People have described the ideal role of the online Instructor as a “guide on the side” rather than a “sage on the stage” who should strive to establish a community of learners. While the underlying ideas behind these concepts are sound, they are often taken to extremes. In this session we argue for the importance of professorial authority. The professor is the content expert and students should be reminded of this sometimes explicitly and sometimes implicitly throughout a course.
Recording of the session: https://connect.cuonline.edu/p83881030/
Download the slides to see the notes.
CU Online Winter Webcamp 2011 -- Professorial Authority and Social Presence in the Online Classroom
1. Power in the Classroom Professorial Authority Professorial Authority
2. Problem: Students feel like they are missing something in an online class Students feel like they are missing something in an online class
3. But what are they missing? * The physical envrionment * Other students? * The professor? But what are they missing? --The physical environment --Other students --The professor
4. What is social presence? How does it work in the classroom? How can it work in the online classroom?
5. Another problem: Social presence has come to mean being friends with your students. But is that what they really want? But do we need to hug our students?
6. Hypothesis: The university is best at getting students to engage and interact with peers and experts. Other students are their peers, and that's a topic worth examaining. But how do we get them to interact with experts? What's the role of the University?
Problem: Students feel like they are missing something in an online class
Problem: Students feel like they are missing something in an online class But what are they missing? * The physical envrionment * Other students? * The professor? Let's look at each in turn * Physical environment--probably not a big deal. At least, many of the features of a smart classroom are more easily recreated online * Other students and the professor: Here we have the literature of social presence to look at.
What is social presence? Social presence is the degree of salience (i.e., quality or state of being there) between two communicators using a communication medium. What does this mean? The theory posits that communication media differ in their degree of social presence; these differences play an important role in how people interact. So the thought was that online communication tools tend to be dense and aren't good at giving a sense that another person is "there". How is it applied in the online classroom? So people have found ways to change how they communicate online to help give a sense that someone is "Real" and "there" and to effectively communicate. Take for instance the emoticon. But faculty have also tried to utlize pedogotical strategies (e.g., establishing a community of learners) to help establish presence (and community) in online courses.
To some degree social presence has been misunderstood as meaning that we need to be friends with our students. Similarly the desire to take a "learning centered" approach and be the "guide on the side" rather than the sage on the sage has almost displaced the role of an instructor in a formal online learning experience. We believe though that you don't need to be buddy buddy with your students to be an effective instructor and that student centered doesn't mean the instructor should be absent. We are arguing rather that the instructor must be "Present" in online courses and we argue through the rest of this presentation why this is.
Hypothesis: The university is best at getting students to engage and interact with peers and experts. Other students are their peers, and that's a topic worth examaining. But how do we get them to interact with experts?
So if the value is in interacting with experts, then we know where to focus more of our effort: In establishing our expertise Providing students meaningful interaction with that expertise.
Reputation Strategies Look the part (and post a picture!) Provide a biography. Add a "course argument" to your syllabus Link to your work. Research, presentations, television spots, articles about you. Assign your articles. Name drop. Invite guest speakers to present in your class
Reputation Strategies Look the part (and post a picture!) Provide a biography. Add a "course argument" to your syllabus Link to your work. Research, presentations, television spots, articles about you. Assign your articles. Name drop. Invite guest speakers to present in your class
Reputation Strategies Look the part (and post a picture!) Provide a biography. Add a "course argument" to your syllabus Link to your work. Research, presentations, television spots, articles about you. Assign your articles. Name drop. Invite guest speakers to present in your class
Reputation Strategies Look the part (and post a picture!) Provide a biography. Add a "course argument" to your syllabus Link to your work. Research, presentations, television spots, articles about you. Assign your articles. Name drop. Invite guest speakers to present in your class
Reputation Strategies Look the part (and post a picture!) Provide a biography. Add a "course argument" to your syllabus Link to your work. Research, presentations, television spots, articles about you. Assign your articles. Name drop. Invite guest speakers to present in your class
Reputation Strategies Look the part (and post a picture!) Provide a biography. Add a "course argument" to your syllabus Link to your work. Research, presentations, television spots, articles about you. Assign your articles. Name drop. Invite guest speakers to present in your class
Reputation Strategies Look the part (and post a picture!) Provide a biography. Add a "course argument" to your syllabus Link to your work. Research, presentations, television spots, articles about you. Assign your articles. Name drop. Invite guest speakers to present in your class
Reputation Strategies Look the part (and post a picture!) Provide a biography. Add a "course argument" to your syllabus Link to your work. Research, presentations, television spots, articles about you. Assign your articles. Name drop. Invite guest speakers to present in your class
Reputation Strategies Look the part (and post a picture!) Provide a biography. Add a "course argument" to your syllabus Link to your work. Research, presentations, television spots, articles about you. Assign your articles. Name drop. Invite guest speakers to present in your class
Reputation Strategies Look the part (and post a picture!) Provide a biography. Add a "course argument" to your syllabus Link to your work. Research, presentations, television spots, articles about you. Assign your articles. Name drop. Invite guest speakers to present in your class
Reputation Strategies Look the part (and post a picture!) Provide a biography. Add a "course argument" to your syllabus Link to your work. Research, presentations, television spots, articles about you. Assign your articles. Name drop. Invite guest speakers to present in your class
Reputation Strategies Look the part (and post a picture!) Provide a biography. Add a "course argument" to your syllabus Link to your work. Research, presentations, television spots, articles about you. Assign your articles. Name drop. Invite guest speakers to present in your class