2. This presentation will
consider:
! Encouraging online participation
! Tutor skills for handling synchronous and
asynchronous work online
! Course design
3. Online participation
There must be a way to encourage the kinds of
participation that facilitates learning
Decisions....decisions….
4. Facilitate online participation
Introductions
Share personal information (demographic data,
interests, background)
– build community, raise interests, create friendly
environment
Ways to
communicate
Use a variety of channels:
– email messages, forums, chats, (video)
conferencing, wikis
Active
facilitation
Ask effective questions, create engaging tasks, model
good communication
Challenge participants
Consider alternative concepts
Match content to format
Feedback
Affirm contribution
Provide constructive feedback
Support
- with technology
- with tasks
5. Sustaining motivation online
Tutor support
Show interest in participants’ contribution
Chart participant progress
Conduct
• regular one-to-one tutorials (video/chat)
• “Care and share” guided reflection
Schedule breaks for longer courses
Peer support
Study (language) buddies
Support forums
6. Tutor skills for handling
synchronous and asynchronous
work online
Knowing how to do something begins with
knowing why you do it.
7. Being an online tutor means assuming various
roles
!
Pedagogic :be a facilitator; use questions, probes, and tasks to elicit
responses from students and to refocus discussions on relevant topics
!
Social: create a warm and friendly learning environment - promote
human relationships, develop group cooperation, help members to work
together
!
Managerial : organise, set agendas, objectives , procedures, and rules
for discussions; use time management strategies, resolve conflicts etc.
!
Technical: make participants comfortable with the VLE and the software.
“Make technology transparent”
(from Zane L Berge)
8. Synchronous or asynchronous?
When and why? -The decision is yours!
Use synchronous media
!
When your audience needs to get your message
!
When you need immediate feedback on an issue
!
To get tutors and students interact by speaking and listening in real time
Use asynchronous media
!
When the students need time to compose their answers to tasks
!
To encourage more elaborate discussions on a topic
!
When students have busy schedules and live in different time zones
!
When you require a recording of the discussions
!
to create a variety of tasks
9. Tutor skills for synchronous discussions
!
! Planning
Select appropriate topics, set routines and arrange chat
groups
!
Establish meeting protocols for turn taking, holding the
floor, etc
!
Take down notes while listening
10. Tutor skills for synchronous discussions
!
Hearing student’s questions or concerns and
responding appropriately
!
Using names to keep the multiple threads of
conversation
!
Responding to reassure student
!
Noticing student’s concern and responding by asking
for more details
! Listening
11. Tutor Skills for synchronous discussions
!
A student or the group to develop knowledge of
subject matter, elicit personal opinion
!
Use sentence starter prompts to give variety to
Q/A
!
! Questioning
To redirect the discussion or introduce a new
topic
!
Use words expressions to reaffirm students
contributions
! Giving
Feedback
12. Tutor skills for synchronous discussions
!
Giving students clues on how to deal with a problem,
subject matter; provide helpful information on a topic
!
! Giving
Using encouraging words to motivate learners
feedback
! Negotiating
!
!
Offering alternative answers to problems
Finding a way to accommodate learners’ needs and
concerns
13. Tutor Skills for synchronous discussions
!
Expressing a point made by a student more
clearly
!
Helping student to say something in correct
language
!
! Reformulating
Ability to speak clearly, write clearly, be
concise
!
Patience, tolerance , flexibility, …
! A good mastery
of the language
! Other
interpersonal
skills
14. Tutor Skills for asynchronous forum
discussions
!
Organisational
skills
!
Plan the course in such a way that it
evolves - a beginning, a middle and
an end. Have a variety and design
appropriate activities for each stage.
Make appropriate use of VLE tools for
each task.
!
Provide support to students on how to
use specific tools
!
Set deadline for tasks.
!
Place current discussion forums at
the top of the page .
15. Tutor skills for asynchronous forum
discussions
! Time
management
skills
!
Use a calendar to keep track of assignments
and a daily work schedule
!
Set a specific time each day/or each week for
checking and responding to emails and posts
!
Respond promptly and effectively to student
queries
16. Tutor Skills for asynchronous forum
discussions
•
Be sociable and encourage socialising among
course members. Create forums for socialising like
‘the cafe’ and emails
•
Be tolerant, flexible and supportive:
•
Provide support in the form of links for further
reading
•
Give students the chance to discuss delicate issues
like plagiarism and netiquette
•
Be sensitive and empathetic - allow students to
express their points of view, and see things from
the cultural and learning perspective of the
learners
! Interpersonal
skills
17. Tutor Skills for asynchronous forum
discussions
•
! Pedagogic skills
•
•
•
•
•
•
Be enthusiastic -“ an inspired teacher
produces inspired learners”
Be creative : select topics and tasks that are
interesting, challenging, and varied
Be present but do not dominate. Lay
emphasis on exchange of ideas, and on
doing rather than transmitting knowledge
Weaving – the ability to encourage learners
to explore ideas, promote valuable threads,
and redirect straying arguments in response
to students postings
Summarising
–the ability to use concise language to pull
together the different threads of a discussion,
and draw conclusions on a topic
-The ability to present the summaries in an
appropriate a variety of formats
18. Tutor skills for handling synchronous and
asynchronous work online
The final word:
“The role of the online tutor is to model effective teaching, accept the role of
keeping discussions on track, contributing special knowledge and insights,
weaving together various discussion threads and course components and
maintaining group harmony”
[Rophel and Hientra 1995,p.91]
Does this statement say it all? What’s your opinion?
19. Course design
Decisions....decisions….
It’s a very good idea to have a check box of all the item there are to
consider and make some informed decisions using our course planner
decision maker tool.
20. Decision maker tool
The staff
Identify the work load required?
Who will take which roles in the course?
Who will co-ordinate roles and monitor the project?
The students
What are their learning needs?
What knowledge, skills and experience will they bring
to the course?
Subject
Description
What topic is the course going to cover?
To what level is the subject being covered?
How much prior learning of the subject is necessary?
Learning
outcomes
What will the student’s achieve by completing the
course?
Are the outcomes measurable, realistic and
achievable?
Content outline
What is the time scale? How many modules will there
be? Which sub topics within modules?
21. Decision maker tool
The learning
environment
Which learning methods will be used? (case study
approach/ problem solving/reflection)
How much study time will be spent on each learning
method?
Interaction and
activities
How will students interact with each other and with the
staff?
What groupings will be feasible?
What range of interaction will there be?
Assessment
Will there be an initial assessment, formative
assessment and summative assessment?
Will there be self-assessment and/or peer assessment?
Is there a clear transparent link between learning
outcomes and assessment criteria
Learning
materials
Which learning materials are required for the course?
Are these materials easily available to students?
Is there plenty of variation in the types of materials
(video/audio/written)
22. Decision maker tool
Student
requirements
What technological specifications are required?
Are these IT tools easily available?
Student availability?
Ease of access to internet and large file
download?
Learner support
What support will be available?
What is the timeframe expected to reply online to
student enquiries/assignments?
Development
schedule
Is the time frame realistic for completion of tasks to
prepare the course?
Evaluation
How will you find out what works on the course
and what doesn’t work?
How will you collate information to edit materials?
