September 2004 — Web/Net
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Why I Teach Online
Probably one of the best aspects of online teaching is the ability for everyone to be an equal discussion member. In my physical classes, I always had one or two people who would dominate the conversation. This is not so in the online class. In my online classes I have more discussion by a greater percentage of students than I ever had in a classroom. I find this to be true across the curriculum. Psychology teachers say that a student is more willing to talk and that they talk more in an online class than in a physical class. The same is true for sociology teachers and theater teachers. A friend of mine who is an online math teacher has only one semester behind him, but he has noticed basically the same outcomes in the online class that he has in the campus class.
Overcoming Online Challenges
Teaching online has presented me with a number of challenges. However, students are the most helpful sources for meeting these challenges because they tell me what works and what d'es not. Among the most common issues that I face are timing and understanding. I must try to keep my virtual class as high in quality as my physical classes; therefore, I keep a number of statistics on successful completion, grade averages, student evaluation of instruction and attrition. I have kept these statistics since spring 1998, and they help me maintain quality. A specific example of timing is the returning of essays.
Students hand in their essays online, I print out the essays, then mark them as I would if they had been handed to me in a classroom. I then mail them back to the students via postal mail so that they can get a copy marked in red that looks just like the ones I carried back to class. Students receive these papers within about five days, which is also the turnaround time I had in the physical classroom.
In addition, I am in daily contact with my students to make sure that they understand what I want from them and that they understand how to get it to me. If they can learn from each other in the discussion area, I let them. When they need my intervention, I give that as well. Timing also means that I do not hold as rigid a schedule as I did in the physical classroom. Sometimes a student will tell me ahead of time that he or she cannot finish an assignment on a specific date. If that student cannot get the assignment finished early, it can come in late. If students do not tell me about an assignment coming in late, I probably will ask them why it is late. If they can come up with a good reason, I accept it. If an online teacher is not willing to do that, maybe that teacher should stay in the physical classroom.
It's important to remember that distance learning is not for everyone. But for the students who need it and who can remember that they are in a class, it has many advantages. And for the teachers who are flexible, innovative and patient, online teaching may be a good alternative format. I believe that online teaching and learning is as good as in-class teaching and learning. Like in-class teaching, online teaching requires a careful awareness of what is going on. But one format d'es not take more concern or awareness than the other. I teach online because of the challenge, because students seem to need the alternative format, and because I also like the flexibility that it allows. I have been in class while in Florida, San Diego, and Paducah, Ky. It d'esn't get any better than that.
About the Author
William Wade has a M.Ed. from the University of Virginia and master's in Arts in English from Murray State University. He has been teaching English online since 1991 when he began an online class using a bulletin board service. He has taught at West Kentucky Community and Technical College (formerly Paducah Community College) since 1970 and is currently Professor of English and Coordinator of Distance Learning there. His primary interest in teaching online is meeting student needs without the loss of quality. E-mail: william.wade@kctcs.edu
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