I can do about the building  in which my daughter goes to school but I can make sure that my students are in the most effective learning environment they can be in.

Wow!  Has it really been so long since I posted.

A few classes that I have been teaching  since January have ended and some new ones have begun.  This is a busy time with students submitting late work, posting final grades, and getting classrooms ready for new students.

One thing I am noticing this term is that many of the educators that I teach are telling me that they are unsure of their jobs next year.  I had realized this was a concern of the local teachers where I live but these concerns are also being voiced by teachers across the United States.  That is scary!

When you teach online one of the benefits is that you talk with people from around the country.  You are able to share ideas and experiences. This is very beneficial as it provides a wealth of information.  When you are in one area and you talk with other educators from your area you have a limited amount of experiences.  Most of the teachers have access to the same technologies and it is not always easy to find someone who has tried something new.

In one of my classes there was also some talk about how others perceive online learning.  One thing a student stated is that people who have not participated in an online program usually wonder if it is a “real degree”.  This made me think about what is a “real degree”?

Does a “real degree”  mean that a person has shown knowledge in the subject area?  Does it mean the person has successfully participated in a program?  Does it require students to be physically together and to sit in a classroom and listen to a teacher?  I have known people who have successfully completed a traditional college program but the do not show knowledge in the subject area. Did they get a “real degree”?

As I teach my classes this term I am going to take a look at who I am teaching and the curriculum I am teaching and ask myself if this would lead to a “real degree”.

Today is Wednesday and the beginning of the week starts off very busy.  Before I became on online instructor I was an online student.  One of the most frustrating things to me, as an online student, was waiting to get my grades back.  As an online student you do not have any visual contact with the instructor so your only feedback seems to come in the form of a grade on a paper or for a discussion.

One of my goals, as an online instructor is to make sure that students receive their grades back right away and that I make comments on their work.  Since most of the schools I teach at on a Monday – Sunday work week this means that everyone submits their papers to me on Sunday evening.  What a virtual mountain of papers  have to grade!  It is easy to become overwhelmed so I work on a schedule where there are specific days that I grade papers for specific schools.  My students know what day their paper will be graded so this helps them to feel comfortable as well as helps me to manage the workload.

One thing I often wonder about is why students wait until the last day.   Students are given the entire week to turn in their work and they can turn their assignment in on any day of the week but many times they wait until Sunday evening.  This leads to a struggle on when to accept late work.

Sometimes there are very good reasons why students cannot submit their work on time.  This week with the tornado and other weather related issues some students have lost Internet service or were not able to complete their work due to power outages.  What is hard to accept is a parent that sits down to write me an email at 10 pm on Sunday evening to explain their their child is sick so they will not be turning in their work on time or the student that writes that they had a very busy week and did not have time to complete their work but will turn it in later.

Life does happen but students will take advantage if you allow late work for every situation.  Part of a students responsibility is planning their time to complete their work and as an online instructor you will want to make sure you decide what your late policy will be and let your students know what you will and will not except for late work.

It is time to head off and grade some additional papers…. “see” you again soon!

I have been on online instructor since 2002 and I am often asked what it is like to teach online.  People wonder what the positives are as well as the negatives.  With this in mind I have decided to turn this site into a look into the life of an online instructor.

You will find that being an online instructor is a 24/7 job but it is also flexible.  I am able to work my own hours but I must struggle with the fact that I do not have a vacation and I cannot be without Internet access.  There won’t be any cruises or weekly camping adventures  in my future but I can take off in the afternoon to go enjoy the beach or work in the yard.

Today is Friday so it is time to get ready for next week.  In an online classroom there are usually weekly assignments and discussions.  Most weeks are a Monday – Sunday week but this is not always the case.  When you receive a class some schools will already have the class designed so that every teacher in the program is teaching the same class.  The assignments and discussions will already be written for you.  Other schools want their instructors to design and develop the courses.  This is usually something the instructor does as part of their contract and they are not paid additional money for this but it does give you the freedom to develop your own class.  Friday is the day I post the new discussions and assignments for the next week.

I am also excited to report that I just received contracts to teach 2 classes for the next session at one of the schools I am teaching.  This school works on an 8-week schedule so every 8 weeks I find out if I have a job the next two months or not.  Since I can never be certain about my contracts I teach at multiple schools.  Sometimes it is feast or famine when it comes to pay.  This is something that can be challenging.  You learn to save during the good times so you will have money to pay the bills during the hard times.

I am looking forward to taking others with me on this journey of being an online instructor.  I hope you enjoy the blog.