The Role of the
Instructors in VLEs
Its Biggest
Challenges
When reflecting on the
biggest challenges of a F2F teacher transitioning to an online environment,
several issues people my mind trying to make room to be considered and
explained. Many of these ideas focus on the issue of getting out of one’s comfort F2F teaching zone, which is an encouraging step in an
instructor’s professional life and development, and a worthwhile one –by the
way. To be able to smoothly transitione from F2F to online teaching, three
essential issues need to be taken care of: course readiness, LMS (platform)
understanding, and instructor’s role.
When it comes to course readiness, an online course differs from one that
is taught F2F. To begin with, the course instructor needs to carefully redesign
its content, objectives, and delivery to suit a VLE. For instance, the course
material needs to be ready from “day 1” on, so students can explore it as a way
to familiarize themselves with the course platform or LMS. But as material
needs to be ready from the very beginning, the design of assessment tools is
essential as well. The way students are graded or assessed in F2F environments
cannot not coincide 100% with an online course evaluation. For instance,
rubrics for online projects need to be also ready before the course actually
gets ready for kick-off. In conclusion, all these ingredients guarantee the
achievement of the course learning objectives by one’s pupils.
To ensure the achievement of
course objectives, the instructor also needs to understand the use and scope of the course LMS or learning
platform. Depending on what kind of LMS is being provided by the
institution one works for, it is imperative that the teacher knows the nuts and volts of its use.
Understanding how this learning platform works can give the instructor ways of
solving technical problems s/he can face as well as his/her students. A set of
tutorials or manuals have to be ready to ensure one can provide the right and
timely assistance to pupils or colleagues in need. And in case the platform
crashes down (for whatever reason), having a Plan B is a must. Plan B can
simply be the allocation of course content and information (videos, vodcasts,
podcasts, audio files, docx, PPTs, pdfs, prezis, and the like) in alternative
web services to be retrieved when needed by either instructors or learners. To
sum up, because technology can fail, preventing the worse that could actually
happen can help the teacher and student to complete their educational tasks.
Comprehending that
technology is an issue to always consider, understanding the instructor’s role in VLEs is way too crucial,
too. Because the planning of the course is something that has been done beforehand,
the teacher becomes the facilitator for student learning. The usual role
teachers impersonate in F2F instruction -the one of the tester or evaluator- is
no longer the one that has to be embodied. As facilitators one turns into the
timely feedback provider who can trigger even better results in one’s pupils
than the ones students previously thought of before. But this triggering of
great learning-outcomes accomplishment is also characterized by the instructor’s
availability for his/her learners. To conclude, to comprehend one’s role in
online teaching means that one becomes the student learning supporter, the one
who can provide timely feedback when needed to ensure learning.
There are indeed other
challenges one has to face as an online instructor, which were not listed here.
However, understanding that challenges do exist can help online instructors-to-be
to mitigate any “frustration and dismay” before they actually take place. Understanding that technology does fail at
times and that instructors need to be prepared to provide assistance can also
guarantee that teachers can find a practical way out to continue with the
course chronogram and deadlines.
E To fully develop and
comprehend this teaching issue, it’s advisable to research and expand these
areas:
1
|
Getting
ready to teach in online classrooms
|
2
|
The
importance of course readiness in VLEs
|
3
|
Scope
and uses of learning platforms
|
4
|
Transitioning
from F2F teaching to VLEs
|
5
|
Student
assessment in VLEs
|
Professor
Jonathan Acuña-Solano
ELT
Instructor, Course Designer & Teacher Trainer based in Costa Rica
Freelance ELT Consultant four OUP in
Central America
For
further comments or suggestions, reach me at:
@jonacuso – Twitter
Other
blogs and sites I often write for my students at the university are:
To
get a copy of this article, download it from here.
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