Teaching in an Online Learning Context, by Terry Anderson focuses on the role of the teacher in an online learning setting. The article talks about how learning in an online environment is similar to formal education whereas the “learners’ needs are assessed, content is negotiated or prescribed, learning activities are orchestrated, and learning is assessed”. Online learning is however a unique teaching and learning environment. The article then shows the conceptual online learning model that was developed by Garrison, Anderson, and Archer. This model is called the “community of inquiry” model. Within this model it suggests that learning results that are deep and meaningful happen when the levels of the three component “presences” are sufficient. These three levels include cognitive presence, social presence and teaching presence. The three of these presences are defined but the most critical is teaching presence.
The teaching presence has three critical roles that are performed by the teacher. The first is designing and organizing the online learning context which explains that online learning “creates an opportunity for flexibility and revision of content” in which was “not provided by older forms of mediated teaching and learning”. The second component, facilitating discourse, talks about the term discourse instead of discussion. Facilitating discourse is related to “the process or power of reasoning” instead of the social meaning of conversation. Discourse is important as it is critical in the intellectual growth. Assessment frameworks are then discussed. One assessment included in the article is the commonly used assessment of requiring students to post comments to other students. The third component of teaching presence is subject-matter expertise, which discusses how “the teaching role goes beyond moderating the learning experiences when the teacher adds subject-matter expertise through a variety of forms of direct instruction”. The teacher online needs to make sure the students are aware of the intellectual climate. This is done by making sure to set and communicate qualities of scholar because content information is not always directed by the teacher in which students’ learning needs to be customized to the individual needs.
My graduate degree has been all online. I have
enjoyed this because I can complete the work at my own pace and place.
Some of my classes have been where the module is posted on a certain day and is
due a week later. Other classes I have taken have had those modules but
in addition we were to meet in a collaborate setting online at the same
time. My reflection to the article is that I found it to be somewhat
valuable to read. It showed the basic parts of teaching presence in means
to an online learning environment along with the cognitive and social presence
as well. In the article, one of the assessments that is commonly used in formal
education online that I stated above is requiring students to comment on
posts. Thinking about all of my classes I have taken online have always
had us comment on at least 2 other peers’ posts. This allows for students
to collaborate and discuss the topics together as if you were in a face-to-face
class. By taking all of my courses online and from this article, I can
see what goes into the setup of our Blackboard courses based on the Community
of Inquiry model.
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