It goes without saying that teachers must be present in a class in order to be effective. Specifically, successful teaching involves the following: social interaction, ongoing feedback, consistent teaching presence, cognitive engagement with students, and emotional presence within the class. When teaching some or all course components online, these core elements are often ignored; nevertheless, they play a critical part in course quality. To ensure that the above-mentioned elements are addressed, instructors will need to develop an online teaching persona.
Carrol (2002) defines the online persona as the professional “self” put forth when you deal with (teach) students, personal style, and in-class presentations. Clark (2012) also states, "Online personas are the social identities that people create for themselves in online communities and on websites" (para. 1). The images we present on web pages and in blog posts, tweets, comments, discussion forums, and emails help to establish a person’s online persona.
Intertwined with the online persona is the instructor's critical beliefs (Showalter, 2003). Giving consideration to your online persona will lead to increased motivation, more effective teaching, improved cognitive engagement, enhanced managerial roles, and enhanced public personality (Lang, 2007).
The cumulative roles of the online teaching faculty (cognitive, affective and managerial roles) become one's online teaching persona, public teaching personality, and teaching style (Coppola, Hiltz, & Rotter, 2002).
The following are all online tools that may be used to develop and deliver your online teaching persona:
Welcome e-mail
Instructor introduction and photograph
Discussion/brief bio/welcome
ZOOM – Office hours, discussions
Module intro or content videos
Lecture PPT with audio or podcasts
Video capture
Daily/weekly announcements/Follow-up on prior assignment or assessment
For more on this topic, we recommend this article from Purdue University, Online Teaching Persona.
References
Carroll, C. (2002, April 15). Getting good teaching evaluations without stand-up comedy. The Chronicle of Higher Education. Retrieved from http://chronicle.com/jobs/2002/04/2002041501c.htm
Clark, C. (2012). Your online persons as a faculty member. Retrieved from https://ltlatnd.wordpress.com/2012/08/27/faculty-member-online-person/
Coppola, N. W., Hiltz, S. R., & Rotter, N. G. (2004). Building trust in virtual teams. IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication, 47(2), 95-104.
Lang, J. M. (2007). Crafting a teaching persona. The Chronicle of Higher Education, 53(23), p. C2.
Parini, J. (2005). The art of teaching. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
Picciano, A. (2002). Beyond student perceptions: Issues of interaction, presence, and performance in an online course. Journal of Asynchronous Learning Networks, 6(1), 21-40.
Richardson, J. C., & Swan, K. (2003). Examining social presence in online courses in relation to students' perceived learning and satisfaction. Journal of Asynchronous Learning Networks, 7(1), 68-88.
Rovai, A. P., & Barnum, K. T. (2003). On-Line course effectiveness: An analysis of student interactions and perceptions of learning. Journal of Distance Learning, 18(1), 57-73.
Showalter, E. (2003). Teaching literature. Malden, MA: Blackwell.