Dealing with Online Teaching Scenarios

What would you do Under the Following Circumstances?

Dealing with Online Teaching Scenarios

Scenario 1: Group Work

A student in your online class has reported about the lack of commitment of their peers to the project they have to develop jointly as part of the course work and assessment. He has told you that he has done much of the work himself and his peers have not shared their part of the assignment with him. Additionally, one of the team members has been rude to him and has started to direct the others by giving them “orders” on what to do. Although the deadline for the project is one week away, he feels he will get a bad grade due to the attitude of his group members.

Strategies to cope with “group work” trouble:

To work out this problem with one’s students, the following two strategies –separately or combined- can be used to settle disputes for the sake of good of team and class members and the sake of the achievement of a community of learning’s ultimate goal: achievement of learning goals.

A	Setting of expectations	·        To avoid this kind of complication, it is necessary that instructors set the course expectations from day one. The expectation must range from participation to netiquette, and all the way to group work. Clear expectations prepare the room with a good mechanism to deal with students’ problems.
B	Peer reviews	·        Secondly, if part of the course expectations include peer reviews, and students know that via this tool they will also be graded by their partners, this might have some sort of deterrent effect on those individuals who are hard to deal with. If a clear and unambiguous rubric is provided to them by the learning platform, they can refrain certain conducts inappropriate and unacceptable in education.
C	Direct intervention	·        If the setting of expectation and peer reviews do not work out problems, the instructor should intervene and set the dispute. Understanding that no one has the monopoly of truth and that each case has two or more sides [points of view], he teacher has to be as impartial as possible to provide a suitable resolution to any problem in group work.

Scenario 2: Lack of Participation

You have posted a question on the class forum. After some time you come into the forum and realize that only three out of your 25 students have fully contributed proactively to the discussion by providing good insights and responding to peers. You start wondering what went wrong and what can be done to counterattack this student behavior.

Strategies to cope with “lack of participation” trouble:

Lack of participation is another issue that we have to deal with as online or blended learning instructors. If such a problem begins to permeate students participation, it is wise to keep in mind the following tips or strategies to anticipate and cope with this problem.

A	Expectations of Participation	·         To prevent participation problems or misunderstandings, from the beginning of the course students have to been certain of what is expected from them in terms of his/her participative role in the class discussions. Being this part of the course goals and student roles, teachers can send students friendly reminders reminding them of what it is expected from them and their peers.
B	Modeling forum participation for students	·        Secondly, it is always a good idea to model student participation in a forum to also prevent misunderstanding and lack of commitment on the students’ part. Participation is a key element in online learning; therefore, it is essential that all students have a minimum of participation but with some minimum quality as well.
C	Learning from one another	·        The creation of a learning community from the course kick-off is transcendental to really make course participation productive. It is important to have students comprehend why the exchange of ideas is key in learning. My perspective can be tremendously enhanced with my peers’ points of view and ways of reasoning.

Scenario 3: Misunderstanding

Your university has asked you to teach an online course that is ready to be launched. Your task is to “facilitate” the course and grade “paper.” Under these circumstances and understanding that you don’t have to design course content, you accept. Around week five you realize that students are not fully completing their tasks, and you are unsure of how to proceed since you are not thee course designer. You just want students to learn and please both your pupils in their learning and the university in its course delivery.

Strategies to cope with “misunderstanding” trouble:

Misunderstanding is indeed another kind of problem online instructor have to keen in analyzing correctly. A precipitate conclusion can cause more problems than solutions. Bear in mind that there are always ways to cope with students’ issues in such a way that we can provide timely corrective feedback or negotiations to always find the right solution.

A	Friendly reminders	·        One way to deal with misunderstandings is to send your students friendly reminders to make students aware of deadlines and things they have to accomplish and to have finished. Learners might misinterpret the course directions and avoid doing what they think they shouldn’t.
B	Empower students	·        Secondly, if students do not largely related to the task, either because they do not have the experience or knowledge, they can end up neglecting part of their assignments. The instructor has to try to empower students by having them –if allowed by college authorities- to choose additional content that can be much more related to their lives and future working scenarios. Tasks can be more beneficial for students and for the instructor as well.
C	Talk to faculty authorities	·        One of the inconveniences related to teaching a course that has been designed by someone else is up to what extend can I make minor changes to the course content. It is necessary to have direct communication with the course designer or with the faculty authority responsible for it. In this way, providing some feedback on what you detect can be useful for changes in the course format. Besides, they can provide you on possible palliative changes to work out misunderstanding problems on both ends of the course: the designers and the students.

 E To fully develop and comprehend this teaching issue, it’s advisable to research and expand these areas:

1	Dealing with conflicts in online learning
2	Communities of learning
3	How to motivate students in online courses
4	How to empower learners in online learning
5	Grouping strategies in VLEs

Professor Jonathan Acuña-Solano

ELT Instructor & Trainer based in Costa Rica

NCTE-Costa Rica Affiliate

Resource Teacher at CCCN

Senior ELT Professor at Universidad Latina

Freelance ELT Consultant four OUP in Central America

For further comments or suggestions, reach me at:

@jonacuso – Twitter

jonacuso@gmail.com – Gmail

Other blogs and sites I often write for my students at the university are:

1. Pronunciation 1	2. Readding Skills 1
3. Pronunciation 2	4. Computering Applications in Education

 

Get new ELT material and ideas by visiting my curated topics on http://paper.li/ and http://scoop.it/

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