Refocusing Instructor Presence

Happy New Year! I do wish the best to everyone as we enter a new calendar year. As we finalize our course [re]design, I would like to share a recent (July 2020) article entitled, "Online University Teaching During and After the Covid-19 Crisis: Refocusing Teacher Presence and Learning Activity" by Rapanta, Botturi, Goodyear, Guardia and Koole. In this article, the authors ask experienced instructors the following five questions about teaching online:

1. In what aspects do you think online learning design and delivery is different than face-to-face teaching and learning?

2. What do you think makes online teaching and learning successful?

3. What would you say to non-expert colleagues who follow a materials-based approach to online teaching, e.g. sharing materials with students or asking them to produce materials?

4. What would you say to colleagues who follow a tools-based approach to online teaching, i.e. the idea that tools such as videoconferencing or text-based discussion boards are the key features of online learning?

5. What are some effective ways of monitoring students’ engagement and learning during online courses? How can they inform assessment?

I encourage you to select one or more of these that resonate with your current teaching philosophy and review to identify possible enhancements that you might consider for your pedagogical updates. Highlights of their responses that might be of interest include:

• For item #2, one experienced instructor indicated that they believe (1) effective planning, (2) learner preparation, and (3) enhanced interaction will make online learning successful;

• For item #5, one response suggested collecting continuous assessment throughout the learning process can be accomplished through student evidence (artifacts, explanations of experiences, reflections, challenges and achievements), measured using competence performance criteria (ePortfolios)."

A tangent to this research was supported by an article this week in the Inside Higher Ed entitled, "What 2020 Taught Us" by Mintz (2021) shares 20 things that they learned, some of which include:

• Help every student develop a sense of belonging;

• Recognize that poor academic performance is not the primary reason students fail to persist;

• Make sure faculty are familiar with key insights from the science of learning (basic understanding of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation, attention and focus, short- and long-term memory, and cognitive load; scaffolding instruction, metacognition, teaching students how to monitor and self-assess);

• Familiarize faculty with the principles of backward design;

• Encourage faculty to integrate active learning into their classes (Inquiry, problem-solving, role playing, debate, simulations, and analysis of case studies); and

• Promote universal design principles and frequent formative assessments as ways to enhance student learning.

Rapanta, C., Botturi, L., Goodyear, P. et al. (2020). Online University Teaching During and After the Covid-19 Crisis: Refocusing Teacher Presence and Learning Activity. Postdigit Sci Educ 2, 923–945.