Extra skills needed when teaching online
Mae McSporran and Stuart Young
School of Computing and Information Technology
Unitec New Zealand
This poster outlines a range of skills that academic staff have to develop (Hofman, 2003) in order to teach in the new learning environment. Academic staff will need to move beyond their comfort zone to produce a successful online course, even courses produced using a virtual learning environment (VLE).
Computer skills
The development and implementation of new technologies has meant academic staff members have had to face the challenge of this new technology for fear of being left behind. Among the skills that it is necessary to develop are:
- Office software skills
- VLE software skills
- File management skills
- Search skills
- Typing skills
- Keyboard shortcuts
Pedagogical skills
Academic staff hopefully have good pedagogical skills for teaching in the classroom, however there are a number of attributes that are unique to the online learning environment. Among the skills that it is necessary to develop are:
- Online pedagogy
- E-moderating skills
- Online community development skills
Administration skills
The increased use of technology has resulted in an increased administration burden for academic staff. We need to practice time saving tips and tricks to counteract this increased workload. Among the skills that it is necessary to develop are:
- Email management (e.g. filters and folders)
- VLE administration time saving strategies.
- Re-use of resources
- Efficient data management (e.g. saving gradebook from VLE and importing into Excel)
Website design skills
An online course is a website and as such it should follow the rules of good web design if it is to be successful. Among the skills that it is necessary to develop are:
- Site organisation (hierarchy) skills
- Micro-content authoring
- Text formatting skills
- Graphic design skills (including use of colour)
- Including images
- Deep linking
- Cross-linking
Hyperdisc
We have created a website that publishes a number of useful time-saving tips and tricks for creating a successful online course. The website seeks to encourage a community of practice and can be found at: http://hyperdisc.unitec.ac.nz/blackboard/
References
Hofman, J. (2003). Be an Active and Participative Instructor. ASTD: Learning Circuits. [verified 14 Oct 2004] http://www.learningcircuits.org/2003/dec2003/hofmann.htm
Young, J.R. (2002) Online teaching redefines faculty members' schedules, duties, and relationships with students. The Chronicle of Higher Education, 31 May [verified 14 Oct 2004]
http://chronicle.com/free/v48/i38/38a03101.htm
Shank, P. (2003). Making sense of online learning. Learning Peaks. [viewed 10 Jul 2004] http://www.learningpeaks.com/
Authors: Mae McSporran can be contacted on mmcsporr@unitec.ac.nz
Stuart Young can be contacted on syoung@unitec.ac.nz
Please cite as: McSporran, M & Young, S. (2004). Extra skills needed when teaching online. In R. Atkinson, C. McBeath, D. Jonas-Dwyer & R. Phillips (Eds), Beyond the comfort zone: Proceedings of the 21st ASCILITE Conference (p. 654). Perth, 5-8 December. http://www.ascilite.org.au/conferences/perth04/procs/mcsporran-poster.html |
© Mae McSporran and Stuart Young
The authors assign to ASCILITE and educational non-profit institutions a non-exclusive licence to use this document for personal use and in courses of instruction provided that the article is used in full and this copyright statement is reproduced. The authors also grant a non-exclusive licence to ASCILITE to publish this document on the ASCILITE web site (including any mirror or archival sites that may be developed) and in printed form within the ASCILITE 2004 Conference Proceedings. Any other usage is prohibited without the express permission of the authors.
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