Quiz4Chapter6WhatMakesAGoodDistanceTeacher.

To teach distance learning the first consideration has to be the understanding that times have changed
and that educational delivery has moved from being all about the instructor and now it is all about the
learner. The textbook (Simonson, Smaldino, Zvacek, 2015) Teaching and Learning at a Distance states
that more and more educators are developing their own versions of distance instruction to meet the
learners’ needs.

There is an infinite number of considerations, but as far as people (bodies), we have to categorize them
between learners, faculty, and administration (Kidney, Cummings, & Boehm, 2007). Learners are at the
top of the food chain and need easy of user friendliness, intuitiveness, and accuracy. Faculty need
standards alignment, course management system that fits, and the ability to quickly prepare and update
in any medium. Finally, the administration needs to evidence rigor, recruit to increase enrollment, and
guarantee the integrity of the institution. Quality design motivates, engages, and enhances quality
teaching which parallels the needs of the learner.

Education pioneer John Dewey advocated for constructivism in the child’s learning process (Conrad &
Donaldson, 2012) and supported student collaboration as a way of defining the learning situation.
Knowles, Holton, and Swanson (2011) expanded on constructivism for the adult learner because many
expectations, concern, or experiences shift, or even disappear, simply because of age.

The learner is the first in focus and a successful online environment moves away from the teacher to the
student as the key to the learning process. For instance, a student-centered instructional practice would
have several shifts in emphasis from passive to active learning, from taking attendance to logging in,
from competing to collaborating, but at the top of the food chain is the reorientation of eliminating the
“talking head” and the shift to “coaching” (Oblinger, 1999). Watch real life basketball coaches of
yesteryear and watch those same ones today and you will grasp that meaning.

Students have deeper learning with someone who treats them with respect (Herring & Smaldino, 2001),
or from their peers than listening to a lecture. There is an old form of punishment call “lecturing”. So
Students mus undersnd their role in the progress of learning experiences (Luppicini, 2007), which means
they have to become active and not passive, and the learning community must include everyone from
the instructor to all of the students (Palloff & Pratt, 2007).

When you start the class, and you need to somehow break the ice (Conrad & Donaldson, 2012; Herring
& Smaldino, 2001), there are many age appropriate ideas out on the internet to get started with. One
good suggestion is doing a flipgrid on introducing the student and mention either goals or objectives.
The icebreakers role is to help build a sense of trust and comfort.

Another one of the decision the instructor must make is how much distributed learning or blended
learning is going to be involved with the distance learning. The amount of synchronous or asynchronous
communication, the distribution of resources, and the expanded evolution of technological mediums all
play in an role in shifting to fully online formats(Saltzberg & Polyson, 1995).

The aspect of instruction centers around how the content is organized and sequenced with orientation
to standards (Dabbagh & Bannan-Ritland, 2005) and instructors need to determine their own comfort
level with various strategies. Instructors must provide students a clear view in the syllabi about class
schedule, activity groups, interaction expectations, and assignments.
Good instructional practice principles (Sorensen & Baylen, 2004) providing a guideline for student
involvement and quality learning is: communication with students; collaboration among students; active
learning experiences; prompt feedback; high expectations; and respecting diversity. If designed,
organized, and implemented correctly, students can quickly and easily become involved in learning
rather than trying to puzzle through how to course is delivered (Herring & Smaldino, 2001).

The organization of instruction is certainly important to grasping a beginning, middle and end. Should
the instructor open with an activity of student-student collaboration, or grab their attention with
shocking humor. The instructor should fit in the learning objective and then close each module or topic
with a summary or reflection for the students.

Students are more comfortable with distance learning when instructors adhere to pre-determined
course schedules and try to keep any changes or modifications to an absolute minimum (Macfarlane &
Smaldino, 1997). They need to know expectations of posts and when assignments are due. Instructors
must allow time for students to practice their experiences with technology, get familiar with the
dashboard, and verify the completion of their first task. A good instructor can use that icebreaker
method as previously mentioned, maybe a quick super easy quiz, or a scavenger hunt for locations.

In distance learning, active learning can be small group discussions, hands-on experiences with provided
materials, presentations, case analysis studies, structured debates, or virtual field trips all engage
learners (Sorensen & Baylen, 2004). “The list of possible strategies for engaging learners in active
pursuit of their own knowledge is unlimited” (Simonson, Smaldino, & Zvacek, 2015). The students who
are engaged in learning are reported to remember the content better and for a longer period (Dobbs,
Waid, & del Carmen, 2009).

Besides answering student questions and providing authentic learning experiences that lead to products
for assessment, learners need to feel comfortable with the expectations (Conrad & Donaldson, 2012).
Media formats for instruction continue to advance with the development of newer technologies.
Instruction materials are an essential element to ensuring quality learning experiences (Herring &
Smaldino, 2001; Smaldino, Lowther, Mims & Russell, 2015). New to be cool is not sufficient.
Instructional materials need to enhance and expand the learning opportunities and experiences.

Students are used to turning an assignment in and having it graded; they accept ownership. But,
students also need to know how their participation in class discussions are measured. Is the student
shy, or maybe the participant is reluctant. The instructor must provide a non-threatening that builds
self-confidence. A good instructor provides immediate feedback to encourage and praise success and
will also recognize a need for informative private conversation should there be a need for improvement
(Conrad & Donaldson, 2012); Smaldino et al., 20150).

The best distant instructors use a wide range of strategies, but the toughest consideration is how to
choose a method to guarantee student engagement. One thought is to parallel the traditional strategies
and then adapt them to the technology at hand. It has been suggested that if a strategy works in a
regular classroom, it probably will work in distance instruction with some adjustment (Herring &
Smaldino, 2001).
Remember that technology is just a “mere” tool of delivery, not a method. Using distance education
technology should not limit the choice of strategies for instructions, but rather open new possibilities for
those wishing to enrich their teaching (Smaldino et al., 2015; Westbrook, 2006).

Strategies of problem solving, collaboration, and student-led discussions work well in both the
synchronous and asynchronous setting (Smaldino et al., 2015) but these formats may be unfamiliar or
new to some students. Addressing student issues may require a good instructor to begin with guiding or
coaching at the beginning in order to ease in to the instructional pattern. Instructors have to think
about the students’ needs for scheduling these engagements and possibly chunk the assignments into
shorter but more frequent posts. But the most important aspect of the method to student application is
active over passive (Conrad & Donaldson, 2012; Dabbagh & Bannan-Ritland, 2005; Palloff & Pratt, 2007).

Instructors may have the ability to combine techniques, and not be afraid of experimenting, exploring,
and creating unique approaches to teaching, but they may not have control over their course
management system (CMS). This is okay because there is a migration away from the more structured to
less formal systems (Simonson, Smaldino, & Zvacek, 2015). The successful teacher will use the CMS for
easy delivery of content, safe storage, calendars, announcements, assignments, discussions, rosters,
communications, assessments and can even go so far as to offer pre-shelved applications for content,
tools, resources, engagement and assessment.

Management of the course must include timely communication and consistent in posting
announcements regularly. One technique demonstrated to be effective especially for asynchronous
courses, is the MMM: the Monday Morning Memo (Simonson, Smaldino, & Zvacek, 2015) like this
course! The MMM becomes a guild and progress report that students can count on to direct their
learning (Orellana, Hudgins, & Simonson, 2009).

Engagement and authenticity are enhanced when instructors use a rubric for assessment. It is critical
that expectation be clear up front and providing the rubric in advance in an integral component of the
grading process. Well-developed rubrics can serve to guide students as they prepare their work and can
make grading and feedback easier (Smaldino et al., 2015). There is a trick to balance too much with
efficiency.

A good instructor also recognizes when work it too good, or maybe the content was in some way
compromised. Plagiarism is extremely prevalent to day simply because the world is connected to
everything: good, bad, and ugly. There are thousands of papermills were students pay to have work
ground out for them. A good way for instructors to avoid plagiarism and thereby act in defense of the
student, is to require the work to be done in stages. Instructors can also require that students also turn
in their cited resources at different stages. Good instructors do not do this to “catch” students, but
rather, this is a “protection” for the student. Software such as Turn-It-In allows the student to preview
possible pitfalls before turning it in. There are also web based products available for instructors like
Copyleaker, Quetext, and EduBirdie.

Good instructors earn their worth, stay flexible, and lead in professional development irrespective of
contract negogiations or minute discrepancies of class size et cetera. Besides, the best instructors can
negotiate on their own different forms of compensation in the form of additional pay, release from
taxing responsibilities, or time off (Wolcott & Shattuck, 2007). What should be clear however, between
the instructor and the institution is the agreement of intellectual property and copyrighted material
created during work.

There is a certain perception of time an instructor spends on a traditional course. There is a certain
actual amount of time an instructor spends on a traditional course. There is a self-reported perception
of actual time an instructor spends on a traditional course. None of these amount so time are the same.

Time for instruction in distant learning parallels the traditional classroom in every way. Instructors have
a perception, they have an actual, and then they have a self-report perception of actual. Students are
the exact same way. (Wyatt, 2005). One way to ensure quality in coursework is to ensure that the
standard, “or critical criteria” (Simonson, Smaldino, & Zvacek, 2015), are being met (Herring & Smaldino,
2001). But the best instructors do not overload nor come up with make-up work projects.

The reason “why” distant students self-report spending more time is simple. Students online have to go
find everything, nothing is spoon fed and there is no synchronous communication. Students online have
deep learning because of flexibility, environment, engagement, and reflection. Students in an online
chat experience lag time, might be stimulating thought, might be stimulating redundancy. Either way,
you can still maintain course rigor, institutional integrity, by not overcompensating for the issue of
making online coursework more difficult, or requiring additional work simply because online should
mimic or better the traditional class setting (Wyatt, 2005).

Finally, there are other concerns like student support for hardware and software. There are other legal
issues and technical policies. Instructors just have to commit to spending the time they feel the student
deserves. Like the Carnegie unit, the teacher has the same type of unit. However, the allotment of time
can be distributed differently across the time span of the course or training session (Orellana et al.,
2009).