Voices in Dialogue

By Elena Carbone
Associate Professor, Department of Nutrition
University of Massachussets
Amherst, MA

There is no denying the exponential growth in use of the Internet in higher education. Online students now represent about 17% of all higher education students (1). The number of students taking at least one online class rose from 1.6 million in the fall of 2002 to 3.2 million in the fall of 2005 (a growth rate of 35% from 2004) (1). At the University of Massachusetts, Amherst alone there was a 34% increase in the number of courses offered and a 25% increase in the number of seats (student enrollment in a single class) in fully online classes between the 2003 and 2004 academic years (2).

As online education evolves, faculty are challenged to design quality online courses. Indeed, an increasing number of faculty are expected to teach online, despite the fact that they may have little or no teaching experience in traditional or online formats. At UMass-Amherst, 210 instructors were teaching fully online courses in the 2004-2005 academic year (2). By the summer of 2007, there will be more than 30 faculty teaching online for the first time due to a concerted effort to grow online offerings at the University.
Dialogue Education principles and practices address the core of these issues. Therefore, if there is a true desire to rethink faculty roles, course designs and communications,
we need to take a closer look at the compe-tencies within the context of Dialogue Education.

In concert with this trend is a growing body of literature indicating the need to prepare the next generation of educators in specific competencies related to the changing teaching environment (3-8). A meta-analysis by Cyrs (9) identified four areas of faculty competencies required for quality online education: course planning and organization, verbal and nonverbal skills, stimulating collaborative teamwork, and questioning techniques. Ryan and colleagues (2005) (10), who developed a Model for Faculty Teaching Online, named several important strategies to address these competencies, including the need for collaboration/planning, rethinking faculty roles/redesigning courses, developing online communication techniques, and maintaining/revising the course. Dialogue Education principles and practices address the core of these issues. Therefore, if there is a true desire to rethink faculty roles, course designs and communications, we need to take a closer look at the competencies within the context of Dialogue Education.

Course planning and organization
The Seven Steps of Planning (WHO, WHY, WHEN, WHERE, WHAT, WHAT FOR and HOW ) is critical in planning and organizing a class for both a traditional or online environment. WHO is your audience? This question can pose a real challenge if you never see your audience in person. However, you can use the new technology for Learning Needs and Resource Assessments (LNRAs). In fact, level of experience and comfort (which you can determine from your LNRA) will be important to know ahead of time in order to make sure all learners are ready to fully participate in your online course. You may also ask some questions of yourself as the instructor, especially if you’re teaching online for the first time. For instance, what gifts do you bring to the table? What experiences and insights have prepared you to bring your class to an online format? What guidance can you give? How can you make the course sing to your learners even if you never see them?

WHY are your learners coming together to participate in your class? How will they influence the design and organization of your content? The why is much more challenging in an online teaching environment because of the asynchronous separate nature of the technology.

WHEN and WHERE are particularly relevant with online courses because learners participate when their schedule allows within the confines of the parameters established by the teacher. Although the where is in homes and businesses, one also needs to consider time zones, and different Internet access capabilities – the where is often out of your control, but still may impact the course design greatly. Of course, when you set due dates for assignments or expect groups to “interact” at a certain point in the semester, time becomes relevant, or an obstacle that can be challenging to overcome because synchronous classes are often exactly what the enrolled students are trying to avoid, due their own time constraints.

Tying the WHAT and WHAT FOR together when planning and organizing a course is one thing; making this connection visible to your learners is another thing entirely. This is as true for online as it is for face-to-face courses. For years, I have been writing my syllabi with the Seven Steps fully visible (see related article by Jeanette Romkema in this issue of Voices). Why this is still the exception to the rules of academia is unclear. Again, without the benefit of face-to-face interactions, the more transparent your planning process can be, the less your students will struggle to understand the logical flow and rhythm of your class.

The HOW is very closely tied to the WHERE and WHEN; thus, the learning tasks may often be very different than in a traditional face-to-face classroom. Kinesthetic activities are very difficult to accomplish. Visuals require different levels of copyrights or high technical skills; group sizes may be different, and you may choose not to have full class discussions because it can overburden the students with enormous amounts of text to read. What a small group meeting face-to-face might be able to accomplish in ten minutes may require a time span of several days online. The How may be the biggest challenge for the new instructor, but the more a teacher is learning-based, as opposed to lecture-based, the easier the transition to online teaching may be.

In addition to the Seven Steps, the sequencing of content will be a key factor to consider in planning and organizing your online syllabus. Without the benefit of face-to-face interaction, learners must navigate their own way through the course. In addition to the Seven Steps, the sequencing of content will be a key factor to consider in planning and organizing your online syllabus. Without the benefit of face-to-face interaction, learners must navigate their own way through the course. Therefore, being attentive to how the learning tasks are ordered and skills are learned will be particularly helpful to ensure that your learners are ready and able to learn! There is also the challenge of organizing the course so each student is not overwhelmed with too much text to read in discussion groups. And, let’s not forget the importance of reinforcement. Simple nods of approval and facial expressions are not possible to share with your learners, so reinforcement comes in the form of written words. The more specific and timely you can be with your feedback, the more it will help guide your learners’ progress.

Verbal and nonverbal skills
Communications take on a whole different meaning when using an online system. How many of us have been misunderstood because we have struggled for the right words, only to chose the wrong ones when composing or responding to a message from a colleague or friend? How will you, as the facilitator, ensure that communications are respectful when they are primarily (or completely) nonverbal? Furthermore, how will you ensure that learners remain respectful to each other? One answer is to bring the issue to the forefront as you introduce the course to your learners and to each other. Reminders on how to give and receive feedback are always something I introduce in my traditional classroom teachings, and we revisit these often during the semester. These reminders will be particularly helpful when learners provide feedback to each other in response to written assignments.

Collaborative teamwork
Working in teams presents challenges in any environment. In online courses, team members may be located in the same physical location, or they may be hundreds, or even thousands of miles away from each other!Working in teams presents challenges in any environment. In online courses, team members may be located in the same physical location, or they may be hundreds, or even thousands of miles away from each other. Consequently, making sure that instructions for team work are clearly thought out and logical will be important. If not, you will soon learn how much chaos can result with dysfunctional teams! Discussion forums can assist in getting team members to work with each other. You can also encourage real time discussions, and/or conference calls to facilitate collaborative work. As in traditional environments, the more authentic the tasks, and the broader the audience who will see the results, the greater the motivation will be among team members. Web-based courses provide a great opportunity to create a broader audience than can otherwise be attained in traditional settings. When evaluating group assignments I ask each individual to evaluate him/herself as well as each member of the team and I use this information when assigning grades.

Questioning techniques
I teach my students about open and closed questions in all of my courses. We all know that use of the right tone and style of questions can make the difference between a dialogue and a diatribe with in-person interactions. This difference is magnified when the environment is a virtual one. So, take the time to teach your learners how to ask and answer questions, how to invite dialogue, and how to be respectful of learners who may only communicate via text on a page without the benefit of voice intonations and facial expressions.

Need for best practices
Countless references and workshops are available to assist online instructors with issues related to logistics, technology, design, management and evaluation of online courses. In fact, many universities around the world have developed their own training materials, including the University of Southern Queensland (11) and the Australian Catholic University (12), to name just two. The Center for Teaching (CFT) and Office of Information Technology (OIT) at UMass-Amherst also offer individual assistance and group training workshops. These materials and services provide helpful guidance for online teaching and assessment. Despite these, there remains little information on how instructors have been using these resources to enhance the design, delivery and evaluation of their courses. Student-based assessments of online course offerings have been conducted; however, to date there has been no systematic instructor-based review of key pedagogical practices utilized in these courses. Indeed, the UMass-Amherst Center for Education Policy and Ad Hoc Committee on Online Learning have identified the need for quality indicators and online pedagogy training, further calling for information and dissemination of ‘Best Practices’ to support online faculty (2,13). These data are vital to create mutually successful online learning environments. Again, Dialogue Education can rise to the occasion and provide needed guidance.

Diverse learning environment
Another critical issue in online teaching is addressing the challenge of an increasingly diverse student population. Looking at learning styles and language issues specifically, factors that negatively effect students’ level of success in an online environment include difficulty with content, lack of connection between content and the students’ needs, poor communication skills, and having English as a second language (14-18).

Many universities are undergoing significant changes in the cultural and ethnic background of their student body. Faculty new to online teaching may be unaware or lacking necessary skills to address this issue. Thus, attention must be given both to assessing instructors’ perceptions of their students’ learning styles and to evaluating successful strategies used to meet the demands of the diverse online learning environment. Dialogue Education can help! Just think about the tasks on Learning Styles; How Adults Learn; and Ideas, Feelings, and Actions in Learning for inspiration.

Recently, I was awarded a small grant to examine these issues with the overall goal to identify “best practices” of instructors teaching purely online courses. Specifically, I have proposed to describe experiences of a group of UMass-Amherst instructors teaching fully online courses, focusing on dialogue-based pedagogical practices, teaching styles, and lessons learned. Also included will be an examination of instructors’ perceptions of their students’ learning styles and any specific strategies used to address the learning needs of culturally diverse audiences. The study will be exploratory and descriptive in nature and will use a primarily qualitative approach to interview instructors. I hope that data from this study will be valuable for new educators to learn about best practices and incorporate them into the development of their online courses.

Final thoughts
What you have just read is a brief nod to some of the many issues related to the changing face of learning. I leave you with a few more issues to ponder, compliments Marianne Reiff and Steve Stahl. What else can you add?

What if the teacher thinks highly of himself or herself but the students hated the course, or if the learning proposed did not occur? How will you be able to tell? What about the impact on the students? There are many types of learning that can occur, in addition to the factual content presented.
What is different with online courses? For example, where face-to-face plays to the orator teacher, it will do no good in an online environment. The instructor who lectures has to be able to translate into text, or preferably learning tasks, where the content of the lecture-now-text becomes the resource for the task. This is not a natural for many verbal athletes.
Clear, step-by-step detail rules with online. We say adult learners will do great things if they know what to expect. In an online environment those expectations have to be all written out. Graphic organizers are key. Too many words can crush learners just as surely as too much lecture can in the classroom.
As in face-to-face classrooms, clear definitions of words are needed, this means inviting reflection, posting, responding, and more writing.
Deadlines and follow-up are crucial. An unorganized instructor will not survive in the online environment. “Be highly structured to invite creativity” is still true for online environments.
Finally, remember that feedback from colleagues is critical when designing an online course. In a face-to-face classroom we can gauge response and adjust. For online teaching we need feedback in advance.