ONLINE TEACHING – TOOLS & STRATEGIES
Ishu Jain
Assistant Professor, B.Ed., Balaji College of Education, Ballabhgarh, Haryana Chetan Prakash
Assistant Professor, B.Ed., Balaji College of Education, Ballabhgarh, Haryana
Abstract- Facilitating an online teaching amongst today’s learners requires an educator to be innovative and creative and to have an effective online existence. In the current online learning environment (otherwise called e-learning), keeping learners insightfully connected with and motivated while alloting the necessary course content requires educators empowering a protected, non-judgmental environment whereby perspectives, points of view, and individual and expert experiences are encouraged. The educator must exhibit a learner centred learning process, where students are held answerable for their active participation and self-directed learning while balancing a facilitator role to further upgrade the learning interaction. This article investigates one teacher's intelligent practice measure that has been created over various years as an early adopter of online education. It will explore the organizational aspect of teaching-facilitating a dynamic robust online course.
Keywords: transformative teaching, educator reflection, online education, e learning, blended learning, online teaching
1. INTRODUCTION
In the field of education, online teaching was created to educate remotely located students, but Covid-19 has made online teaching a necessity today. The virtual platforms have raised a ray of hope in carrying forward the education process that was stalled in schools and colleges around the world due to the pandemic. In a country like India, the online teaching process, which probably takes a decade to come, has been taken as an opportunity by our teachers. Although it is not that easy, for online teaching, every teacher needs to have knowledge of various tools and guidance strategies. There are two methods to online teaching and learning: synchronous and asynchronous. Synchronous is the real time teaching through the internet while asynchronous uses time-delayed capabilities of the internet.
For Bates (1997), the incursion of teachers in online education was carried out through the approach of the ―Lone Ranger and Toro‖. Bates defined it in this way because the teacher on his/her own initiative involved in designing Web-page to distribute the contents of his/her ongoing course with the help of one of his/her students who have computer skills. Elgort (2005) confirmed this situation in a study involving the adoption of online education in Australian, New Zealand and UK universities. If the results achieved by innovative teachers are good, they will often be the spearhead to propose larger projects.
The awareness of the achievements in the implementation of these technologies by academic or related institutions attracts the interest of the authorities responsible for the HEIs(Higher Education Institutions).
McAnally-Salas and Organist (2007) indicated that online education is a complex process that easily causes confusion among its users for the wide range of choices and perceptions of teachers and authorities of the HEIs. In general, e-learning techniques involves a combination of teaching strategies (Lahwal, Amaimin & Al-Ajlan,2009), such as assessment or self-assessment quizzes, discussion forums, and tutoring, that provide tools for further and collaborative learning (Nevgi, Virtanen & Niemi, 2006). In this context, the teacher’s role is critical. (De Laat,& Lally, 2003), as the teacher must now move from being a mere transmitter of information (as in traditional educational systems) to becoming a content facilitator, technical consultant, and social animator —amore complex and laborious role (Jianhua &Yinjian, 2008). E-assessment has two key advantages: it substantially reduces teacher work time on assessments, and allows for rapid teacher feedback on student learning outcomes (White lock, 2009).
Therefore, depending on the objectives to be met, e-assessment is expected to be highly efficient. Furthermore, the use of online evaluation by means of a series of online
academic results than using only standard exams as the learning assessment tool.
Nevertheless, a set of precautions must be taken (Angus & Watson, 2009): a) online assessment methods should be effective substitutes for traditional ones; b) students should be at least in different to the use of these methods compared to traditional methods; and c) the online methods should achieve better results than traditional ones. Thus, it is highly beneficial to the learning process to use periodic quizzes as it compels students to work consistently and in accordance with other scheduled class activities (Savander-Ranne, Lundén& Kolari, 2008).
The popularity of blended learning is increasing because it integrates online technology such as learning management systems and platforms, making learning more interactive. Previous studies recorded higher achievements and better attitudes toward learning when the effectiveness of blended learning was compared to conventional teaching approaches (Thang, Wong, Noorizah, Rosniah, Najihah& Kemboja, 2012). Educators use blended learning as an approach to teaching because of its potential to maximize learning and create a more efficient learning environment. For example, blended learning is believed to increase communication skills (Wang, Wooa& Zhao, 2009), improve critical thinking skills (Güzer& Caner, 2014), and to support collaborative learning (Haryani, Wan Faezah&
Nor Aini, 2012). In Malaysia, 50% of courses in higher institutions offer online courses because it is an effective means to communicate within the teaching and learning context in the current era (Norazah, Mohamed Amin & Zaidan, 2011). Taken together, these studies reflect the benefits and need to incorporate blended learning in tertiary education contexts.
Part of the disconnect between teaching online and face-to-face is that digital learning has become much more student-centric (at least in most asynchronous or semi asynchronous online courses) (Barbosa, Barbosa, & Rabello, 2016). Students are conditioned to find information online and on-demand (Dahlstrom, 2015). This ―on demand‖ expectation can create stress for online instructors. The first large challenge to successful online teaching lies in the very structure of online courses; namely, that they are ubiquitous in nature (Phumeechanya & Wannapiroon, 2014). In other words, because students and faculty can access the classroom anytime, the boundaries between class time and non class time become blurred. This ubiquity produces a large window of time for students to learn and engage with their peers and instructors (Brennan et.al, 2014), but it also creates a host of problems for faculty members. As the classroom remains always ―on,‖
both students and faculty may also be encouraged to be ―on‖ for extended periods of time.
When the boundaries of the online classroom become blurred, both students and faculty can be negatively impacted (Dunbar, 2018; Maslach et al., 2012).
American public institutions evaluate the quality of teaching with multiple methods but most commonly by an end-of-semester student evaluation of teaching questionnaire (SET; McKeachie, 1997; Spooren, Brockx, &Mortelmans, 2013). SETs collect systematic, cross campus, longitudinal data of student perspectives on teaching and course quality that can be compared across semesters, courses, instructors, and mediums (e.g., face-to-face vs.
online teaching; Carle, 2009)
The most discussed in the literature are instructor-made online surveys that collect anonymous open-ended feedback from students (Peterson, 2016). While these opportunities to provide feedback are appreciated by students, repeatedly generating and writing out ideas for course improvements is perceived to be tedious by students (Winchester &
Winchester, 2012). Additionally, instructors often adapt in-person formative feedback processes to the online environment such as Bridge et al. (2012) and O’Neil Hixon, Long, and Block (2017) who both adapted the Small Groups Instructional Diagnosis (SGID;
Coffman, 1998) process for online courses.
2. RATIONALE OF THE STUDY
With increasing need of catering to learners across locations and considering Pandemic conditions, there is a great need to go global and online. Also, there isn’t much research done on elaborating various tools and strategies which can be used to teach online. In fact, lot of studies have been conducted determining the difference between traditional and online teaching but there is a great need to discuss various ways to teach online.
3. PURPOSE OF THE STUDY
This paper has been written in order to identify and discuss various tools and strategies which can be used to teach online and to make it more effective.
4. HISTORY AND BACKGROUND OF FACE-TO-FACE EDUCATION
Face to face education is a teaching methodology where the teacher and students interact with each other by being physically present in a classroom or in open space and conduct teaching where students learn different subjects by interacting with teachers, reading and learning text books, clarifying their doubts about a particular topic etc. It is one of the oldest forms of teaching method followed around the world where teacher and students connect directly, one on one and it is one of the most effective forms of teaching and learning experience. It involves a journey of learning where teachers get a chance to pass on the information and knowledge to their students. They do that not only by explaining the concepts but by sharing the real-life experiences, giving references of some real-life events, with creative fictional examples, some anecdotes etc.
5. INTRODUCTION TO ONLINE EDUCATION
The recent years have seen a tremendous increase in the communication industry with the coming of Internet and its successive development. World Wide Web is a result of the developments made by DARPA (Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency), the agency responsible for creating new technologies for the department of the Defence of the USA. The Arpanet, the simple network developed to send and receive packets of data across the computer systems of the U.S. military, formed the foundation of the biggest and most complex network connecting computer systems across the globe.
The beginning of the web changed the essential standards of the world that was known by setting the best and pined for device into each individual's hand for example availability. Information that was before accessible only for the elite class now could be open to any individual who had a PC framework and a steady association. This expanded openness, today, has lead to the development of a worldwide local community that can share thoughts and data and gain information from their common relationship without the block of borders.
Online teaching is now making a serious progress by bringing the school to every child and taking away the power that socioeconomic constraints have over education.
But most importantly, online education has become the only and most important tool to provide education to learners across the world. With online education the distinction between the teachings of students studying in the developed and developing or undeveloped countries have decreased. All learners now have an equal chance to receive good education with good references.
The best part about the online teaching is that it's anything but a typical norm of training for all, and the quantity of learners that are taught are increased dramatically utilizing almost similar resources. Likewise, the compass of online teaching is considerably more tremendous than that of the traditional teaching.
The traditional face-to-face teaching is teacher-centred. The teacher has the control of the delivery of the information. With the advent of the Internet, ―access to vast resources of data and information, learners are no longer dependent on faculty for knowledge‖
(―Instructional Strategies for Online Courses,‖ 2011, para. 2). A learner-centred online classroom has the ability to enhance the interactivity and collaboration among learners.
Online instructors are now facilitators of information guiding students toward their problems. An alteration to the instructor’s pedagogy is required. To make online learning effective, educators just as students should take on new jobs in the instructing, learning relationship, and teachers should deliver control of learning to the students.
5.2 Advantages of Online Learning
Instructional Technology is highly beneficial for students, especially students pursuing a professional course (Mehra &Mittal, 2007). Online learning is considered as a boon due to the reasons given below:
1. Accessibility: Online learning provides accessibility with which a student can learn from anywhere in the world. This is a crucial consideration for students who wish to study in a different country. It doesn't matter where a student lives and what he wants to study. Students learning options are not limited by their geographic location.
2. Personalised Learning: Person -specific education could be provided through online Learning system as it enables a student to determine and process his/her learning style, content, aim, current knowledge and individual skills. Therefore, it helps in creating individual learning styles.
3. Develops cognitive abilities: In a study, it was found that E-Learning may be effective in developing cognitive abilities of pupil teachers (Singh & Mishra, 2009). It was found that students of eLearning program had higher achievement levels than others because it enables a student to find unlimited information which he can access just by the click of a button.
4. Cost-Effectiveness: Since it can be carried from any location and there are no travel expenses, this type of learning is less costly than learning at a traditional institute.
Students who want to study through this mode need to have access to the necessary computer hardware as well as paying often substantial fees for access to an internet service provider (Kelllie& Ferguson, 1998).
5. Promotes Research: Students are excited to publish their work when they produce something of extremely high quality.
6. Basic Computer Skills: Students who choose to study online have an opportunity to gain technical skills in using ICT. These skills are useful to them in their future endeavors.
7. Equal Opportunity to all: All students are equal. Online Learning is a boon for those who live at far off places where the schools/colleges are at a distant place.
8. Self-Pacing: Due to individual differences, all learners have different pace. Online learning allows learners to learn at their own pace to complete the course work taking as much time as he requires without being termed as slow by the peers.
9. Globalization: Internet has connected people across the globe where students share ideas and resources, access information about current and past events, interact with experts, and use online databases.
10. Large Variety of courses: From traditional 4 year universities to online courses we can see a major change. Students are free to select from an array of courses to do online.
From neuroscience to nursing all on the web
11. Career Advancement: In these way students can take smaller online while at the same time doing an entire degree or MBA course. They can also do it while working full time also.
12. Travel cuts: For Schools and Colleges, attendance can be a major issue. In an online management course, all these problems can be avoided. Learners can complete the same course from the comfort of their home through a computer.
13. Flexibility and Convenience: Online learning give students the flexibility to plan their study time accordingly this way students can study when their energy is at the peak, whether early morning or late night. Also, library can be available online all time for everyone.
6. GOVERNMENT INITIATIVES FOR DIGITAL EDUCATION IN INDIA
Information Technology has become an integral part of our day-to-day life. Letters are replaced by emails and SMS. The Internet has the power to do wonder if used wisely for a good cause. So let’s take a look at how the Government of India is working wonders in their citizen’s lives. Digital India Campaign was launched by our honorable Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 2nd July 2015. Digital India Campaign was initiated by Government of India to transform India into a digitally empowered society. Its main aim was to build an improved online infrastructure and to increase the number of people who have access to the Internet throughout the country. There are various initiatives taken by the Government of India under the Digital India Campaign which is focused on making life easier for people, educating individuals, connecting rural India to the internet etc. The Digital India campaign has promoted the use of Information Communication Technology to improve the teaching learning process.
Following are some of the Initiatives taken by the Government of India for Digital Education.
1. Pradhan Mantri Gramin Digital Saksharta Abhiyaan
Digital literacy rate of India is low as most of India’s population resides in the rural areas where access to technology is not high. Pradhan Mantri Gramin Digital Saksharta Abhiyaan was launched to tackle the problem of low digital literacy rate. It was launched so that at least one person per household in the rural areas. This initiative is to empower the citizens in rural areas to train them to operate a computer or a digital device for sending and receiving e-mails, browsing the Internet, accessing Government services, searching for information, digital payments etc. It aims to bridge the digital gap by specifically targeting the rural households including the marginalized sections of society like the Scheduled Castes / Scheduled Tribes, Minorities, Below Poverty Line, women and differently-abled persons and minorities. Training is available free of cost and registration can be done at the nearest training centre. Each household can nominate one member of the family and the selected family member will get the training.
2. SWAYAM
SWAYAM is an initiative under the Digital India Campaign which is developed and maintained by Ministry of Human Resource Development and All India Council for Technical Education which aims at providing free education to individuals over the internet.
SWAYAM offers School, Out-of-School, Under-Graduation and Post Graduation Education free for Indian students. However, students wanting to be certified should be registered and a certificate will be offered after successful completion of the course, with a nominal processing fee. SWAYAM app is available to download for free on Google Play Store on Android and Apple App Store on iOS. All the courses are prepared by the faculties from various institutes like IIT’s and IIM’s etc.
3. E-Pathshala
E-Pathshala is an initiative by the Government of India. It provides free access to all educational e-resources which include e-textbooks, audio, video, periodicals and a variety of content through their website. E-Pathshala platform is developed and maintained by NCERT. It is a Mobile Friendly app. E-books can be accessed online. This app is available to download for free on Google Play Store on Android and Apple App Store on iOS.
Online labs are an initiative taken by Amrita Centre for Research in Advanced Technologies for Education which is based on an idea that experiments can be taught online. It hosts experiments on various topics like Chemical, Physical and Biological Sciences for the students from Grade 9 up to Grade 12. It is interactive and the curriculum is aligned with NCERT/State and CBSE Board Syllabus. Online labs is free to use and accessible to everyone on registration.
5. Shaala Darpan
Kendriya Vidyalayas is one of the largest chains of schools in the world with more than 1000 schools throughout the country and has 3 schools abroad. Shaala Darpan is an online platform for all Kendriya Vidyalayas providing e-Governance services to all Kendriya Vidyalayas in India. Its aim is to improve efficiency in school administration, improve the quality of learning, governance of schools for its various stakeholders.
6.Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana:
It is an initiative taken by the Ministry of Skill Development & Entrepreneurship. Its objective is to enable Indian youth to learn an industry-relevant skill that will help individuals to improve their living standard. Training and assessment fee for the courses are completely paid by the government. This initiative has many Skill training centers across the country and offers a variety of skill development courses in various fields like Agriculture, Information Technology Enabled Services, Logistics, etc.
6.1 Tools
With the rapid development in e-learning and online teaching during the last few decades and especially during pandemic enormous facilities such as tools, software, applications and web sites have been developed.
In this section, LMS, interactive tools and some other facilities in order to lead and manage the learning process online are extensively discussed.
1.Learning Management System (LMS):
"An LMS is the infrastructure that delivers and manages instructional content, identifies and assesses individual and organizational learning or training goals, tracks the progress towards meeting those goals, and collects and presents data for supervising the learning process of organization as a whole"(Watson & Watson, 2007).
2. Discussion/Forum: Adult learner prefers this instructional strategy because it is interactive and facilitates participation. The discussion format allows the learner to explore his/her life experiences and apply them to new situation.
3. Self-directed Learning: Online learning supports the self-directed learner in pursuing individualized, self-paced learning activities.
4. Small Group Work: The online course can be divided into smaller, more manageable groups. The small group can discuss content, share ideas, solve problems, and provide peer feedback for assignments.
5. Project: The learning experience is made more relevant with projects. Online projects can be tailored to give students an opportunity to pursue their special interests and relate to their selected career field. Projects can be done individually or within groups.
6. Collaborative Learning: Combining two or more students to work together on a project of assignment is called as collaborative learning. Employers want workers with collaborative skills and are looking for graduates of educational programs that teach these skills. Such learning is more effective than competitive and individualistic efforts in promoting cognitive development, self-esteem, and positive student-student relationships. ―Research shows that the academic achievement of many students is increased when collaborative rather than competitive models of instruction are used‖ (Campbell, Campbell, & Dickson, 2004, p. 178).
Online learning models are natural environments for collaborative learning if designed carefully to be effective.
7. Flipped Classroom: It is a blended learning model in which traditional ideas about classroom activities and homework are reversed, or "flipped." In this model, instructors have students interact with new material for homework first.
7. CONCLUSION
Online teaching is quite demanding. Instructors might feel uneasy teaching online courses due to the multiple roles and responsibilities of teaching online. Online teaching skills and competencies have to be determined in order to help design professional development programs for online instructors. These skills and competencies are classified into six categories: (a) pedagogical skills, (b) content skills, (c) design skills, (d) technological skills, (e) management and institutional skills, and (f) social and communication skills. Online faculty can use these sets of skills to self evaluate their abilities to teach online and identify their training needs.
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