The Cave
Student To Content
Student To Content
The cave is a private space where an individual can think, learn, reflect, and transform learning from external knowledge to internal knowledge/mastery. However, the cave can be a very lonely place. Applying humanized teaching and learning enables students to feel cared for, seen and empowered to take chances, for a teacher can design in support mechanisms. 2 main components in establishing a supportive learning environment in the cave are:
Instructor presence is fostered through actions that result in students perceiving that you've been present in their learning. Your presence can be conveyed in many ways: you could change a graphic on your homepage, post an announcement every Sunday night, respond promptly to student emails, participate in discussions with students. These are all ways to foster your presence -- and each of those is valuable.
Social presence is the sense that you are interacting with real people. As we know, that sense is not innately conveyed through digital communications; rather, it must be mindfully cultivated. Social presence adds the human dimension to online learning. When you are in an online class in which social presence is developed, you feel like you are part of a group or community, as opposed to a person logging into a secured website to access content and turn in assignments. Social presence makes all learning meaningful and is more likely to intrinsically motivate a student to succeed.
If this topic interests you, explore the book, Social Presence in Online Learning
The videos are produced by Michelle Pacansky-Brock and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
Humanized online facilitation increases the relevance of content and improves students’ motivation to log in week after week. While humanizing aligns with culturally responsive teaching strategies, humanizing is simply good teaching and supports all learners. Research shows when students relate to their online instructor as something more than a subject matter expert and begin to conceive of themselves as part of a larger community, they are more likely to be motivated, be satisfied with their learning, and succeed in achieving the course objectives (Picciano, 2002; Rovai & Barnum, 2003; Richardson & Swan, 2003).
As you plan on designing in instructor presence and social presence, please consider:
The Welcome Package to your course;
The textbook and learning materials you include that were created by others;
The course material, images, and video you create yourself;
The support you integrate for students throughout your course;
The language you use for assessments and instructions;
The language you use for rubrics, grading, and feedback.