Contemporary Online Facilitation: Snapshots of Practice in Online Postgraduate Programs

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Contemporary Online FacilitationSnapshots of
Practice in Online Postgraduate Programs

• 1 Which hat do I wear today? Refocusing the
  roles and responsibilities of online teachers on
  learner support
• 2 Wrestling with words Affecting enabled
  communication
• 3 Look, no hands developing the confidence,
  ability and use of facilitation techniques by
  novice online educators
• Benjamin Kehrwald, Kaye Cleary and Karen Ritchie

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Presentation Overview

• Background on Contemporary Online Learning
• Learner Support as a Basis for Teaching Practice
• Experiences of Novice Online Teachers

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Architecture of an OL System
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Characteristics of an OL System

• 1. Connectivity
• Technological Connection
• Technological Infrastructure- Learning Management
  System, Media choices, CMC tools
• Social Connection
• Social infrastructure-Roles, Rules, Processes,
  Presence

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Characteristics of an OL System

• 2. Pedagogy
• Constructive
• Active, Social
• focus on interaction/ transaction
• Emphasis on learner activity, learning process
• Approaches include
• Situated learning
• Community models
• Cognitive apprenticeship

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Characteristics of an OL System

• 3. Learning
• Context dependent
• Goal-directed
• Occurs when learners engage in authentic activity
• Community Models provide ideal contexts for this
  type of learning activity- e.g. Community of
  Inquiry (Garrison, Anderson and Archer)

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Community of Inquiry
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Creating Community

• Infrastructure
• Commonality
• Situatedness
• Interdependence

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Informing Practice
2nd Wave
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Informing Teaching Practice

• Key Issues
• Flexibility vs. Structure
• Learner Centeredness
• Situativity
• Managing Technology
• Mediated Interaction
• Learner Support

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Teaching Roles
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Learner Support

• Learner support all activities which enable
  learning
• Underpinned by the principle of meeting
  learners needs
• (i.e. academic needs, organizational
  administrative needs, affective needs and
  technical needs)

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Learner Support in Online Learning

• Learner Support is a form of delivery
• Dynamic and emergent
• Anticipates learner needs
• (Design and Structure)
• Meets them as they arise
• (Response- the functional essence of learner
  support)

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Learner Support and Online Teaching

• Focusing on meeting learner needs provides a
  basis for practical decisions.
• Like all practice, this is
• Context dependent
• Responsive and emergent

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Examples of Supportive Practice

• Supportive Structure
• Clear process
• Establish expectation
• Provide exemplars
• Roles
• Rules

• Responsive Support
• Identifying problems/ Diagnosis
• Response
• Identity
• Interaction
• Time
• Learner centred approach

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Support for 2nd Wave E-Tutors

• Learner support all activities which enable
  learning
• Contextualized by Institutional rules, roles
  and processes
• Personal high level pedagogy and pedagogical
  strategies
• (see Steeples Jones model)
• Recognises
• Relative isolation of e-tutors, removed from
  richness of discipline base

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Informing Practice
2nd Wave
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Teaching Roles
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A Mis-Match of Interests
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Supporting 2nd Wave E-Tutors
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References

• Garrison, D. R., Anderson, T., Archer, W.
  (2000). Critical inquiry in a text-based
  environment computer conferencing in higher
  education. The Internet and Higher Education,
  2(2), 87-105.
• Hung, D. W. L., Chen, D.-T. (2001). Situated
  cognition, Vygotskian thought and learning from
  the communities of practice perspective
  Implications for the design of web-based
  e-learning. Education Media International,
  38(1).
• Steeples, C., Jones, C., Goodyear, P. (2002).
  Beyond e-learning A future for networked
  learning. In C. Steeples C. Jones (Eds.),
  Networked Learning Perspectives and Issues (pp.
  323-342). London Springer.

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Contact

• Ben Kehrwald kehrwalb_at_usq.edu.au
• Kaye Cleary clearyk_at_usq.edu.au
• Faculty of Education
• The University of Southern Queensland
• Toowoomba, Queensland 4350
• AUSTRALIA