Unit 3 - Teaching in online environments
In the paper Diane wrote with Richard, they described themselves as 'tutors-as-course-designers'. They deliberately reflected on this as not all online teaching contexts encapsulate this dual role. Online teaching may involve you in setting up your own course content, designing tasks, thinking about interactions between learners and tutors. It might, however, be simply a matter of managing those interactions i.e. the online tutor might be employed to teach but not necessarily design the online course itself. Increasingly there are job opportunities of this kind, and the Open University is one example of an institution which for the most part employs tutors who facilitate courses written by other people. In the world of MOOCs, this is also a role, but often a volunteer one.
Online tutoring - identifying roles and challenges
Before we look at the nature of online tutoring in greater depth, spend a little time thinking back over some of your observations so far, either your own experiences as tutors on courses, or as participants on course units either at Manchester, or elsewhere. Your thoughts may be random at the moment - this doesn't matter. We will look at specific roles presently.
- Are the roles of the online language teacher/teacher educator similar to those in the face-to-face classroom?
- What demands do you think are made on the online tutor that may be different from the face-to-face context?
You can add to/modify your thoughts as we proceed.
The literature variously refers to the online teacher as e-tutor, e-moderator, e-facilitator. Whatever the label, online teaching is characterised in much of the literature as a moderating role, and this relates most often to computer conferencing, that is managing interactions in conferencing tools such as discussion boards, although increasingly that role is changing and tutors may be needing to think about their roles in synchronous spaces.
We'll look at two specific areas of research into this aspect, that of Gilly Salmon formerly of the UK Open University and now based in Australia, and the work of Garrison, Anderson and colleagues who work in Canada.
Their books are on our recommended reading list and here there are links to the latest versions available through MyiLibrary. If you are on campus or using the Manchester vpn, then the links below will take you directly to the online books:
Garrison, D. R. (2011) E-Learning in the 21st Century. Taylor & Francis. http://lib.myilibrary.com?ID=310536
You can find out more about Garrison and other colleagues work in this are on the COI web page. This gives background to the development of the Community of Inquiry model that has become increasingly influential.
Salmon, Gilly. (2012). E-Moderating. Taylor & Francis. http://lib.myilibrary.com?ID=336371
I am going to refer you to different chapters of Salmon's book but firstly her five step model.
Salmon argues that readiness to achieve higher level learning concepts (we've mentioned notions of deep and surface learning for example already) is premised on a conscious awareness of learner needs in the online environment and the role of the tutor in facilitating stages of development and interaction. She puts forward a five step model of these stages:
This image is taken form this web page where you can find further explanation of the different stages: http://www.gillysalmon.com/five-stage-model.
Individual access and the ability of participants to use CMC are essential prerequisites for conference participation (stage one, at the base of the flights of steps). Stage two involves individual participants establishing their online identities and then finding others with whom to interact. At stage three, participants give information relevant to the course to each other. Up to and including stage three, a form of co-operation occurs, i.e. support for each person’s goals. At stage four, course-related group discussions occur and the interaction becomes more collaborative. The communication depends on the establishment of common understandings. At stage five, participants look for more benefits from the system to help them achieve personal goals, explore how to integrate CMC into other forms of learning and reflect on the learning processes.
To gain an understanding of the model and the research it is based on read chapter 2 in the book in myiLibrary (link above)
Searching on the Springer site for Gilly Salmon I also found: Competences for online teaching, a special report. You might like to consider how far you feel competent with the range of competences suggested in this article.
Reflecting on progression through Salmon's five step model
Reflect on your journey through this course unit so far.
- At which stage do you think you are currently at?
- Can you identify personal transitions through the stages to this point?
- Can you identify tasks, tutor activities, interactions with your peers that are either identifiable with those stages or that facilitated a move to a higher stage?
Contribute your own analysis to the forum -- Unit 3 -- Task 2: Your course journey so far. This is the type of analysis that might inform your eventual approach to your assignment part 3. As you come to approach this task on the Forum, have a look at what others have contributed and try to build on the ideas of others.
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