An Online Class with Presence
To systematically develop an online class, one should devise a list of needs so that s/he is able to plan, prepare, and execute an effective online class (Cordiner 2019). Within this list, one also should consider the three types of presences in the online learning environment: cognitive, social, and teaching (Stavredes, 2011). Considering that I have never thought of, nor have a clue of, creating an online class, I Googled the topics: “creating an online course” and “online presence”. A finite number of sites appeared; which in turn, pruned my possible outcome of this blog- to create a personal outline to develop an online presence for online courses.
Belonging and being a part of is always a comforting sense of presence. In their online resource, Carleton University (CU), believes that there are three perspective to view when involving online presence: social, psychological, and emotional perspectives (Carelton, n.d). Alongside of perspectives, CU also includes three areas where presence should be established, the online environment, the online interaction, and the online learning community (n.d). Supplementing CU’s role of online presence, Stavredes then incorporates the modes of presence: realism, immersion, involvement, and suspension of disbelief (2011). With using a smorgasbord of these presence options, an educator may establish an active role of learning for his/her students.
An instructor then may create a meaningful interaction of learning by utilizing the plethora of educational tools available. I will narrow down the list to include computer-mediated communication (cmc) (webopedia, n.d.), the Backward Design (University, 2019), instructor presence through design, facilitation, and direct instruction (DeWaard, 2016), a learning management system (LMS), (Pappas, 2018), an implementation of Universal Design of Learning (UDL), (CAST, 2018) and the standards by iNACOL (2019). Using these foundations of necessities of building an online classroom, one then may focus on the human aspect of the class- communication.
Personally, I believe human communication entails the component of ethnicity and productive collaboration. Using the CMC definition of communication, one then may focus the establishment of Community of Inquiry (CoI) in the online community. According to the CoI Model, when all three types of presences are working together, an educational experience occurs (YouTube, 2018). The overlaps of the presences then work together as the instructor and students interact with each other forming, the classroom setting, selection of content, and the classroom’s discourse. Whether teaching an online class or being physically in the classroom, the instructor presence is necessary to guide the connection between organization and learning through communication. Having an outlined structure to create an online class, with presence, may not be a simple task; however, it does create a smoother flow for the dynamics of learning, constructive interactions, and positive collaborations between student-to student and teacher-to-learners.
“CMC - Computer-Mediated Communication.” What Is Computer Mediated Communication? Webopedia Definition, Webopedia, 2019, https://www.webopedia.com/TERM/C/CMC.html.
Cordiner, Sarah. “10 Steps To Creating A Wildly Successful Online Course.” Thinkific, Guest Contributor, 25 May 2019, www.thinkific.com/blog/10-steps-creating-successful-online-course/#comment-25153.
DeWaard, Helen, et al. “Where's the Teacher? Defining the Role of Instructor Presence in Social Presence and Cognition in Online Education.” Go to the Cover Page of Humanizing Online Teaching and Learning, Pressbooks, 14 Nov. 2016, https://humanmooc.pressbooks.com/chapter/wheres-the-teacher-defining-the-role-of-instructor-presence-in-social-presence-and-cognition-in-online-education/.
“Educational Development Centre.” Educational Development Centre Teaching Online Comments, Carleton University, https://carleton.ca/edc/faculty-and-instructors/instructional-design/teaching-online/ doi: https://carleton.ca/edc/?p=5119
“National Quality Standards Archives.” INACOL, 2019, https://www.inacol.org/news/resource_topics/national-quality-standards/.
“Online Teaching Presence.” YouTube, The Sloan Consortium/Online Learning Consortium, 28 Jan. 2013, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X7MqCc-Qvjw.
Pappas, Christopher. “What Is A Learning Management System? LMS Basic Functions And Features You Must Know.” ELearning Industry, 31 Oct. 2018, https://elearningindustry.com/what-is-an-lms-learning-management-system-basic-functions-features.
Stavredes, Tina. Effective Online Teaching: Foundations and Strategies for Student Success. first ed., Jossey-Bass Inc Pub, 2011, 168-169.
“The UDL Guidelines.” UDL, CAST, 31 Aug. 2018, http://udlguidelines.cast.org/?utm_medium=web&utm_campaign=none&utm_source=cast-about-udl.
“What Is Backward Design.” Course Planning with Backward Design: IU - Teaching Online, Creative Commons, https://canvas.ucdavis.edu/courses/34528/pages/course-planning-with-backward-design.
