Dr. Diane Howard's Publications, Presentations 

The Rewards of Effective Facilitation
of Online Learners

World Association of Online Education

Online learning is increasing in momentum around the world. International online learning communities and collaborative groups are developing around the globe. According to a special report, Online Education: What the Future Holds, the majority of Canadians has demonstrated interest in online learning (Ipsos-Reid, 2002). The European Centre for the Development of Vocational Training reports the results of its survey, E-learning and training in Europe, which addressed the use of e-learning in training and professional development Europe. The survey revealed marked growth in distance (Cedefop, 2001). The U.S. federal government is turning to the World Wide Web to train its 1.9 million employees, to save money, improve productivity, and enhance the attractiveness of government services. This distance training includes a new Web-based training site which uses 3-D graphics to direct employees to 30 online courses, that cover topics related to computers, management, customer service and ethics. This online educational effort is part of a broader e-government initiative to improve governmental efficiency and cost-effectiveness (Thibodeau, 2002). Today only about 16% of full-time students on American college campuses are between 18-22 years of age and are traditional residential students (60 Minutes, 2001).

To reach non-traditional students and to meet their educational needs around the world, more colleges are turning to distance education. Current instructional technology can potentially provide effective learner-centered, personalized education for non-traditional, non-residential students around the globe. As students and faculty move from traditional, on-site learning and teaching, they must learn to make the necessary adjustments.

Palloff & Pratt (1999) focus on online community in e-learning. They conclude from their studies that anonymity and perceived safety of distance communication allow participants in their research projects to experience intimacy and trust. Being able to take the necessary time to make thoughtful responses, participants are able to contribute substantively in online discussions. Palloff and Pratt find that participation of the instructor as a facilitator and equal member of the e-learning community is a significant factor.

In effective online teaching and learning, the instructor does not impart knowledge in a unidirectional way as an expert. Effective e-learning is not passive. Time and space do not confine online teaching and e-learning. Interactions and collaborations between students and instructors facilitate effective online learning. The sense of community is especially significant in effective distance education. Class participation in e-learning is important. Students verify their active engagement in the learning process by posting their thoughts and responses. Students posted contributions of critical thoughts and responses are more important than memorization and regurgitation of facts to an instructor.

Today with electronic bulletin boards, discussion boards, e-mail discussion groups, or chat areas, online learning can be interactive. Web sites can provide various interactive teaching and learning solutions and resources. Picciano (2002) reviews the research literature on Web-based learning and contends that it supports the position that the success of online courses frequently depends upon the nature of interactions. It is common, therefore, for online instructors to encourage or even require a certain amount of participation in various forms of interactive e-activities. Both students and faculty frequently report that increased satisfaction in online courses depends on the quality and quantity of interactions. Shea, Fredericksen, Pickett, Pelz, and Swan (2002) report the following about the relationship of online satisfaction, interaction, and performance from a survey of 3,800 students enrolled in 264 courses through the SUNY Learning Network (SLN).

The greater the percentage of the course grade that was based on discussion, the more satisfied the students were, the more they thought they learned from the course, and the more interaction they thought they had with the instructor and with their peers.

Developers of the California Distance Learning Project (1997) contend that research indicates that students who are most interested in distance education have common characteristics. These qualities are independence in pursuit of continuing education, motivation, high expectations, self-discipline, older age than average students, and a serious attitude toward learning (Palloff & Pratt, 1999). Especially for such active students, online instructors need to function more as facilitators or moderators than as traditional teachers. Collison et al (2000) argue that online teaching requires "moderators," rather than "teachers" in the classic sense. They assert that this is necessary, if student learning is to be active, "authentic," and more than passive memorization and reciting of information using high-tech equipment. They determine that an online teacher, a moderator, needs to act more like "a guide on the side" instead of a "sage on the stage." These characterizations have become cliches in the rhetoric non-teacher-centered, pedagogies. However, in online teaching the practical and theoretical implications of being a "guide on the side" are especially critical.

Receiving effective facilitation in online learning may be especially significant for students who are introverted and lacking in confidence. Palloff and Pratt (1999) are convinced that online education can draw out students, who might seem unmotivated in on-site classrooms because they are quiet and easily intimidated in face-to-face situations by more extroverted classmates or instructors. Effective facilitation can enhance a sense of inclusion for online students who are socially or geographically isolated.

However, facilitation is a challenge for many teachers. College instructors and professors often have special difficulty adjusting to the roles of facilitators rather than lecturers or unidirectional teachers. Distance educators must make the effort to adjust, however, as online and distance learning is more about process and discovery than memorizing and repeating content. Medical people, counselors, therapists, and social workers often do better in learning this new mode of facilitative instruction. They are more used to listening and then making sense of what they hear. It is easier, in general, for them to get their own personae out of the way. Effective online and distance facilitation of learning is generally more informal than teaching in face-to-face, on-site classes. However, it takes effort to move from the formal to the informal, when instructors are not physically together with their students.

In teaching online, a moderator's postings are "interventions," not "contributions." The "interventions" don't assert authority as much as they prod learning and discussions to go deeper. As the students and moderator interact, inquiry is at the center of the learning process, not information from the teacher or another authority. The moderator is not at the center of e-learning; the learning always is. Teachers who use their skills as conceptual moderators enrich the learning. Online learning is collaborative learning. If students are working on a common project or are participating in a common thread in a discussion, which creates a kind of conversation about a topic, they can experience a sense of participation and collaboration. Instructors, as educational facilitators, must encourage dialogue as inquiry. They must use inductive, expansive questioning to facilitate success in online courses. An effective online learning process is interactive among students, peers, instructors, technologies, and content.

In their book, Building Learning Communities in Cyberspace: Effective Strategies for the Online Classroom, Palloff and Pratt (1999) encourage facilitators to promote honesty, responsiveness, relevance, respect, openness, and empowerment to produce effective e-learning communities. When using threaded discussion forums with an active bulletin board and e-mail dialogue with their students, instructors of online courses have opportunities to gain greater knowledge of their pupils than in face-to-face classes alone. Further, online students often experience more open, honest, vulnerable, transparent, and supportive group relationships and collegiality with other students than they do in on-site, face-to-face classes.

Dr. Lynn Schrum (2002) recommends the following online requirements: students’ posted biographies, frequent interactions, collaborations, and responses to question-asking forums. Her recommendations for online teaching strategies further include requiring active participation, topical flexibility, and minimal technology requirements. Online course Web sites should include syllabi pages with course goals, objectives, requirements, procedures, policies, schedules, required materials, and contact information. They can provide pages for announcements, resources, links, message boards, student pages, digital drop boxes for papers, and grade book spreadsheets. Class size in most online courses should be small with approximately fifteen students or less. Classes should be divided into small working groups of three to five.

Goals of online teaching should include facilitating higher-level, thinking skills, such as analysis, synthesis, and evaluation. In order to evaluate online learning, as to whether or not higher-level thinking skills are being used and transformative learning is taking place, the facilitator might ask the following questions of a student's work.

Do the student's online discussions or e-mails restate information, which is gleaned from course readings, or do the student’s e-contributions create new concepts from the course content, student experiences, and the discussion itself?

Is the student self-reflexive, analytical, and or evaluative in correspondence, dialogues, and interactions?

Ongoing management of technology and online classes must also be addressed as instructors adjust to cyber-teaching. Students and instructors critically need initial training and ongoing technical support in terms of human assistance and appropriate software. Mentors can be provided to faculty for ongoing class support. Finally, instructors and students need to accept the fact that they will face technical challenges and will have questions that will need clarifications from time to time.

Today there is great debate concerning the effectiveness of distance education. Often this divide is based on opinion and limited experience, evidence, and research. Frequently educators, communicators, and presenters with limited experience in the use of distance technology resist it and argue that it depersonalizes, dehumanizes, and isolates. They argue that on site, face-to-face education, communication, and presentation are more powerful because they are more personal. Dutton, Dutton, and Perry present their research that compares online and traditional lecture formats. They contend that, on average, students perform at least as well in classes with an online component, as students in traditional, face-to-face formats (Dutton et al, 2002). Educators, communicators, and presenters with more experience in using distance technology often contend that distance students, in general, can perform as well as on-site students. Furthermore, they argue that distance education can enhance education, communication, presentation, and socialization in qualitatively unique and personal ways.

For those educators who resist distance education in its various forms, the real issues may be less about education and more about resisting change or resisting reaching out beyond their comfortable local regions. Resisting distance education in a variety of modes may also be more about fear of loss of territory, control, influence, power, and/or the right to function as the primary or sole mediator, arbitrator, or expert, than about education. Distance teaching involves a loss of traditional control. If it is to be effective, teachers must function more as facilitators or moderators, than as lecturers, for example.

Being willing to make adjustments and changes to utilize modern technologies in education can be extremely worthwhile. Distance education in various forms offers valuable new possibilities, vistas, and territories.

Here are some basic guidelines for effective educational online facilitation.

• The instructor functions as a moderator and equal member of the e-learning community.

(1)  The instructor does not impart knowledge in a unidirectional way as an
       expert.

(2)  Since effective e-learning is not passive, it is facilitated by interactions
       and collaborations between students and instructors.

(3)  In online learning a moderator's postings are "interventions," not
       "contributions."

(4)  The "interventions" don't assert authority but prod learning to go deeper.

(5) Inquiry, not the teacher's information or authority, is at the center of
       interactions.

(6)  The moderator is not at the center of e-learning; the learning always is.

(7)  Educational facilitators encourage dialogue as inquiry.

(8)  Effective distance instructors use inductive, expansive questioning.

(9)  Facilitators promote honesty, responsiveness, relevance, respect, and
       openness.

          (10) Effective distance educators do not dominate but empower their students.

          (11) Distance instructors gain knowledge of their students by using threaded
                  discussion forums with an active bulletin board and e-mail dialogue.

• The learning community is especially significant in effective distance education.
  
  (1)  Participation in learning is important.
  
  (2)  Students verify their active engagement and critical thinking in the learning
         process through posting their thoughts and responses.
  
  
• Distance education needs to be interactive.
  
  (1)  It is collaborative learning.
  
  (2)  Even when postings are asynchronous, the sense that participants are
         collaborating in a community can be facilitated if they are working on a
         common project or are participating in a common thread in a discussion or 
         conversation about a topic.

• Online learners often share the following characteristics: independent pursuit of continuing education, motivation, high expectations, self-discipline, older age than average students, and a serious attitude toward learning.

• Class size in most online courses should be small.

• Goals of online teaching should include facilitating higher-level, thinking skills, such as analysis, synthesis, and evaluation.

• Effective distance teaching strategies include requiring the following: posting of biographies, interactivity projects, collaboration, and participation.
  
  
• Effective online teaching involves inductive questioning, flexibility with topics, and having minimal technology requirements.
  
  
• Students and instructors critically need initial training and ongoing technical support in terms of human assistance and appropriate software.
  
  
• Instructors and students need to accept technical challenges at times.

• Web sites for distance courses should include syllabi pages with course goals, objectives, requirements, procedures, policies, schedules, required materials, and contact information.
  
  
• Web sites for online instruction can provide pages for announcements, resources, links, message boards, digital drop boxes for assignments, and student pages.

References

Cedefop (2001). E-Learning and Training in Europe. Retrieved August 11, 2002 from
http://www.ianos.gr/first/cedefop/cedefop.htm.

Collison, G. , Elbaum, B., Haavind, S ., Tinker, R. (2000) Facilitating online learning:
Effective strategies for moderators. Madison: Atwood Publishing.

Dutton, J. et al. (2002) How do online students differ from lecture students? JALN, 6 (1).
Retrieved August 11, 2002 from
http://www.aln.org/alnweb/journal/Vol6_issue1/6_1dutton.htm.

Ipsos-Reid (2002). Online education: what the future holds. The Net, 22. Retrieved August 11,
2002 from http://www.netn.org/net22.htm.

Palloff, R, Pratt, K. (1999) Building learning communities in Cyberspace. San Francisco:
Jossey-Bass.

Picciano, A. (2002). Beyond student perceptions: issues of interaction, presence, and
performance in an online course. JALN, 6 (1), Retrieved August 11, 2002 from
http://www.aln.org/alnweb/journal/Vol6_issue1/6_1picciano.htm.

Schrum, L. and Hong, S. (2002). Dimensions and strategies for online success: voices
from experienced educators. JALN, 6 (1). Retrieved August 11, 2002 from
http://www.aln.org/alnweb/journal/jaln-vol6issue1.htm#schrum .

Thibodeau, P. (2002). Feds Tout E-learning Site for Government Workers. The Net, 29.
Retrieved August 11, 2002 from http://www.netn.org/net29.htm.

 

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