Research Report

As I mentioned at the end of my last post, I'm enrolled in a Topics in Online Teaching and Learning (TOTAL) course. As part of that course, I've been working individually as well as with other students to locate and review various best practices in online teaching resources. As a result of this research, I've decided to focus on three areas of online teaching in an effort to improve my online English courses:

• Fostering Immediacy

• Course Organization & Planning

• Developing a Robust Asynchronous Discussion Forum (ADF)

These goals might overlap at times. For example, by implementing a new ADF, I'll no doubt be making early and positive changes to course organization while fostering not only communication but also immediacy. 

Fostering Immediacy

Conaway, Easton, and Schmidt define immediacy as, “the degree of psychological closeness that exists between communicators and the objects of their communication” (25). They insist that “[i]f students are expected to assume more of [the responsibility for supplying immediacy,] the instructor must consider ways to encourage different communication behaviors in the learner-to-learner exchanges” (31). To do this, instructors can “[ask] students to respond with their own personal examples and stories as a component of the class assignment or to assign students to interview each other online as it relates to the learning activity itself” (Conaway, Easton, and Schmidt 32). In the traditional classroom environment, it's important to achieve a comfortable learning environment. Through conversations, ice breaker activities, and regular interaction my students develop a rapport with one another and with me. The same rapport can be achieved in an online class by weaving student interaction into the class assignments.

Course Organization & Planning

It's important to know the differences between teaching online classes and teaching in the traditional classroom setting. This is of particular interest to me because I got my start in teaching by way of the traditional classroom setting. And when I started teaching online, I feel as if I was expected to adopt the “learn as you go” mentality. I now realize that this is not an optimal approach; it takes a concerted effort on the part of an instructor to seek the current best practices for online instruction and put those to use.

A major difference between teaching online and teaching in the traditional classroom setting is the level of planning required to create a successful online learning environment. Dykman and Davis emphasize the importance of organization and planning in the online setting. They assert that the organization of an online course should include, “...detailed planning for every individual part of a course, including developing specific objectives overall and for each instructional unit of the course, specifying reading and other assignments in detail, and describing specific deliverables” (158). This means a whole lot of upfront work for the instructor, but it pays off. It pays because the alternative can result in confusion and frustration; whereas, proper planning can result in a rewarding experience for both instructor and student. Going forward, I'll design my online courses so that upon logging in and looking around for a few minutes, my students will have an understanding of the overall design of the course. They'll know to course objectives, and they'll be able to see a link between those objectives and the learning objectives for each instructional unit or module. 

Developing a Robust Asynchronous Discussion Forum (ADF)

Developing a functional and user friendly ADF is enormously important to achieve a positive learning experience for students. According to John Nash, "[e]ffective ADFs require planning, maintenance, and attention to be effective in contributing to student learning and to maintain students’ interest" (182). To accomplish this in his course, Nash implemented a scaffolded approach. He provided weekly discussion questions on the course material. Students were required to post once early in the week with initial reactions. Then they would respond at least two times to other students. The week would culminate with a final post of 300 words (Nash 187). At the end of the semester, Nash asked his students to "[u]se the content created over the entire term within the ADF to develop [...] [a] course capstone" (187). This capstone was a 1250 word synthesis essay in which students selected one week's class discussion topic to explore in depth (Nash 187). This type of assignment requires students to reflect on the material and display a deep understanding. The weekly discussions foster interaction and immediacy. I can easily imagine this type of online organization working for my English classes. Discussion is a major component of my on-site classes, and this method will allow me to successfully integrate classroom discussion into my online courses.

I look forward to making changes to my online courses by focusing on organization and planning; fostering immediacy; and implementing a robust asynchronous discussion forum. I'm most excited about the ADF because it encompasses many best practices and lends itself to excellence in instructional design. 

Works Cited

Conaway, Roger N., Easton, Susan S., and Schmidt, Wallace V. “Strategies for Enhancing
       Student Interaction and Immediacy in Online Courses.” Business Communication 
       Quarterly 68.1 (2005): 23-35.  

Dykman, Charlene A., and Charles K. Davis. “Online Education Forum: Part Two- Teaching
        Online Versus Teaching Conventionally.” Journal of Information Systems Education 19.2 
        (2008): 157-164.

Nash, John. "A Tale of Two Forums: One Professor’s Path to Improve Learning Through a 
       Common Online Teaching Tool." Journal of Research on Leadership Education 6.5 
       (2011): 181-194.