Saturday, June 13, 2015
Week 4: Course Presence - No Frosting Here!
This week in Bolt 101 at least a couple of the readings where dealing with the importance of the instructor establishing a "Presence" in the an online (but also f2f) course. It is interesting to me how Christian perspective can make such a difference even when talking about the mechanics of student engagement with the instructor. The readings suggest that teaching (online or f2f) is so much more effective if your students have a connection with you as an instructor. What strikes me is that the reader is left to conclude that the reason to connect with your students is because it works - so utilitarian. In contrast, at Dordt, the relational aspect of education is at the heart of what we do. It needs to be if you are in the business of growing in Christ together. To not acknowledge this important part of true teaching/learning is to make "engagement" a superficial exercise that happens to get good results. It reminds me of employers that ask for input from their employees so that the employee feels like they are cared about and therefore will be more productive...yuk! How wonderful that we have the freedom here at Dordt to love our students and to admit it!
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Excellent point Kevin. I was made aware of that privilege a few years ago when a professor at UC Riverside told me about his lecture halls of 300+ students and he knows barely a one of them by name. I told him of our 15-20 and we know every student and have them to our homes for meals. He said he'd give anything to have that kind of atmosphere to teach in. We are indeed blessed to consider this much interaction a normal way of teaching.
ReplyDeleteGreat points guys... obviously the "relational" side to teaching is more difficult to do online. One thought I just had about doing this better is to reference personal things a student shares in an early discussion post in a later discussion post. This would work in a small class, may be much harder to do in a larger class... In discussions or when I comment on a student's work, I almost always use their first name. I think that helps - maybe more than I would think.
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