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is multi-faceted.
is multi-faceted.
When I first started teaching,
When I first started teaching,
I thought that teachers needed to be really reserved with the details of their personal lives. Plan interactive, engaging lessons, and that should be enough. I very quickly learned that students wanted to know their teachers, and what I've learned from the @ONE Online Teaching Principles courses is how connections with teachers is often the necessary foundation for students to persevere through their education.
Make your presence known
Make your presence known
Idea
Idea
Make sure to show that you, as the instructor, are an active participant in the course by responding to questions in a timely manner and frequently interacting in the course through discussions, grade feedback, and announcements. Demonstrate to students that they have a real teacher and not a robot.
Action
Action
As I design an online course with an instructor, I try to encourage presence in different ways. I've been asked at times questions like, Why should I use an announcement to let students know about due dates that are already in a module? This question is a great segue into other uses for announcements that can even better demonstrate instructor presence. While using an announcement to remind students of an upcoming due date, the instructor can refer to a few exemplary discussion entries from the week as the lead-in. As a student of this program, I noticed that facilitators would often refer to "what's happening" in the discussion for the week, and it was nice to know they were actually reading what we were writing. This same sort of action in our courses lets students know that the instructor is actively reading discussion posts and interested in what they have to say.
Be Human
Be Human
Idea
Idea
Students need teachers they can appreciate and relate to as fellow human beings. Show them who you are (see "My Story"). In being yourself, you'll encourage them to be themselves, connect their lives to your course, and share their interests. This can be helpful for creating authentic learning experiences that will be deeply embedded into their memory.
Action
Action
Show students who you are but be selective. Let them know details about your life that they may relate to. How can you help them see themselves in your experience? Let them see that you have a dog or a cat when you're hosting online office hours. Let them see where you're at when traveling throughout the summer or the weekends. Film your weekly welcome videos in different spaces: your office, your backyard, your living room. A great example of this that inspired me was from Equity and Culturally Responsive Teaching, in which the facilitator posted a Video Postcard, and she showcased what she was doing that weekend to include us in her life outside of the classes. It was fun and interesting to see what she was doing, and it is a fun way to show students that instructors are humans who have interests outside of the classroom too.
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