An online teacher has many roles. One could argue that there are more roles for an online teacher than a face-to-face teacher. While the basics of classroom management still apply, the online teacher surely has a different set of responsibilities on top of those required of any teacher. We will explore those here as well as strategies to improve attendance, communication, engagement, and course completion.
“the actions and strategies teachers use to solve the problem of order in classrooms” (Doyle, 1986, p. 397).
Effective teachers also use rules, procedures, and routines to ensure that students are actively involved in learning (Marzano, Marzano, & Pickering, 2003).
In essence, they use management not to control student behavior, but to influence and direct it in a constructive manner to set the stage for instruction (McLeod, Fisher, & Hoover, 2003).
Classroom "management" in an online course is much different than a face-to-face course. Behavior problems in an online course might include the following:
Attendance - students do not log into the course.
Communication - students do not respond to teacher messages.
Engagement - students start assignments but do not finish them. Often this is because students find the content boring, not challenging, or too challenging.
Completion - Students do not complete work and do not complete the course.
The Role of the Online Teacher
As an online teacher you are still managing behavior but you have different problems to solve. In the same vein, an online teacher has a different role than a face-to-face teacher.
An online teacher is a RELATIONSHIP EXPERT. They focus on building positive relationships with each and every student.
An online teacher is a CONTENT EXPERT. They choose and develop lessons and assignments that engage students and reduce behavior problems.
An online teacher is a DATA DIGGER. They are constantly looking at data for problems. Once a problem is spotted...
An online teacher has a large TOOLBOX OF STRATEGIES. They can pull out a strategy to solve just about any problem found in the data or in student behaviors.
Online teachers are COLLABORATIVE. They work with colleagues to develop ever better content, share strategies, and review student work.
Online teachers are PROACTIVE. They have thought through every possible situation and scenario and have a strategy to solve it.
Online teachers are REACTIVE. They are constantly looking for ways to solve problems.
Take a few minutes to reflect on your roles and responsibilities as an online teacher. What are the potential challenges for you as an online teacher? Where do you excel within an online teacher's roles and responsibilities? This video delves into this topic more deeply.
This article describes the online teacher's role as having "4 hats" to evaluate how well they can establish and maintain a community of learners. All of the "hats" described in the image below require different forms of management. How do you manage these roles in your courses?
Proactive and Reactive Management
Management can be thought of as PROACTIVE and REACTIVE.
Much of the "management" happens well before students enter your course. Teachers must think through every aspect of the course.
How will students turn in work? Discussion boards, assignment dropboxes, tests, email, a combination based on the work?
How will students interact with the teacher?
How will students interact with each other?
How will students interact with the outside world?
What curriculum will you use?
How will you change instruction based on student scores?
How will you change instruction for students on IEPs or 504 plans?
How often will you contact students?
How often are students expected to check their grades?
The list could go on forever! The idea here is to think of all of these things BEFORE students enter the room. Once you have answered these questions, develop your SYLLABUS and outline your expectations very clearly. Film your INTRODUCTION VIDEO and tell students what your expectations are. Give a VIDEO COURSE TOUR and explain to students how your course works. Set up your course using the QUALITY MATTERS RUBRIC or iNACOL RUBRIC. Folder structure is extremely important. Too many folders causes students to become overwhelmed. Too many clicks causes students to become frustrated hunting for content. Have your course READY FOR STUDENTS before they can see the course.
Even if you have done massive amounts of planning before your course starts, situations will pop up that you don't expect. That is the nature of teaching! Online teachers know that these situations are coming and remain CALM. They are FLEXIBLE and can find SOLUTIONS through online research and their colleagues.
How have you used proactive and reactive strategies in your courses? What advice would you give to a brand new online teacher about using proactive and reactive strategies?
Toolbox of Strategies
Use school supports like your administrators, social workers, counselors and special education providers.
Create expectations around attendance such as, "students will log in and work at least 1 hour per day per course".
Set up your course per the Quality Matters Rubric. Students that know what to expect when they log into a course will be more likely to return and complete work.
Develop a routine. Offer office hours at set times each day or week and stick to them.
Post your contact information in at least 3 places in your course.
Set the landing page of your course to be the updates page. This forces students to see your communications before they work on the content.
Have an awesome course orientation. Give students the rules, policies and procedures up front so there are no surprises later on.
Document! Save your emails and messages to students.
Respond to students within 24 hours. Model this behavior for students if you expect students to respond in the same time frame.
"Teaching online is different than the traditional classroom. The relationships between student and teacher are more complex and once a mistake has been made in an electronic environment, it is very difficult to recover fully." (The International Jounral of Learning, 2015).
Students crave structure. The more organized you are and your course is, the more motivated students will be. Have a suggested schedule at the start of each session/unit/lesson/module.
Use active learning strategies in your courses. Require students to respond to other students and interact with the content.
Too many students for a single discussion board? Individually assign students to different discussion boards for a personalized experience.
Give students amazing learning experiences. Use case studies, problems, projects, and inquiry. "Sit and get" content is boring.
Give students timely feedback that asks them to think more in depth about their work.
Vary the type of work in the course. Remember learning styles? We need to offer different types of activities to meet the various learning styles.
Be a visible instructor. Post updates regularly. Respond in discussion boards. Provide feedback to students.
Divide content into small chunks.
Offer up quick successes as soon as the course starts. Create an obtainable assignment in the Orientation or in the first unit.
Orientation assignments are extremely important for student success. These should introduce students to skills that will be needed throughout the course like emailing or texting the teacher, turning in a dropbox assignment, responding appropriately to a discussion board, submitting a test, knowing what is on the syllabus, etc.
Teach students how to be active, self reliant learners. "Because many students are new to online learning and unfamiliar with its demands for self-reliance, many students disappear after the first few weeks." (elearnmag, 2017)
Set clear expectations for deadlines and advertise them in as many places as possible.