Online Education Skills

I read two interesting articles today, both referred to me by the Technology-Enabled Teaching email newsletter I receive each day. The first article, Fifty-One Competencies for Online Instruction, discusses skills instructors need in order to be effective in delivering courses online. The second article, Reflection in an Always-on Learning Environment: Has It Been Turned Off?, mentions how instructors need to build in time for reflection as part of their online courses. To me, these two articles represent two sides of the same coin. Both of these articles speak to the educational challenges we face in today’s high tech world.

Because of the fast growth rate of online programs in higher-educational institutions, most instructors beginning to teach in an online environment do not have experience teaching in that environment. This only stands to reason. However, what is perhaps less clear is that many of the needed skills are different from skills used teaching in a face-to-face environment. Consequently, to be most effective in this new environment, instructors need to learn what skills they should have and how to apply those skills. Smith (the author of the first article I mentioned above) advocates creating a training program for new online instructors that will help lead them to develop competencies (skills) needed before the course, during the course, and after the course.

A great many college students today are part of the net generation; these students have been termed digital natives. They are very adept at working in a multifaceted technological environment available to course designers today. They are comfortable multi-tasking and seem to suffer less from information overload than many, like me, in previous generations who struggle trying to keep up. However, Chen (the author of the second article I mentioned above) is concerned these digital natives are loosing the reflective thinking skills so important for learning. She supports including activities in online courses that promote reflective thinking. Some of the activities she mentions are blogging and creating electronic portfolios.

Online education requires new skills from both instructors and students. I am learning more each day about what these skills are. As I do so, I am learning how to develop programs that teach or promote use of these skills. Perhaps most importantly, I am beginning to learn how to develop these skills in myself.

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