{"id":268,"date":"2020-03-23T16:48:42","date_gmt":"2020-03-23T16:48:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jeffpresents.com\/index.php\/2020\/03\/23\/2020-3-23-online-learning-for-people-who-dislike-online-learning\/"},"modified":"2020-03-23T16:48:42","modified_gmt":"2020-03-23T16:48:42","slug":"2020-3-23-online-learning-for-people-who-dislike-online-learning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jeffpresents.com\/index.php\/2020\/03\/23\/2020-3-23-online-learning-for-people-who-dislike-online-learning\/","title":{"rendered":"Online Learning for People who Dislike Online Learning"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"\" style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\"><strong><em>Well, here we are.<\/em><\/strong> As I write this blog, many of you are into your second week of eLearning (with some in their third week) even though you swore you would never engage in online education. I get it. I do. <\/p>\n<div\n class=\"\n image-block-outer-wrapper\n layout-caption-below\n design-layout-inline\n combination-animation-none\n individual-animation-none\n individual-text-animation-none\n \"\n data-test=\"image-block-inline-outer-wrapper\"\n ><\/p>\n<figure\n class=\"\n sqs-block-image-figure\n intrinsic\n \"\n style=\"max-width:1448px;\"\n ><\/p>\n<div\n \n style=\"padding-bottom:34.11602020263672%;\"\n \n class=\"\n image-block-wrapper\n \n \n \n has-aspect-ratio\n \"\n data-animation-role=\"image\"\n \n \n\n ><br \/>\n <noscript><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/images.squarespace-cdn.com\/content\/v1\/5a8d040564b05f9d780ecc2f\/1584979379519-HIL4F74F148GAKFIB1EU\/ke17ZwdGBToddI8pDm48kFCxlrfRSUdxvjOz1YZPMgYUqsxRUqqbr1mOJYKfIPR7LoDQ9mXPOjoJoqy81S2I8N_N4V1vUb5AoIIIbLZhVYxCRW4BPu10St3TBAUQYVKc6I7S4uLpFH8HYhZDzF66JM1BhDZfCXkt15YjoiIaa5DilTEuX7J53iitw1d1czqA\/NYTimesCoronavirusOutlook.JPG?w=640&ssl=1\" alt=\"NY Times - 03\/17\/2020\" \/><\/noscript><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"thumb-image\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/images.squarespace-cdn.com\/content\/v1\/5a8d040564b05f9d780ecc2f\/1584979379519-HIL4F74F148GAKFIB1EU\/ke17ZwdGBToddI8pDm48kFCxlrfRSUdxvjOz1YZPMgYUqsxRUqqbr1mOJYKfIPR7LoDQ9mXPOjoJoqy81S2I8N_N4V1vUb5AoIIIbLZhVYxCRW4BPu10St3TBAUQYVKc6I7S4uLpFH8HYhZDzF66JM1BhDZfCXkt15YjoiIaa5DilTEuX7J53iitw1d1czqA\/NYTimesCoronavirusOutlook.JPG?w=640&ssl=1\" data-image=\"https:\/\/images.squarespace-cdn.com\/content\/v1\/5a8d040564b05f9d780ecc2f\/1584979379519-HIL4F74F148GAKFIB1EU\/ke17ZwdGBToddI8pDm48kFCxlrfRSUdxvjOz1YZPMgYUqsxRUqqbr1mOJYKfIPR7LoDQ9mXPOjoJoqy81S2I8N_N4V1vUb5AoIIIbLZhVYxCRW4BPu10St3TBAUQYVKc6I7S4uLpFH8HYhZDzF66JM1BhDZfCXkt15YjoiIaa5DilTEuX7J53iitw1d1czqA\/NYTimesCoronavirusOutlook.JPG\" data-image-dimensions=\"1448x494\" data-image-focal-point=\"0.5,0.5\" alt=\"NY Times - 03\/17\/2020\" data-load=\"false\" data-image-id=\"5e78ddb3dc654879ac9be5b1\" data-type=\"image\" \/>\n <\/div><figcaption class=\"image-caption-wrapper\">\n<div class=\"image-caption\">\n<p class=\"\">NY Times – 03\/17\/2020<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">As an early adopter <em>(I taught my first online class in 1997 on WebCT at the University of Northern Colorado as a Grad assistant)<\/em>, I have had to defend the medium for 23-years. To many, eLearning will never be more than the bastard-child of \u201creal\u201d learning, meaning face-to-face learning will always \u201ctrump\u201d (no pun intended) any other kind. <\/p>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\"><em>And yet, here we are. <\/em><\/p>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">So, let\u2019s talk brass tax. Let\u2019s talk about how to make the best of a bad situation. (After all, doesn\u2019t it seem that\u2019s what it really means to be an adult? To make the best choice from only bad choices? Sigh\u2026) Let\u2019s talk about how to do this thing in some meaningful ways. <em>And seeing as we are likely going to keep using online \/ remote learning for the foreseeable future, let\u2019s start to iterate now!<\/em><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\"><strong>1.<\/strong> Without the apologetics of a full on defense, let me urge you to consider some<strong> shifts in the mental game. <\/strong> I won\u2019t belabor the point other than to say that there are HUNDREDS (possibly thousands) of articles showing that eLearning is not worse than face-to-face instruction. Unfortunately, there have been a healthy number of professors who, after attempting online instruction, wrote blistering or scathing indictments of the modality, relegating it to 2nd class citizen. For some, it\u2019s a matter of misrepresenting or misinterpretting research or other editorials <em>(<\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/news.elearninginside.com\/interpersonal-interaction-is-crucial-for-instructional-continuity-but-what-dose-that-mean\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><em>see this recent example<\/em><\/a><em> which is ripe with misinterpretation possibilities). <\/em> But in reality, most of those editorials were written by people who did it\u2026.well,<strong> they did it wrong. <\/strong>They asked bad questions like, <em>\u201cI do X in my classroom, how do I do X online?\u201d <\/em> That is the wrong question! They often tried eLearning techniques that were simplistic or made bad assumptions about audience or process. They didn\u2019t take full advantage of the richness, depth, and breadth of the world wide web, relying many times on a single strategy or tool to overcome bad pedagogy \/ andragogy. So, my first plea to you is that you might start to open your mind to some other possibilities. It may save your sanity as we\u2019re likely to be here for a few years\u2026<\/p>\n<p>One last quick note. Part of the problem with the question, <em>\u201cHow do I transfer my F2F instruction \u201cas is\u201d to my online instruction\u201d<\/em> is this. Face to face instruction throughout higher ed is generally not great, at least as far as actual learning is concerned. I know that\u2019s a hard pill to swallow for some, but it\u2019s true. <em>And it\u2019s proven out through decades of rigorous research.<\/em> If you\u2019re interested in going down that road, here are two of the best resources to show you what I mean. (IF you read these, come back to this blog to find some great resources about how to do it \u201cright.\u201d) Check out the criticisms spelled out in detail by (professor) Dr. Bryan Caplan in, <em>\u201cThe Case Against Education\u201d <\/em>and then follow it up with Brown\u2019s,<em> \u201cMake It Stick.\u201d <\/em><\/p>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\"><strong>2. Forget the overwhelming desire to create hours of video content<\/strong> – live or asynchronous. In fact, as my friend <a href=\"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/deta\/tanya-joosten\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Tanya Joosten<\/a> points out in a recent tweet, <em>\u201cThe research tells us that synchronous (real time) web conferencing (and a lot of experience) is not good for online learning, but I feel like everyone is suggesting to their faculty going remote to — do synchronous web conferencing. ???\u201c<\/em> As a researcher of more than 20 years, Tanya has packed a lot of data into that sound bite. But the key take-aways are this: <\/p>\n<ul data-rte-list=\"default\">\n<li>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\"><em>Asynchronous discussions are the best methodology for real learning in the online environment; <\/em><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\"><em>video instruction has a place, but videos should not be more than about 7 minutes in length; <\/em><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\"><em>asking students to defend, debate, or logically walk through an argument is FAR superior to watching a teacher do those things and even superior to multiple choice tests or quizzes on those same subjects.<br \/><\/em><br \/>The good news? <em>You <\/em><strong><em>don\u2019t <\/em><\/strong><em>have to spend dozens (hundreds?) of hours creating that kind of content!<\/em><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\"><strong>3. Check-in with your students. <\/strong> What students who like eLearning (or whom have acclimated to it, due to pragmatic life events) desire is <em>contact<\/em>. This does not mean live contact. It means that you check in regularly to guide, influence, question, support, etc. <em>It means putting up thoughts \/ views \/ questions and more in that discussion, rather than just allowing students to roam free, treating what should be a conversational discussion like a posting forum instead. <\/em>In fact, here is one area where<strong> eLearning beats face-to-face <\/strong>instruction. Not only does research back this up, my 22 years of online instruction reinforces this. In a F2F class, you have wallflowers, communication dominators, shy kids, and more. That equates to classroom conversations (assuming you have them) that are often quite lopsided. <em>But in an online discussion, EVERY student has a voice. <\/em> So, assuming you have required their participation<em> (which you should – 3-5 total posts; with one as a response to the topic, followed by <\/em><strong><em>cited <\/em><\/strong><em>responses to their peers, taking place throughout the week),<\/em> you will get to (<em>literally<\/em>) see which students \u201cget it\u201d and which students do not\u2026.in near-real time. <\/p>\n<p>But in addition to the pragmatics of your subject, <em>don\u2019t hesitate to check-in with your students in ways that are just plain supportive. <\/em>Our institute is dedicated to \u201cinterconnecting\u201d the educational experience. If you\u2019d like to peruse past blogs about the crucial nature of socio-emotional connection, please do! <strong><em> But suffice it to say that your students will do far better if you take moments here or there to ask how they are feeling, how they are doing, and what they are struggling with. <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<div\n class=\"\n image-block-outer-wrapper\n layout-caption-below\n design-layout-inline\n combination-animation-none\n individual-animation-none\n individual-text-animation-none\n \"\n data-test=\"image-block-inline-outer-wrapper\"\n ><\/p>\n<figure\n class=\"\n sqs-block-image-figure\n intrinsic\n \"\n style=\"max-width:1020px;\"\n ><\/p>\n<div\n \n style=\"padding-bottom:49.01960754394531%;\"\n \n class=\"\n image-block-wrapper\n \n \n \n has-aspect-ratio\n \"\n data-animation-role=\"image\"\n \n \n\n ><br \/>\n <noscript><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/images.squarespace-cdn.com\/content\/v1\/5a8d040564b05f9d780ecc2f\/1584981499189-X04X8KG11K73AUVPHEX5\/ke17ZwdGBToddI8pDm48kBSmhJLoEj22JIcRBb-dqWQUqsxRUqqbr1mOJYKfIPR7LoDQ9mXPOjoJoqy81S2I8N_N4V1vUb5AoIIIbLZhVYxCRW4BPu10St3TBAUQYVKcCTwJ0t9mbXpsmw3-mwzYsEHzgpoDzPCrke469cEH56Up1V98avqt_ROl07TqxXfi\/image-asset.png?w=640&ssl=1\" alt=\"\" \/><\/noscript><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"thumb-image\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/images.squarespace-cdn.com\/content\/v1\/5a8d040564b05f9d780ecc2f\/1584981499189-X04X8KG11K73AUVPHEX5\/ke17ZwdGBToddI8pDm48kBSmhJLoEj22JIcRBb-dqWQUqsxRUqqbr1mOJYKfIPR7LoDQ9mXPOjoJoqy81S2I8N_N4V1vUb5AoIIIbLZhVYxCRW4BPu10St3TBAUQYVKcCTwJ0t9mbXpsmw3-mwzYsEHzgpoDzPCrke469cEH56Up1V98avqt_ROl07TqxXfi\/image-asset.png?w=640&ssl=1\" data-image=\"https:\/\/images.squarespace-cdn.com\/content\/v1\/5a8d040564b05f9d780ecc2f\/1584981499189-X04X8KG11K73AUVPHEX5\/ke17ZwdGBToddI8pDm48kBSmhJLoEj22JIcRBb-dqWQUqsxRUqqbr1mOJYKfIPR7LoDQ9mXPOjoJoqy81S2I8N_N4V1vUb5AoIIIbLZhVYxCRW4BPu10St3TBAUQYVKcCTwJ0t9mbXpsmw3-mwzYsEHzgpoDzPCrke469cEH56Up1V98avqt_ROl07TqxXfi\/image-asset.png\" data-image-dimensions=\"1020x500\" data-image-focal-point=\"0.5,0.5\" alt=\"\" data-load=\"false\" data-image-id=\"5e78e5fa9900484b93a9b06e\" data-type=\"image\" \/>\n <\/div>\n<\/figure><\/div>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\"><strong>4. Don\u2019t shy away from collaboration. <\/strong> <em>Just because the medium is online, doesn\u2019t mean students cannot learn how to collaborate in this context. <\/em> One plus – it helps you concentrate your efforts and may be a far more meaningful way to do video-conferencing if that is your plan. Another plus – students will likely graduate into a world where this exact kind of work is performed regularly, so you are giving them a leg up. <\/p>\n<p><em>Just be sure to help them through it all – every phase. <\/em> Don\u2019t simply create groups (or worse, allow the LMS to create groups for you) and then give them a task saying, \u201cGood luck!\u201d Remember, our students have NEVER been taught how to be a good group member. They have never been taught what it means to make a group into a team. They have never been taught about team leadership, the importance of gatekeepers, the value of revision specialists, or the importance of a<em> project manager, despite the fact that 99% of groups in business use require these things! <\/em>So use this opportunity to help them with these life-skills that they will use throughout much of their adult lives. Grab a free instance of Trello or some other project management software and have your students leverage it for the collaborative projects you give. That way you can SEE every single aspect of the group experience. Who owned what, when it was due, and what domino effect late work had. No more, \u201che said \/ she said\u201d about how bad a group was. It\u2019s all in black and white.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\"><strong>5. Create a virtual office. <\/strong> Are you sick of answering the same question(s) over and over again? Create a virtual office (just a discussion called that) where students can both post AND see questions (and your responses). That way you get to answer questions once with the benefit of everyone seeing them. <em>(Yes, you may have to tell students you already answered that question until they get used to the idea.) <\/em> Obviously make sure you tell students that personal questions can still be sent to your email, but if someone sends you a process question, tell them you\u2019ll answer it in the office area!<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">I know seven is the magic number for remembering, but I\u2019m going to stop at five today. <em>These five recommendations could help you with time \/ efficiency while helping your students with outcomes, but they also may mean a bit of a pivot from your current thinking<\/em><strong><em>. <\/em><\/strong>And as we all know, pivots take energy, resources, and probably a different allocation of time. So five will suffice today. <\/p>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">I hope you are all starting to get into the swing of eLearning. <strong><em>As #1 suggests, you may find that you actually enjoy seeing what students think, being able to swoop in as a devil\u2019s advocate (my favorite discussion tactic) or a consultant and really help a person work through a problem or idea. <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">So, virus or no virus, let\u2019s do this. Let\u2019s help students not just get their \u201cclass time\u201d in, let\u2019s help them learn. <\/p>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">Good luck and good learning.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p class=\"\">A lot of people who dislike eLearning are now finding themselves (teaching or learning) online. As this will likely be the norm for a while, this is a first check-in to make recommendations and give some suggestions from effective practices and seasoned practitioners. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":269,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-268","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/jeffpresents.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/LoveHateOnlineLearning.jpg?fit=676%2C380&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9MbWB-4k","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jeffpresents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jeffpresents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jeffpresents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jeffpresents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jeffpresents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=268"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/jeffpresents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jeffpresents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/269"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jeffpresents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=268"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jeffpresents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=268"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jeffpresents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=268"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}