In this series, Nicky Hockly explains aspects of technology which some people may be embarrassed to confess that they don’t really understand. In this article, she explores teaching online.
1. Is teaching online and teaching f2f (face-to-face) so different?
Let’s first define our terms. By online teaching, I’m talking about teacher-led online work with students. I’m not talking about setting students self-study ‘drag and drop’ grammar exercises to do on the computer at home. So if we are clear that teaching online includes having direct personal contact with the students, with the students using the online medium to communicate and interact with each other and the language, there are, indeed, many similarities between face-to-face and online teaching, at least in terms of underlying pedagogical principles. But there are, of course, some major differences. There are a number of key skills that teachers can develop to become effective online ‘emoderators’ (a term often used in the literature, meaning online teachers).
2. What makes for effective online teaching, then?
Good online teaching will put plenty of emphasis on interaction and communication, but this communication is mediated by a computer. If the students are studying 100 percent online, and the group never meet f2f, it is especially important to allow plenty of time for socialising activities, not just at the beginning of a course, but throughout on a regular basis. These activities enable the group to get to know each other and to ‘gel’, which will in turn foster a sense of responsibility towards each other and help ensure that online pair- and groupwork function well. It is also important to build in direct channels of online communication between individual students and the teacher, and to monitor motivation and participation constantly. A private online journal, only accessible to the individual student and teacher, for example, is one way to provide such a channel. Another key online teaching skill is creating a sense of your own presence on your course. You need to make clear to the students that you are reading and responding to their work by providing timely, relevant and individualised responses. You’ll find a list of ten key online tutor skills at http://bit.ly/5aZi8J.
3. What else does online teaching involve?
So far, we’ve talked mainly about the liveware, or human element (also sometimes unfortunately referred to as the ‘wetware’!). Of course, to teach online you also need to use hardware: a computer, microphone or headset, webcam, internet connection, and even perhaps a digital camera. And you will need software: computer programs and tools with which to deliver your course content and foster communication. These include VLEs (Virtual Learning Environments), such as Moodle – see ETp Issue 65), social networking sites (see ETp Issue 61), wikis and even online discussions lists.
4. My school wants 50 percent of a class online. Where do I start
This so-called ‘blended’ option (offering part of a course f2f, and part online) is becoming increasingly common. The problem is that teachers are very rarely offered guidance on how to do it effectively, even if they are offered technical advice on how to use something like a VLE. The trick is how to make the online part of your course work well! Here are a few basic steps to get you started:
- Look at your course syllabus, and decide which parts could be offered online and which would be better dealt with f2f. It is usually much easier to deal with reading and writing work online, and to keep speaking for the f2f classroom, for example. However, the online part of the course still needs to involve communication and interaction between the students. Designing engaging online pair- and groupwork tasks is a key skill here.
- Decide what tool you are going to use to deliver the online part. A VLE? A wiki? Ensure that you are familiar with how your chosen tool works, and that you are able to add a range of multi-media materials (audio, video, images) to it.
- Integrate a range of Web 2.0 tools into tasks for the online part of your course. For writing practice, how about getting the students to create blog entries on a class-related topic and then to comment on each other’s blogs? For reading practice, they could follow a news story online for a week, and then report back in a podcast on how it developed. For language practice, why not get them to develop online quizzes for each other? There are many ways you can create imaginative and engaging online language tasks that require interaction. A list of my 12 favourite online teaching activities is at www.emoderationskills.com and http://sixthings.net.
5. Any other tips for teaching online?
One of the greatest learning experiences I’ve ever had was taking an online course as a student myself. It provided an immense amount of insight into the experience of learning. I became very aware of how important ongoing praise, support and timely feedback are. If you take a good online course, you will also be exposed to best practice in online learning and teaching, and should see examples of effective online task design as well. It could be a teacher training course, or one on a topic such as photography or cooking. Good luck!
Nicky Hockly has been involved in EFL teaching and teacher training since 1987. She is Director of Pedagogy of The Consultants-E, an online training and development consultancy. She is co-author of Learning English as a Foreign Language for Dummies (John Wiley & Sons) and Teaching Online (Delta Publishing). She maintains a blog at www.emoderationskills.com.
This article first appeared in English Teaching professional, Issue 71, November 2010
