Creating Confidence for Online Faculty

Tech and Tips Tuesday

Creating Confidence for Online Faculty

First things first. One thing at a time.

Humility and confidence are two important intellectual virtues, according to Ward Jones in his 2012 article entitled Higher Education, Academic Communities, and the Intellectual Virtues.  Apparently, humility is easier to come by for the online educator than is confidence. In fact, in his review of the 2014 Inside Higher Education Survey of Faculty Views on Technology, Carl Straumsheim stated, “most faculty members maintain serious doubts about being able to interact or indeed teach students in online courses” (October 2014, para. 7). So today, I am providing you with three articles published in 2014 that I believe will provide tips to help you build confidence in your abilities to educate best within the online modality. 

Campus Technology’s 6 Ways to Be a Better Online Teacher by Paul Beaudoin (March 16, 2014)

We all seek improvement and this article is a great place to start. Emphasizing proficiency, creativity, and the “practice” of education, these tips will take you far.

eLearning Industry’s Top 10 e-Learning Tips to Transfer Knowledge from Theory to Practice by Christopher Pappas (March 18, 2014)

This Top 10 list reminds those teaching online to relate information to the students’ real-world experiences, to break large segments of information down into bite-sized lessons, and to encourage students to solve problems together.

Emerging EdTech’s 10 Teaching with Technology Mistakes You Want to Avoid Making by Kelly Walsh (February 2, 2014)

From making sure everyone has access to the tools you use, to creating precise instructions for technology use, these Don’ts make an excellent checklist to keep you and your students working smoothly online. 

How many of these tips have you already applied? Are you making any of the mistakes mentioned? Review your practices and feel free to share here. I would love to hear from you.

If you are not already following these influencers and their publishers online, I encourage you to do so. They provide a wealth of information, help, and support. You may also want to follow my Teacher Tech and eLearning Pinterest board where you will find more than 300 curated resources to help you gain confidence in teaching online and be the best you can be!

Please take a moment to complete the January survey, and join me tomorrow for Historical Humpday!

See you then, 

Melynda

@Melynda_Conner

#TCBHigherEd

References:

Jones, W. (2012). Higher education, academic communities, and the intellectual virtues. Educational Theory, 62(6), 695-711. DOI: 10.1111/edth.12005

Straumsheim, C. (2014). Onilne ed skepticism and self-sufficiency: Survey of faculty views on technology. Inside Higher Education. Retreived from https://www.insidehighered.com/news/survey/online-ed-skepticism-and-self-sufficiency-survey-faculty-views-technology