With the advancement of technology where social media networks have been racing to the top agenda, online learning community had emerged as part of the efforts to improve professionalism and knowledge creation. Thus, it is important to provide good facilitation and motivation to support the learning process.
Online Facilitation
An online environment has many characteristics that make it different from a face-to-face workshop, course, seminar, or other situation where adults learn together in a group. One defining characteristic is that communication is generally asynchronous (Tinker and Haavind, 1997). In a face-to-face situation, when
someone makes a contribution to a discussion, a response usually follows, either immediately afterward or after a short interval. By contrast, when someone posts a message online, there is likely to be a lag before responses are forthcoming. Because people log on when it is convenient for them (one of the attractions of online learning), it might take anywhere from a few seconds to several days to receive a reply. The message below, for example, acknowledges the problem of “wait time”:
Hello Sandra. I’m sorry it took me so long to notice that you had
responded to the first message I posed. I have been teaching a
high-enrollment grad class. . . . so I have not logged in as much
as I did in “my week” on duty.
A cluster of features stem from another defining characteristic of the online environment: the written word is the medium through which people communicate. All knowledge, questions, concerns, reflections, and suggestions are conveyed through written messages. This “write-only” and “read-only” attribute has the potential to create barriers to communication and understanding. Since people tend to be more facile and comfortable when they are speaking than when they are writing, they might be reluctant to post messages, especially when they are expected to say something “intelligent” in an online learning situation. They might be afraid to leave a “paper trail” of their thinking, fearing that their written words will return to haunt them later. Furthermore, writing that reflects careful reasoning or thinking takes time; not everyone has the necessary time. Finally, participants in online meetings have no extra-lingual clues to key into in order to understand others. In the online environment, unlike a face-to-face setting, a person cannot rely on facial expressions, body language, chuckling, frowning, smiling, behavior, and/or actions to understand someone else. Moreover, participants cannot even develop first impressions of people based on their appearance.
Taking part in a face-to-face learning experience–for example, a course, workshop, or seminar–is a common experience. But participating in an online environment is a new experience for many people. Participants, as well as facilitators, have few models to rely on for how they are to think, collaborate, share, and build knowledge in an online environment that depends on writing. We know what constitutes successful teaching in a face-to-face setting, but the criteria by which to judge successful online facilitation are still emerging. The growing literature in this field, however, does shed some light on what online facilitators are supposed to do.
Taking part in a face-to-face learning experience–for example, a course, workshop, or seminar–is a common experience. But participating in an online environment is a new experience for many people. Participants, as well as facilitators, have few models to rely on for how they are to think, collaborate, share, and build knowledge in an online environment that depends on writing. We know what constitutes successful teaching in a face-to-face setting, but the criteria by which to judge successful online facilitation are still emerging. The growing literature in this field, however, does shed some light on what online facilitators are supposed to do.
The literature on online learning and facilitation has begun to specify what online facilitators need to do to be successful (Berge, 1996; Harasim, Hiltz, Teles, and Turoff, 1996; Tinker and Haavind, 1997; Spitzer, Wedding, and DiMauro, 1996; Hiltz, 1995; Davie, 1997; Riel, 1997; and Kimball, 1995). An analysis of these articles reveals that the facilitator’s roles and responsibilities fall within the following categories:
- orienting participants and guiding them to post and read messages, as well as to locate, review, and download relevant messages, materials, and resources
- making sure that participants understand the expectations and norms for respectful interaction, as well as knowing how to follow directions for carrying out the associated tasks and activities (both online and offline)
- creating a strong, interactive learning environment by encouraging participants to provide information and resources, discuss issues, and collaborate with each other to generate solutions to problems
- using a variety of strategies to help participants expand their knowledge based on their particular situations, needs, interests, and abilities, such as:
- asking people to elaborate upon, justify, or support ideas, especially if there are conflicting views or multiple perspectives
- infusing content information to nourish the conversation
- pointing out ways in which one person’s comment links to or builds upon another’s; encouraging the connection of ideas, thus moving the communication from individual ideas to a group understanding
- encouraging participants to reflect on what they have learned and what impact this information has on their beliefs and behavior
- guiding participants, as relevant, to critique the online learning experience from a personal and professional perspective
Motivation & Support
The principles of motivating and supporting learners who are working in an online environment are really no different from those that apply in the classroom.
One important issue is to know when to be directive. While online learning is associated with flexibility and self-direction, there are also times when you need to be very assertive and take the initiative:
'We've realised that when you teach online, you still need to do what you do in class: push, direct, encourage, inspire. Next time, we won't be waiting for students to phone us, we'll be calling them directly to check on progress. And we won't be waiting for them to find their own learning partners-we'll assign them to groups at the outset.'
It is also important to be involved. In the classroom, if the teacher drifts off and conveys 'lack of interest', students will be quick to pick that up. Teaching online is no different. Clearly, in terms of motivation and support, it is better to take the initiative and let students know you're interested and ready to help, rather than sitting back and waiting for students to chase you:
'Right through the module, we attempted to keep in touch with the students. For example, we sent out emails asking them how they were going. We got quite a few emails back, and were able to help them with a number of issues.'“To be motivated means to be moved to do something.” (Ryan & Deci, 2000a, p. 55) Motivation involves goals that provide the impetus for purposeful action with an intended direction. Inherent in this definition is the notion that motivation is a process rather than an end result. As such, it must be inferred from actions such as choice of tasks, persistence, effort and achievement, or from what individuals say about themselves (Schunk, Pintrich, &
Meece, 2008). Understanding the complexity of motivation is important because it has practical implications for online instructors and instructional designers as well as learners. For example, motivation to learn has been shown to play an important role in determining whether learners persist in a course of study, the level of engagement, the quality of work produced, and the level of achievement (Schunk, et al., 2008).
Contemporary views of motivation emphasise the situated, interactive relationship between the learner and the learning environment (Turner & Patrick, 2008). Just as motivation is a key factor in learning and achievement in face-to-face educational settings (Brophy, 2010), so it is in online learning environments (Bekele, 2010). Despite this, existing research in online contexts are limited both in number and scope, as others have noted
(Artino, 2008; Yukselturk & Bulut, 2007).
One theory used to investigate learner motivation in online environments is intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. “Intrinsic motivation is defined as the doing of an activity for its inherent satisfactions rather than for some separable consequence” (Ryan & Deci, 2000). Intrinsic motivation often results from the challenge, interest or fun an individual derives from an activity. In contrast, “extrinsic motivation is a construct that pertains whenever an activity is done in order to attain some separable outcome” (Ryan & Deci, 2000). Extrinsic motivation is associated with a source outside the activity itself, such as undertaking a course of study to improve future career prospects. Research suggests that individuals who are intrinsically motivated are more likely to undertake challenging activities; be actively engaged and enjoy learning; adopt a deep approach to learning; and exhibit enhanced performance, persistence, and creativity (Brophy, 2010; Ryan & Deci, 2000b).
One of the model which can be used for online motivation and support is:
No comments:
Post a Comment