EMERGING ISSUES IN ONLINE SUPPORT

OMDE610

Stephanie Martin
 Abstract

Support for learners is something that we here about often but may not actually be taking

place but we very seldom hear of professor support. Institution feel that if they have the

training tools posted out there the learner and professor should be able to seek them out

and use them on their own. Other institutions haven’t put this much thought into the

support aspect of distance learner yet because it is such a new concept to them. Maybe

the institution doesn’t know how to support their learners and in turn are unable to assist

their professors with support for teaching in the distance education realm. The approach

to support has been a long hard road for some institutions but maybe one that has just

starting being traveled for others. Institutions both new in this process and old can take

past mistakes and learn from them and in turn hopefully improve on this process.

Introduction

Online support comes in many shapes and sizes but who defines those shapes and sizes or

how large the shapes and sizes may be. Support can be defined in many ways but in this

paper we will use, “the resources that the learner can access to carry out the learning

process.” [ CITATION Oeh01 \l 1033 ] Many in the academic field of online education

have overlooked the importance of the support system that students and professors need

to be successful online. Some institutions have tried their hand at the online support

system but haven’t put enough thought into it or haven’t spent the money and the time to

make sure the system is working properly or that the support is maintained as an ongoing

project. The lack of support has kept some students from trying their hand at online

education, even though this may be the most convenient type of education for them they

just aren’t comfortable with not having the support that they need when they need it.
Many professors have avoided teaching online for this same reason, lack of support when

developing their classrooms.

If a learner-centered context was used then this could address both problems; that the

learner needs more from the professor and the institution, and that the professor needs

more from the institution.  As Anderson states in “Toward a theory of online learning”,

this approach is not just geared toward the learning but also addresses the teachers and

the institutions needs in the learning environment. [ CITATION And04 \l 1033 ]

In the learner centered context the learner is not being catered to as the name may imply

but rather the society of learning as a whole is looked at and then the learning and teaches

is adapted to the unique characteristics that each brings to the fight. Students must be

able to express their personality through conferencing and professors must be able to

adapt to that; this is where the support for both comes in. How does a student or

professor learn to do such things and be successful at, along with trying to also learn or

teach?

Types of Issues

Support can be categorized as a service function and to often looked at as an

industrialized option and it the institution should be focusing their efforts on supplying

more individual learner and teaching support. [ CITATION Oeh01 \l 1033 ]

Many of the problems that occur with professors and students do always have to pertain

to the classroom. Some leading problem areas for both professors and students are lack

of time, difficulties in concentrating, family commitment, and organization when it

comes to planning. These types of problems are hard for the institution to address
because some can be to vague and others can be to individualized but offering some

support for the things that can be covered is better than nothing.

When researching students and professors anxieties about some of their support issues

this is some of the items that were found:

Students

 Students felt that the support was geared toward an individual group, that they

were not part of.

 They felt they didn’t have enough technical background to use the technology and

didn’t know where to go for the assistance that they needed.

 Remote support for items like counseling, careers, financial and course content.

Faculty

 Faculty felt that there was a lack of training when it came to tenure-track

professors who were just learning the ropes in teaching and being asked to teach

online without proper training

 Felt that when training was available that it either concentrated to much on the

media and not enough on the interpersonal communication that was needed

between a student and professor

 Being asked to use technology that they were not familiar with and not given

proper training to use it

Institutions should focus their efforts on ensuring that they have remote access to library

services, counseling services for degree plans, course content, financial aid and

counseling for school anxiety. These are all items that are available to students on
campus and should be available to students at a distance so that they feel they are part of

the school and have the support that they need. [ CITATION Dil92 \l 1033 ]

Professors need proper training on the technology that they are asked to use when

developing their online classroom. Communications between a student and professor

takes a different type of delivery when it placed in a media form rather than in a verbal

form. If the technology isn’t used properly it can actually hinder the students learning

rather than promote it. Professors who were asked about the web 2.0 tools that are

available to them and if they use them comment that they don’t because they are to

difficult and take to much time to develop their classroom. Some also stated that they

hadn’t received good feedback from students when trying to use the technology on their

own and felt that maybe they weren’t using it properly or that the students just weren’t

interested. Just as instructor style of teaching is important to the subject matter so is the

technology. One professor that I spoke to commented that it was “horses for courses”.

[ CITATION Tho \l 1033 ] What he meant by this was you can blanket a whole

institution with one type of technology because that would be like saying one book fit

every class. The type of technology that should be used should be based on the teaching

at hand.

Tools

Portfolios and learning journals have been one new tool that has come on the scene to try

to assist students and professors in the learning and teaching process. Learning journals

help develop independent learners to manage, assess and develop their own learning.

These types of learner support should be used to develop growth over the period of not

just one class but a whole program of classes. The learning journals should be used to
track growth, set goals, indentify strengths and gaps in learning. They should also be

used to critic the learning environment and how well the learner feels that are learning

from the teaching that is being offered. The portfolio provide students with an area to

collect each class journal that is taken for a specific program, then use this area as a

reflective tool to see how far the student has come or how they have developed through

the steps of the program. [ CITATION Wal04 \l 1033 ]

These two types of tools is a place where the professor not only tracks the progress of

their student but also track their own success in teaching. The professor should use these

tools as a critic for classroom assignments and how well they are being perceived and

understood. The professor can use this type of information as feedback to readjust their

classroom. [ CITATION Wal04 \l 1033 ]

Two types of assessment tools should be used to not only assess during the learning

process but also after the process has taken place; these types of assessment are formative

(taken place during the learning process) and summative (taking place after the learning

process. Learning can be developed at a greater rate if a formative approach is taken os

that weakness and strengths can be identified early and addressed. A formative approach

should also allow the student to know what is expected of them with the use of tools such

as a rubric. With the use of a rubric the student will know what the professor views as

poor, average, good or excellent performance on specific tasks. [ CITATION Gog08 \l

1033 ]

Both formative and summative assessment should be tailored to the learners level or

ability because just like the technology, not all students are designed or learn the same
way so one set of standard critiquing can not always be used.[ CITATION Gog08 \l

1033 ]

Using a wide range of instructional actives can help keep student engage and get them

started when it comes to online conferences. Students tend to shy away from publically

expressing themselves when it comes to the conference and feedback areas of online

classrooms so professors must come up with an array of ways to engage them. Students

need an area not only to engage in the topic at hand but also for topics not related to the

course content. Professors can use a separate conference for this and label it something

fun like “coffee house” or have virtual hours where the student is able to chat one on one

with the professor during that time. Breaking the class into smaller groups to work on

task builds a rapport between students making them feel more comfortable with their

classroom or that they have an allied in the class. While using all of these tools can be

helpful to the learning, the learning actually won’t take place if the professor isn’t also

engaged and responding to the students. If the proper support isn’t given to the professor

in teaching them how to respond then these types of techniques will not work in

supporting learning. [ CITATION SuB05 \l 1033 ]

Many institutions now require their professors to take a class on how to use their

technology to teach online; while this class focuses on the learning management system

that the specific school is using it will still benefit the professor. The class is used to

familiarize the professor with the technology but also how to use the technology to

engage students. Tools are used during the course to make the professor use several

different types of web 2.0 tools to engage students, helps professors with interaction for
online conferencing and how their course material may be perceived differently online

and how to tailor it to fit this type of atmosphere. [ CITATION Wil03 \l 1033 ]

This type of professor support can also be critiqued to the level of the professor’s

technical proficiency; just as no two students are built equally neither are two professors.

Along with the training certification for using the LMS institutions can set up an online

staff development site that will offer training for specific web 2.0 tools that can be used

to enhance learning. This type of training will be a self motivated one but continuing

learning on the job is increasingly required to stay ahead in ones field. Each professor

and student must be able to effectively self regulate ones own learning and training. This

will require them to have the ability to self diagnosis their weakness and to be able to

seek out the training that they need.

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