Day 2: Roles in Faciliating Distance Learning

Day 2 - Topics

• Instructor Roles & Skills in Distance Learning
  • Instructor Roles
    • Shift focus from teaching to support
    • Provide resources and opportunities
    • Build community
    • Facilitate discussions
  • Instructor Skills
    • Questioning strategies
      • Include all students with direct questioning
      • Follow up personally with students about answers
      • Establish ground rules for answering questions
    • Providing feedback
      • Give personal feedback to students
      • Give feedback in a timely manner
      • Give written and verbal feedback
      • Include a variety of assessment tools at different levels
    • Use technology to enhance learning
      • Point students to external online resources abou the topics covered
      • Use the video and audio functionality available to decrease transactional distance
    • Support the learning process of each student
      • Give individual support to each student
      • Establish an open learning environment
      • Direct teaching towards activities that are difficult for students to learn on their own
      • Plan courses with student-centered activities
    • Demonstrate good communication
      • Utilize verbal and nonverbal presentation skils
      • Pace lectures appropriately
  • Instructor Roles & Skills Resources
    • The Instructor’s Role
    • How Distance Education Has Changed Teaching and the Role of the Instructor
• Student Roles & Skills in Distance Learning
  • Student Roles & Skills
    • Independent learners
    • Information seekers
    • Initiate own learning experiences
  • Student Roles & Skills Resources
    • A Conceptual Model for Understanding Self-Directed Learning in Online Environments
    • Different Shoes, Same Footprints? A Cross-Disciplinary Evaluation of Students' Online Learning Experiences: Preliminary Findings from the SOLE Project

Day 2 - Assignments

• Read Distance Education: Guidelines for good practice article and post to the discussion forum 3 tips you could use as a facilitator of a distance education course. Make sure to read through the survey questions and answers at the end also.
• Prepare Project Proposal for Facilitation Exercise Part 2 - Due Day 3
• Prepare Facilitation Exercise Part 1 - Due Day 3