Illusion or reality? The use of freedoms and control by online tutors as support mechanisms for students

Hello and welcome back to another weekly boe blog from Joe Bloggs. This week I would like to consider a topic that cropped up in my second and third blog posts and so now is the time to sit up and ask ourselves: what are the different types of support that teachers and tutors now provide in online learning settings? As my last couple of posts have taken a BOE podcast as the starting point for discussion I decided on a different strategy for this week’s post. So this week I will close my eyes (metaphorically of course) and let the literature guide me towards a higher level of understanding, self-contemplation and perhaps also lunacy. The result? Well I have now identified two key interrelated typologies of tutor support mechanisms for online students. They may be controversial (apologies Laurence), they may be provocative, but they’re mine and I’m prepared to defend them chivalrously – with justifications from logical reasoning and literature support.

1. Granting freedom to students

So in my previous posts on the changing role of the online tutor the divisive topic of whether online teachers still “teach” or whether they’ve relinquished this role in favour of facilitation and student freedom first reared its ugly head. The general feeling now is that tutors essentially support students through the provision of this new-found freedom. But is it genuine freedom or is it all smoke and mirrors?  O’Hare (2011) initially appears to espouse the control relinquishment paradigm by stating that “the power of the teacher status and possible domination is removed”. However, she also advises that this freedom for student learning cannot be left unmonitored. This aspect of the monitoring of online learning activities is substantiated in other corners of the pedagogic literature. Indeed, Lee and Yau (2015) discuss online learning from the context of cloud computing in which they detail the opportunities for teachers to monitor not only performance but statistical data relating to the frequency of e-textbook access.

So is freedom for the students merely an illusion and is this monitoring-infused illusion in itself a genuine form of support? From my own experiences, when I was studying for my undergraduate degree in Music at the University of Liverpool I often used my own creativity to innovate my studying techniques (through sourcing my own literature and original research design methodologies) in order to find my niche in the learning landscape of the course.  In the current BOE course I acknowledge that we are encouraged to develop our own paths to studying, although I am also aware that this is often facilitated through the Moodle platform in which our every move may be subject to monitoring. The result? Well for me I do still feel supported in the combination of freedom and control and it certainly provides fail safes in the event of nonchalance or inactivity from the student.

2. Control over online tools

With the potential surreptitious monitoring of student freedoms as a support mechanism from online tutors, this notion of teacher control retention in certain aspects of the learning process can also be considered a typology of support. In my previous blog post on the teacher role I certainly emphasised the prerequisite for online tool expertise from teachers in today’s technologically-obsessed society. However, does tutor control over online tools invariably necessitate controlling behaviour? McLoughlin and Lee (2007) certainly appear to think so on account of their statement that:

“online learning environments continue to be firmly set in frameworks and decisions made by teachers and administrators, who still have complete control over the tools available and the ways in which they can be used” (p. 668).

However, I believe that it is fundamentally unjustified to assert that this scenario applies to every online learning course. For instance, in our BOE course Laurence has reiterated many times of how we can choose our online tools as we see fit, and he has also provided us with the opportunity of “taking control” of tools such as WebEx and Moodle. (Incidentally, as I write this post, Anne has written on Moodle that she is assuming leadership of the SBOSE module this week – presumably under a non-mutinous arrangement…) Ultimately, I feel that leadership control over the online tools by the tutor does support the students –both physically in terms of practicalities but also emotionally in terms of confidence in the teaching support. Likewise, I feel that the provision of freedoms (albeit under monitoring) is also a valuable typology of support in terms of adhering to the modern students’ need to forge their own learning path through the course. And why not? The best way to support students in a learning environment in which there are a myriad of different ways and routes to study/learn may be to grant the freedom (and support) to let them discover their optimum learning methods.

However, the learning curve of the teachers in developing their own expertise (and control) over the online tools will still, I feel, play a key role in blended and online learning in future. In Richard’s blog post “Going live! Digital literacy” from 19^th February (https://rwwhitecross.wordpress.com/2016/02/12/going-live-digital-literacy/), he talked about his experiences as a teacher of mirroring the student learning experience in order to “support their exploration of the tools that could support their lifelong learning”. These potential long-term consequences of supporting students through technology freedoms and controls will therefore be the main focus of next week’s blog post. Stay tuned.

 

References

Lee, H. J., & Yau, K. L. A. (2015) Addressing the major Information Technology challenges of electronic textbooks. Journal of Computer Information Systems, 55(2), 40-47.

McLoughlin, C., & Lee, M. J. (2007) Social software and participatory learning: Pedagogical choices with technology affordances in the Web 2.0 era. In ICT: Providing choices for learners and learning. Proceedings ascilite Singapore 2007 (pp. 664-675).

O‘Hare, S. (2011) The role of the tutor in online learning. In ASCILITE-Australian Society for Computers in Learning in Tertiary Education Annual Conference (Vol. 2011, No. 1, pp. 909-918).

Professor Plum to Inspector Gadget? The changing role of the teacher in modern learning environments

Hello and welcome to another boe blog by Joe Bloggs! This week I want to explore the aspect of the teacher/tutor role in supporting students in blended and online learning. As a starting point, the Unit 2 Episode 1 SBOSE podcast provides some interesting discussion around this topic. I have contemplated the key points of the podcast and, as a form of thought experiment, I have re-reformulated them below as if they were a job advert:

FULL-TIME* TEACHER REQUIRED FOR BLENDED AND ONLINE EDUCATION COURSE!

(*40 hours per week plus synchronous/asynchronous interactions in evenings, weekends and holidays)

Essential qualities of the postholder:

• Instructional design quality to make the VLE accessible and inviting
• Proactive facilitation to build a community of learners
• Personality to maintain this community
• Subject expertise to create engaging and relevant activities

Duties involve:

• Moving to a more interactive approach to teaching
• ‘Anytime any place’ learning will require additional hours in evenings/weekends/holidays
• Preparation of all online learning materials for every aspect of the course
• Delivery of all course materials and continuous online support for students
• Interjecting, motivating and challenging students at key stages in their learning development

When reading over these key points from the podcast as it they were a job advertisement, the sheer scale, volume and commitment of the teaching role becomes frightening apparent. Is this asking too much of a teacher? Would anyone apply for this role? To a certain extent, the role of many teachers is slowly gravitating towards this configuration as increasing amounts of interactive, online features are being integrated into different aspects of their teaching strategies over time. The consequences? Well, the podcast mentions possible realities of teachers’ work “spiralling out of control” as well as the question being raised of “what is real teaching?” My understanding is that the concept of ‘real teaching’ no longer exists as the roles of teachers in various capacities are becoming progressively diversified and multifaceted. My own first experience of lecturing at my University incorporated many interactive and online elements such as virtual website tours, educational YouTube videos and digital asynchronous messaging for feedback and evaluation. I suspect that my own role in teaching in future will involve a multitude of new and innovative digital tool integrations, and that these will require substantial time allocation for not only training but continuous use of these tools to support the students.

Angelique made an interesting argument in her own blog post from 13^th February by suggesting that online learning course deliverers no longer “teach” as such because the materials are provided online and the roles of teachers have realigned to predominantly facilitation and guidance. I agree with this viewpoint to some extent as certainly the traditions of the face-to-face teacher/student learning interface have now evolved. Indeed, Kuswara et al. (2008) talk about how “teachers have to relinquish some of their intellectual authority; as learners need some space to construct their own meaning of the world. Teachers thus can’t be too instructive in the learning design” (p. 72). However, I do whole-heartedly believe that there is still (and hopefully will still be in future) an aspect of genuine “teaching” inherent in this new pedagogic role as tutors continue to educate students via the synchronous or asynchronous interactions online. For example, when we have our weekly VOH calls I see Laurance’s role as not merely the moderator and facilitator of the discussion – he also retains a role of teaching us about a pre-prepared aspect of the course and the seminal literature associated with it. My viewpoint is supported by Woo et al. (2011) who conducted their study from the context of online learning wikis and concluded that “a teacher’s instructional role is still important in scaffolding students by teaching them the appropriate skills” (p. 53). I believe the key point here is that the “teaching” role is still alive – although it now encompasses the teaching of self-guidance tools in addition to course content.

There is an interesting promotional video for the Connections Education Academy on YouTube (see below) which describes the role of the tutors in this private online learning institution:

 

What I found interesting is that the qualities and duties of the teachers as detailed in the video are both supplementary and complementary to the ‘job advert’ developed from the podcast. It therefore lends more weight to the argument of the expanding role of the teacher in today’s interactive and technologically-driven educational landscape – whether you are a “standard / traditional teacher” (if there is such a thing nowadays), a tutor on a University-led blended or online course or teaching at a private distance-learning academy such as Connections. So here is the updated job advert with additions from the Connections video:

FULL-TIME* TEACHER REQUIRED FOR BLENDED AND ONLINE EDUCATION COURSE!

(*40 hours per week plus synchronous/asynchronous interactions in evenings, weekends and holidays)

Essential qualities of the postholder:

• Instructional design quality to make the VLE accessible and inviting
• Proactive facilitation to build a community of learners
• Personality to maintain this community
• Subject expertise to create engaging and relevant activities
• Highest quality teaching standards
• Passionate about helping every student reach their potential
• Ability to identify and understand each student’s areas of challenge/strength
• Willingness to undertake extensive/specialist training as well as supplementary training and professional development

Duties involve:

• Moving to a more interactive approach to teaching
• ‘Anytime any place’ learning will require additional hours in evenings/weekends/holidays
• Preparation of all online learning materials for every aspect of the course
• Delivery of all course materials and continuous online support for students
• Interjecting, motivating and challenging students at key stages in their learning development
• Extensive and specialist training in the tools, software and techniques of online teaching
• Adjusting the programme goals as required to maximise student learning and growth
• Continuous monitoring of the learning plan and student activities
• Daily direct / indirect interactions with students

This blog post initially set out to explore the role of the tutor but has also unearthed much discussion (and debate) about the types of support (and teaching) which are now inherent in this ever-changing role of the blended and online teacher (as exemplified in the updated ‘job advert’ above). In my preceding blog post entitled “strength in numbers” I also encountered the question of what are the distinct types of support available to students in online learning. Consequently, my next post will address this question head-on with more reflections from myself and others. Stay tuned.

 

References

Kuswara, A., Cram, A., & Richards, D. (2008) Web 2.0 supported collaborative learning activities: Towards an affordance perspective. In Proceedings of the 3rd International LAMS & Learning Design Conference (pp. 70-80).

Woo, M., Chu, S., Ho, A., & Li, X. (2011) Using a Wiki to Scaffold Primary-School Students’ Collaborative Writing. Educational Technology & Society, 14 (1), 43–54.

Strength in numbers? The perils and pitfalls of online learning communities in supporting students.

Welcome to this week’s Joe Bloggs’ BOE blog post. So today I want to explore the aspect of online communities and how they relate to supporting students in TEL. Initially this would appear to be an alien topic for myself – as a self-confessed technological dinosaur (and suspected Luddite) I have never actively participated in an online community… Or have I? Online communities actually take many guises and, with the ever-increasing integration of social media into our social – as well as professional – lives, are we being dragged, inadvertently and surreptitiously into one ubiquitous online community of interaction and potential learning? I have noticed the increase in the use of the more “non-academic” social media channels such as Facebook for community-based learning purposes over the last several years – which de Freitas and Liarokapis (2011) describe as evidence of the pervasiveness of social networking. However, I observed more positive connotations of this community-development trend – with students and teaching staff now using the platform to formulate or seek out relevant communities for the purposes of conducting surveys as well as informing others of relevant educational news/posts, in addition to requesting advice on academic ideas. The Unit 1 Episode 3 SBOSE podcast touched some of these issues by acknowledging how the tools offered by social media afford opportunities for facilitating online communities of learning for students and staff with time constraints.

Interestingly, the need for an appropriate framework to facilitate feedback was also emphasised as the guest speaker in the podcast, James Blake, conceded that all of his first year students provided positive feedback in their online learning community. I agree with this point full-heartedly as I noticed myself that with the BOE module 1 assignment of forum postings there was a tendency amongst many of us to agree with each other’s posts. I guess my interpretation of this trend was that it was derived from a combination of politeness as we were not fully acquainted with each other yet, as well as a potential lack of confidence from us on the course material as we were at the beginning of our pedagogic journey. In terms of this feedback facilitation framework, I wonder therefore if this should include icebreaker activities to make students feel at ease with each other and the structure/content of the course, so that they feel more comfortable providing honest – yet constructive – feedback in online learning communities? Lee et al. (2011) describe constructive feedback as a prime example of what they refer to as ‘instructional support’ in online learning communities – thus raising the question of what are the distinct types of support available to students in online learning? A future blog post by yours truly may explore this question in greater detail as, for now, other matters relating more directly to communities of learning are imperative.

For instance, the aspect of ‘tools’ such as those offered via social media channels for online community facilitation purposes, as cited in the podcast, is also mentioned by contemporary academics – such as Kamenetz (2010) who discusses how the introduction of these new tools assists both teachers and students in the formation of learning communities. However, this makes me wonder – why the emphasis on the formation and facilitation aspects? Personally I would imagine that the management and moderation of online learning communities is more significant when one considers the complexities of social interactions in online environments – especially as the quality of learning is at stake! In an article by Garrison and Kanuka (2004) on uncovering the potential of blended learning in higher education, they really hit home the extent – and pedagogic importance – of these complexities by advising us that online communities “provide the condition for free and open dialogue, critical debate, negotiation and agreement—the hallmark of higher education” (p. 97).

So how much do we really know about online communities in relation to technologically-enhanced learning? And to what extent is the moderation of communities – or lack thereof – a factor in the support of students? In my PhD I explored marketing-related consumer innovations in the music industry where music fans were formulating their own online communities around their favourite artist and using their passion and creativity to create fan-made videos, posters and other ostentatious tributes. Some of these weird and wonderful creations went viral via social media channels – therefore manifesting as essentially unofficial marketing campaigns for the artists. This was, predictably, much to the horror of the record labels who retained the legal rights to the music, image (and possibly souls) of the artists. So the point I’m trying to make is thus – online communities, when left to develop organically, can take unexpected directions when not subject to moderation.

In terms of an educational perspective, the thought of supporting students by granting them complete and absolute freedom to develop their learning communities simultaneously intrigues me and terrifies me. Ultimately, I feel that moderation (the extent of which I suspect is up for debate) may prove to be the most appropriate form of support when student strength-in-numbers within online communities may supersede their combined sense of learning direction. Grenner (2010) discusses how the online community space deforms as both new learners and teachers enter the community; ultimately I believe that striking the right balance between moderation and freedom in online learning communities may turn this space deformation into a pedagogic reformation. In practical terms of how this could be achieved, a recent report by Contact North (2013) entitled “How to Prepare and Moderate Online Discussions for Online Learning” suggests that the critical determining factor in moderating online learning communities relates to the teacher role. Incidentally, the Unit 2 Episode 1 SBOSE podcast discusses the role of the tutor in supporting TEL; therefore, next week’s blog shall explore the distinct yet interrelated aspect of the teacher role supporting students in blended and online education. Stay tuned.

 

References

Contact North (2013) “How to Prepare and Moderate Online Discussions for Online Learning” http://teachonline.ca/sites/default/files/tools-trends/downloads/how_to_plan_for_and_moderate_online_discussions.pdf 1-13.

de Freitas, S., & Liarokapis, F. (2011). Serious games: a new paradigm for education?. In Serious games and edutainment applications (pp. 9-23). Springer London.

Garrison, D. R. & Kanuka, H. (2004) “Blended learning: Uncovering its transformative potential in higher education.” The internet and higher education 7(2), 95-105.

Greener, S. L. (2010). Plasticity: The online learning environment’s potential to support varied learning styles and approaches. Campus-Wide Information Systems, 27(4), 254-262.

Kamenetz, Anya, (2010) “Chapter 4 : Computer science”, Kamenetz, Anya, DIY U : edupunks, edupreneurs, and the coming transformation of higher education, 81-107, Chelsea Green Publishing

Lee, S. J., Srinivasan, S., Trail, T., Lewis, D., & Lopez, S. (2011). Examining the relationship among student perception of support, course satisfaction, and learning outcomes in online learning. The Internet and Higher Education, 14(3), 158-163.

The journey begins…

Welcome one and all to the inaugural post of my reflective blog series for the Supporting the Blended and Online Student Experience module. If you are reading this then you are one of the kind souls who have taken time out from their extraordinarily busy schedule of BOE literature and seminar activities to read what I have to say!

So what do I have to say? And why am I choosing to say it in these blog posts? Well, like many of the other students I threw myself into the thick of it last semester with the introductory module in which we had a glorious mix of miniature forum posts and an individual assignment for our grading. I enjoyed both experiences immensely; however, due to my background in academic writing and research I always see myself as a writer at heart and what better way to flex those creative (and indeed literary) muscles than by regular reflections on both literature and life! Additionally, I do not have any teaching currently scheduled for the New Year yet and therefore tying another individual project into my teaching (as I did for the previous module) may sadly not be feasible.

Ok so now we’ve dealt with the “why” but what about the “what”? Well to a certain extent your guess is as good as mine as to what reflective delights I will be bringing over the next 10 weeks or so – it is after all my first ever blog! However, I also subscribe to Henry Adams’ philosophy that “Chaos often breeds life, when order breeds habit.” I am a creature of habit and so I strive to create order out of chaos through structure, rules and – above all – objectives! (I know I’m a fun guy to be around at house parties). So, without further ado, here are my objectives for this reflective blog, designed to keep me from veering off the beaten track towards BOE blog excellence:

• To create a weekly post consisting of 500-1000 words;
• Every post will be centred around a particular theme – derived from the iTunes podcasts, the VOH discussions, the seminar activities or some other divine/secular form of inspiration;
• Each post will draw in readings from a (hopefully) wide pool of resources. I hope to consider not only what the Module 2 (and indeed Module 1) recommended reading has to say, but will also consider other academic articles, theses and reports in addition to more fun things such as YouTube videos, newspaper articles and (wait for it…) perhaps even other students’ BOE blog posts!

Due to the time it’s taken me to set up this blog (technology is not my strong point which is why I find this course so challenging and fascinating!) this is all from me today. However, I will leave you with the tease that, due to the poignant words of Colin Gray in yesterday’s BOE podcast, I have decided that next week’s blog post will explore the wonderful world of online communities and how they relate to supporting students in today’s technologically-driven learning environments. Stay tuned.