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.” (Oehlkers, 2001) 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. (Anderson,

2004)

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.

(Oehlkers, 2001)

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 these are 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. (Dillon, 1992)

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”. (Hulsman,

2010) 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.

One fear of many students and professors was the technical support

that may not be available when issues arise with the technology.

Institutions must have an IT department that is available to the student

and the faculty at all hours of the day, not just during business hours.

Due to the nature of distance education the student could be online in

Tokyo and if the IT department is only open from 9-5 central time in

the Kansas then it fails the student. Students and professors have

stressed that many times when they contact the IT department for

help with technology they do not feel that the support tech knows

much more then they do about the subject and do not feel that they

walk away from the experience with any better understanding of the
issue then when they started. Institutions have tried to remedy the

insecurities of the students and professors by implementing a help

desk but have not ensured that the persons working this desk have a

better understand the people that they are helping with the

technology.

Tools

Portfolios and learning journals has 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. (Walti, 2004)

These two types of tools are a place where the professor not only

tracks the progress of their student but also tracks 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. (Walti, 2004)

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 so 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. (Gog, 2008)

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. (Gog, 2008)

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. (Su, 2005)

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. (Wilson, 2003)

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. Institution will also have online training for their

students on how to use their online classroom and offer discounts to

software and online tools. This type of support 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. This type of

development will help both the professor and the student to feel more

confident in their learning, social interactions and self-evaluation.

Academic advising is another tool that institutions can use to support

their students. Because many institutions application periods have

become shorter, with no waiting lists for students, students are

admitted almost immediately with no time for introduction and

preparation to a program. (Kelly, 2007)

This type of admissions can raise ethical issues for the institution as to

whether the student is taking the correct course of student for the

program they wish to pursue. Students need a guided path as to

where they are to go in their program and how best to get their. The

academic advisor would be available to students from the time they

apply to when they graduate, ensuring that the student stay on path.

Many institutions have not implemented this feature because they

believe students should be able to find their own way at the higher

education level rather than needing to be hand held through the

system. Many students believe that this lack of service is impersonal

and shy away from institutions that have no guidance for their

students. Most students would agree that an academic advisor service

makes the experience more individualized and is an important

dimension of their academic support system; this type of individualized

service balances out the impersonal feel of distance education

classrooms. (Kelly, 2007)

Scaffolding is a new learning support system that is used to express

the intervention of a peer, adult or competent person in the learning of

another. (McLoughlin, 2002) This type of learner support is believed

to be able to assist students if it is used in a timely and appropriate

manner. This process also states that with any support (learning

materials, library, and facilitator) it is only helpful if it is offered

properly. Scaffolding offers support to learning by aligning the

teacher, the task and the environment so that learning can take place

in an optimal condition. So this would mean that support would have

to include encouragement for interaction, reflective thinking, social

support within the dialogue, and feedback from peers and mentors.

Collaborative work such as Wiki, a website that allows the easy

creation and editing of any number of interlinked web pages via a web

browser using a simplified markup language or a WYSIWYG text editor,

can be used to scaffold group cognition and processes. (McLoughlin,

2002)

There is a range of technological approaches to enable scaffold

learning available for use. Some of these include:

1. Computer-supported intentional learning environment where the

role of the professor is to move from manager to the facilitator of

the collaborative process

2. Intelligent tutoring systems which learners are lead through the

learning processes and where the tasks are set up by structure

and sequences in order to assist them

3. Goal-based scenarios offer a learning setting where the student

is engaged in authentic tasks with a goal to achieve.

4. Design support environment are geared toward supporting

learning with a form of software-realized scaffolding that

engages the student to assist in the development and design of

instruction

While there are many different types of scaffolding techniques for both

face-to-face and distance learning settings, the scaffolding used in a

distance setting can be created by using software, technological tools,

and web-based tools; while the professor stills plays a direct

intervention role in face-to-face settings. (McLoughlin, 2002)

Conclusion

Support has many roles in the distance education field and there are

many improvements that can be made upon this. Institutions need to

take an active role in their student and faculty support systems to

ensure that these two groups are receiving the support necessary to

be successful in the distance education field. While institutions want to

move forward and grow in the distance education field they are unable

to do so without the support system in place to ensure that the

professors and students are achieving their goals. Institutions can

create these support systems with some simple tools such as web-

based tutorials for training, online library systems, virtual advisors and

the use of new web 2.0 tools such as Wikis, Avatars, and Portfolios.

The key to making all of these tools work successfully for the students

and professors are a competent IT department that can assist

whenever the need arises. Until institutions start to make the move to

a strong support unit the wary feeling that students and professors get

when you speak to them about distance education will never go away.

Institutions need to concentrate more fully on the view that their

professors and students have toward distance education in order to

keep moving forward in this field successfully.

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