Although there have been upheavals, complications, and hurdles for distance learning of late, overall it continues to grow—and at an exponential rate. This increase in online courses—coupled with advances in technology and new or tweaked teaching strategies—has resulted in a huge growth in the volume of questions I receive from distance learning educators. My space in this column is limited, but please continue to write me (erroldistancelearning@gmail.com). If I cannot answer your query here I will respond to it with a separate e-mail.
I present this issue’s questions …
By the time this question reaches you the response you give might be too late for me, but perhaps it can help others in the same situation I find myself. Specifically, I teach online with a for-profit college, and rumors have been circulating for some time that our school may either be forced to close or at least drastically reduce its number of faculty (if the latter happens I would probably be affected, as I only started teaching for the school 9 months ago). How should I handle this? Is there anything I should be doing? Thanks very much for your attention to this matter.
Ah, you hit on a topic that has very much been in the news of late—most recently detailed was the closing of Corinthian Colleges—and it has left many educators teaching in the for-profit environment a bit nervous. You have no control over what your school will ultimately decide, of course, but there are two “musts” for you: stay the course with your best teaching … and do look for other opportunities in distance education.
If your school must cut back on faculty the school will want to maintain its presence, and eventually grow stronger; the only way this can be done is with solid, quality faculty who can give students a most positive experience in the classroom.
To this end, it might not be merely “first hired first fired,” but rather a look at which faculty members are offering the best teaching so they can remain as assets to the school. Of course, in the interim it is important you look for “insurance policies,” that is, other teaching positions in case your current one ends as a result of the school closing or if you are cut from its teaching ranks.
First, a major thanks for all your help over the years! While not everything you have written has applied to me enough has been valuable where I can credit it with making me a better online educator. And I’m hoping you can help me again. My problem might seem like a silly one, but it does affect me. I have given several online presentations at my school to faculty, and overall I have received excellent evaluations, yet there are always a few folks who will find fault with something I said or did in my presentation, and these get to me, they really do! How do I stop this—or should I?
You have stepped into an area in which I have extensive experience: not only have I have given more than 100 webinars but I also made my living as a professional speaker for 7 years, so I can fully identify with what you are saying. And it is not as silly as you might think: the first time I gave a speech to an audience one person— of the 500+ in attendance—got up and walked out of the auditorium, and I let that one person become every person in the audience, so I thought I was a total failure at my presentation. Receiving a standing ovation when my speech ended did not help any: I thought they were just being kind to me!
But what I learned from that and similar experiences is what I pass on to you: it is extremely rare when every person in an audience will fully embrace and give kudos to your presentation. Always focus on the vast majority of good feedback, and look at any negative feedback to see if something can be learned to make future webinars better. Also, a suggestion: at the beginning of any presentation—whether face-to-face or online—invite any audience members who find fault with part or all of your presentation to directly contact you so you can learn from them: this allows for a good connection between you and these folks who otherwise might remain unsatisfied—and it’s a great way to explain why you did what you did if you feel you are in the right. (And by the way: thanks so much for the nice words—I always find it satisfying to know my efforts have helped others!)
Errol, I have been asked to mentor a new faculty member, and I was told that this might be an ongoing new responsibility of mine based on what has been deemed my “outstanding teaching qualities.” This is nice to hear, of course, and I do receive a small stipend for doing it, but this is something I have not previously encountered. Any tips?
Mentoring is a big responsibility—bigger than many people realize—as what you offer a new faculty member can go a long way in that faculty member “getting it right” or “getting it wrong” in his or her first teaching assignment. Not only does this have a direct impact on the faculty member, of course, but also on the students taught and the reputation of the school, so it’s important the mentee have a highly positive experience. While you are no doubt tasked with answering any questions or helping solve any problems the person might have you will also be called upon to explain certain procedures or give added info on one or more parts of the course delivery system. But all of these fall under the most important rule of having a good experience with a mentee: constant communication.
The person you are mentoring may or may not have first undergone a training session from your school, but now that person is in the real classroom situation where it can be assured situations will arise that have not been taught in training—if there was one. Also, your experience in online teaching—especially if you are mentoring a person in the same course you are presently teaching or have taught—is invaluable, as you can offer the mentee tips and info that make his or her teaching go more smoothly. The person you are mentoring cannot simply walk down the hall to get all this material—you are the person who must be depended on. Thus, be sure you stay in contact with your mentee, and I strongly recommend you plan a weekly phone conversation with him or her. Additionally, do not wait for the person to reach out to you—at least a couple times during the week drop your charge a short e-mail inquiring how all is going and asking if any help is needed. Finally, a nice touch is to send along any handouts you think could be of use; these “gifts” go a long way in showing you really do care about your mentee’s success!
I came up with an idea to get my students more involved in the course and more engaged in discussion: beyond the required discussion threads I have set up an optional thread each week that does focus on the course subject but not too directly, thus trying to make it interesting to the students. I know they would benefit from participating in this discussion thread, but thus far the most I’ve had in any week is five students. Can you give me any suggestions as to how I might increase this number? Thank you!
What you have done is a great idea! It not only shows initiative on our part but also is an excellent approach that allows for more learning and more involvement of the students. Of course, when something in a class is optional many students will simply skip over it, and this can be understandable, as they have other involvements in their lives, and they know to get a grade in the course all they must do are the course requirements. The trick here is to offer both incentives and an interesting enough thread that will pull in the students—even when they do not have to do it.
Let’s start with incentives. First, once a discussion week is over recognize the students who did attend by posting a class announcement with the students’ names and sending this out as an e-mail to the class: this not only makes the students attending your optional thread feel somewhat special and appreciated by “the teacher” but also is added incentive for them to come back—and for other students to attend. Along with this, you can offer incentives, for example, anyone who attends will receive a recipe, a riddle, a puzzle, et cetera—something that is not germane to the course but still an item that has enough interest students might want.
As for the thread, make it a bit quirky. For example, I teach writing, so I might ask students to share how writing will help them in their profession … ask them to explain if writing were a color what color would it be—and why … to use their creativity and offer the origin of writing … to give examples of how poor writing has impacted politicians or business executives. Any of these are enticing enough to get someone to at least look—and then, hopefully, to also participate.
Remember: Any concert must have the help of a lighting director, stage director, and sound director—when this help is missing the audience experience is a bumpy one at best.
Uber and similar services win, almost always. Those in need of a ride want Uber, even demand Uber. However, there is a problem: the taxi companies. They usually have a monopoly, are heavily regulated by local governments who collect considerable fees, and have political influence.
Okay then, Uber versus taxis; the public will play this battle out.
What about education? Is there something to be learned from the Uber versus taxi dispute? Distance education is often characterized as being convenient (any course any time), as immediate (enroll and begin), and as comfortable (you can study and learn at home in your pajamas). Also, many see a cost benefit to online education.
How about comparing distance education to traditional education? This is probably an unfair comparison. Traditional education is—and should be—the standard by which education is measured. But, which approach seems to hold the most promise for the future? It would seem that the approach that embraces innovation, employs modern technological strategies, and that maintains high quality will increasingly be the choice of many.
But, distance educators must pay considerable attention to high quality—Uber expects drivers to be safe, knowledgeable, polite, on time, and with a clean, fairly new car—their standards. Distance educators must also expect and enforce high standards.
And finally, as Milton wrote in Paradise Lost, as far as governments are concerned, “fear of change perplexes monarchs.”
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