Week 6- Teaching to Succeed in the Online Environment

When I first taught of becoming an online instructor, my view of the role was solely from a learner perspective. As a learner, I was able to look at the setup of the course room, the type of content assignment, the group projects, the questions in the discussion thread, review the course syllabus and course objectives, and provide an introductory of myself to the learning community. As a learner, I was able to work alone or with other group members in the course on various assignments and had first hand experience of what elements are present in an online environment for teaching and learning.

I find that in the online learning environment sometimes the assignments were easy and other times they were complex. Some of the assignments required researching, seeking clarification, requesting example, and asking for assistance from the instructor and cohorts. Nevertheless, I did not understand or know for sure the complexity of putting an online course together and meeting the needs of a diverse learning group.

Since joining this online teaching/learning course, I discovered the complexity of online teaching. I learn over the period of five weeks that every person has a different learning style. I learn that in order for the instructor to meet the learning needs of a diverse group, creating online courses with the mindset that learners learn using different learning approaches, and delivering course materials in a variety of ways to capture the curiosity and creativity of learners is essential to promote learning and educational growth.

I learned that there are four different learning styles (Visual/Non-Verbal, Visual/Verbal, Tactile/Kinesthetic, and Auditory) and when an online instructor is designing a course, providing the teaching materials in a stimulating way that holds the interest and focus of each learner is important. I learn that what teaching method may work for one learner may not work for the other and that creating the online course with equal accessibility to all students and presenting the course content to meet the learning needs of all students is a priority for instructor and learner satisfaction and to achieve desirable learning outcomes. A learner may need to be an active participant to learn, another learner may simply need to listen to learn, another learner may need to write to learn, and another learner may need to talk loudly or quietly to grasp course content.

To achieve learning objectives with the best possibly learning outcomes, creating a hybrid-learning environment is the best approach where the instructor and learners can combine the traditional learning environment with Web enhanced components to enhance learning. When instructors use the hybrid teaching/learning method, learners achieve more and are more satisfied with the learning environment because there is a combination of the presence of the instructor and ongoing communication and interaction with students inside and outside of the course room thereby forming a stronger learner-instructor and learner-learner relationship that support educational goal accomplishment. When an instructor use web enhancement to deliver course content, it can strengthen learning because learners can either further a discussion online, access other learners and share information online, or even form study groups and use technology such as discussion threads, e-mail, or chat room to further explore course content to enhance learning.

Hand in hand with meeting the learning needs of students is using the right teaching style and there four teaching styles that can support the four learning styles in an online environment, formal authority, demonstrator or personal model, facilitator, and delegator. Instructors can use any of the teaching styles so long as it is compatible and suitable for the various learning styles and that the instructor utilizes the most effective teaching style appropriately to achieve the best possible learning outcomes. The instructor must know which teaching style is appropriate for the diverse group of learners, decide, and select one or a combination of teaching approaches to achieve desirable objectives. A learner may need a control environment to learn, another learner may need autonomy and independence, learner collaboration may be the best technique to learn for some learners, other learners may learn best by being creative, others may learn best by acting and doing things independently, and some learners may learn best by joining groups. Therefore, teaching styles must be compatible with learning style to achieve desirable results.

Teaching to succeed in an online learning environment calls for the instructor to know his or her own personal teaching and learning style, and understand all the teaching styles there is in order to adapt the best teaching style that is suitable for a diverse learning community. It also entails having knowledge about the learning style of every learner and knowing all the learning styles there is to create a learning environment that is conducive for achieving desirable learning outcomes with the highest level of instructor-learner satisfaction. In addition, conducting a personal teaching and learning inventory and incorporating a learning style inventory for learners in the course objectives to gather baseline information on the learning style of the learning community, and using constructive feedback from learners is the most effective approach to succeed in the online environment as an instructor and a learner.