Distance Ed Musings

On the drive into work this morning I had the pleasure of the conversing with 2 wise and talented women, Pat and Kathi. We talked about distance education issues: Kathi is presenting on distance education at an orientation for new faculty. Her 3 main points for the talk are: (1) clarity matters; (2) creating a caring environment is important; and (3) honesty and integrity are essential. She went on to muse that this is not so different from face to face classes. How one creates each of these attributes in the two venues may differ.

This dovetailed nicely in to my conversation with an instructor who teaches about Alaska Native issues and education. He is a master story teller- and that is a vital aspect of his teaching style. In addition, in his face-to-face classes, he does a masterful job of creating an environment in which the students' views of teaching and learning with those of other cultures can be transformed.

He is searching for ways to create that trusting environment in his distance classes. I wonder, too, about bringing his story telling alive in the distance class. We'll be conversing on these points in the coming weeks as he develops his course.

My final interaction of the day was great - it was with a faculty member who taught a distance class this summer. He had taken to heart the ideas of presenting his students with a clean, pared-down, well-organized Blackboard shell. He also made a point of responding to all discussion board posts and emails. The announcements page was his spot to keep students informed of what was going on in the class - and he also emailed the content of the announcement to his students. The informal feedback that he got was positive. We talked about things he wanted to work on: using the survey tool to get better feedback from students, using the assignment manager, maybe adding an Elluminate component to his next class. We also talked about adding learning objects to his shell. I gave him the link to the Algonquin College Blackboard tips page.