♫ What's your problem
♫ What's your problem
♫ I don't get what your problem is
- Hi, my name is Kaylynn. - And I'm Adam.
- Welcome to What's Your Problem?, where we discuss
current issues in distance learning and education.
We're switching things up a bit this episode,
and here's Jason to tell us more.
- What's Your Problem was actually originally envisioned
as a sort-of MythBusters ripoff, where we would review
a myth about distance learning and then bust it.
This idea kinda took a back seat as the show evolved,
but for this episode we decided to embrace our original
vision and lean way into it for our first thematic episode.
For this episode, we won't be providing three solutions
to a common problem, but instead we'll explore a few
of the myths circling around distance learning modalities,
and then attempt to bust them.
For this episode we're truth seekers, not unlike
the incomparable Christopher Reeve who, as Superman,
thwarted myth in his tireless pursuit for truth,
justice, and the American way.
Lastly, I should mention the things you're about to see
should be attempted at home, or anywhere else
that you teach your online classes.
So let's go to the lab.
- Okay Jason, so the first myth that we're gonna talk about
today is that the idea that faculty teaching distance
learning courses have to spend more time dealing
with technology issues than they do with teaching.
And according to an article called the Online Learning:
Myths, Reality, and Promise that was done as part
of a study recently, this was one of the original myths
of distance learning education but it's still
one of the most prominent fears of people today.
So there are technical issues, right, but those issues
also provide a lot of opportunities for engagement,
collaboration, access, opportunities
that we wouldn't have otherwise had.
So we're gonna do a little experiment here
to demonstrate why this myth is false.
Right, so let's pretend on our dry erase board here,
your priority number one is teaching, right,
so we'll draw a little T here in the center.
That's what we want to focus on.
But when you start teaching, especially an online class,
you have all these other issues crop up, like the LMS.
You have email, you have passwords,
you have publisher resources, you have videos,
you have emails with students, you have all these
other things, technical issues, that can distract you.
But, Jason, if you stare right at the center there,
at your objective, you're focusing on teaching.
- I see it. - Watch what happens
to the circles around the outside.
- They're moving. - And you can try this
again at home.
You'll notice the other marks seem to disappear.
This is a phenomenon known as the Troxler Effect.
When we focus on a single point,
peripheral objects begin to fade away.
They don't disappear, just like you'll never really stop
technical issues from happening in your class,
but if you rely on your support resources,
like Blackboard support, built-in tutorials,
and help resources, and focus on the teaching,
those technology issues will slowly fade away,
only popping up to cause minor distractions
every now and again.
So the Troxler Effect demonstrates something very similar
to what we deal with in online courses.
We're never gonna get rid of those peripheral issues, right?
So as long as we stay focused on our main goal,
which is teaching, all of the other issues in our peripheral
will fade into the background.
- Yeah.
- Our second myth today is that students can't be
as successful online as they are face-to-face.
Many studies over the years have failed to support
the negative perspective that a lot of faculty have
toward online education.
Numerous recent studies which explored effectiveness,
retention, and achievement in both online and face-to-face
modalities all concluded that virtual instruction
can be as good or better than on-campus teaching.
So there are three things we need
to make a successful course.
One is an effective instructor, another is active
presentation of content, and the third is engaged students.
So we have two pans here.
The rectangle one represents face-to-face
and the circle one represents online.
Now they're the same course,
it's just how they're presented is different.
The milk is the course,
which is the foundation of content
whether the course is online or on campus.
The foundation can be flexible
depending on which modality is being taught.
The color is the students.
All students are usually present in both modalities
at the same rate at the beginning of the course.
The soap is the instructor,
course content, and tools utilized.
These have the ability to mix well with students
and create a community of collaboration and interest.
See how the same interactions occur
when using the same soap online and face-to-face?
And how different interactions occur when I change the soap?
Basically you need three things
for an online course to be successful.
An instructor presence, active presentation of content,
and engaged students.
If any of those three items are missing,
the course is not going to be well-received
from either the teaching or learning end.
However, if all those things are present,
the active presentation of content,
the instructor with social presence,
and the engaged student, all the items will blend well
with each other for a successful course.
- So in order for students to be successful,
all three items need to be present
whether the course is online or face-to-face.
- Okay, so our third myth is that online courses
are less collaborative.
This is a pretty prevalent myth in online education.
A lot of faculty and students think that
if you're not in physical proximity to one another
that you really can't get that sort of personal interaction
that you want, and you need, actually, out of a class.
And to an extent that's true, because a course by itself
can't really be collaborative.
A course is just like this bottle here where we have
some oil and some water, they're both in there,
but they're not really doing anything.
That's just like our course content, right?
We have videos, we have articles, we have the textbook,
we have some assignments, but they're just things.
They just sit there, they're static.
And so we think sometimes that when we add students
to the classroom, right, that maybe that
will make things work, but as you can see,
even adding students to the mix here
doesn't really make any of the course content do anything.
In fact, a lot of the students sadly
just kind of sink to the bottom there.
So if we really want these things to start working together
what we need is you, the faculty member.
Because by adding some
timely weekly announcements,
maybe a little bit of encouraging feedback, maybe an email
to students who are falling behind, or some thoughtful
feedback on an assignment, or any of those
little interactions that you can do even electronically,
you'll start to see that those little things
start to make all these pieces interact together.
You'll see that they start to bubble around and bump into
each other and actually create something pretty cool.
You'll also notice that once you do just a few
of those things it's going on its own now, right?
It's keeping itself going.
And so if you ever do happen to notice
that it starts to die down a little bit,
a couple other timely pieces of feedback or interactions
with students and the whole thing kicks up again.
So as you can see, any course,
whether it's face-to-face or online,
isn't engaging or interactive on its own,
it's really just a collection of resources.
What it takes to make a course interactive and engaging
for students is an engaged instructor.
- So as a quick recap, we busted the myth that faculty
work harder than students in online classes.
Actually the focus remains the same between modalities.
Focus on the teaching and the peripheral
technical distractions associated with online teaching
actually don't factor in much.
We busted the myth that students are less successful online.
It turns out, as long as there is an effective instructor,
active presentation of content, and engaged students,
a course can be successful regardless of how it's offered.
Lastly, we busted the myth
that online courses are less collaborative.
With the right mix of instructor interaction
and encouragement, the collaborative nature
of an online course can thrive.
- What's Your Problem? wants to hear from you.
If you have an idea you'd like us to discuss
in a future episode, or if you just want to drop us a line,
send us an email or follow us on Twitter.
- Thanks for watching, see you next time.
♫ What's your problem
♫ What's your problem
♫ I don't get what your problem is
- [Announcer] Welcome to Schoolcraft.
Welcome to college.
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