TLC's Weekly Tip

My Online Course is Ready … Now What?

You've carefully prepared your online course—sometimes with help from others (e.g., instructional designer, multimedia specialist, or librarian). But ultimately, when it's time to offer the course, it's all up to you. How can you successfully guide your students' learning when you can't see the vacant look of confusion or the familiar glimmer of realization as they construct their learning?

The successful online instructor recognizes the four distinct roles he or she must assume to guide students' learning in an online course:

Pedagogical: Naturally, serving as the content area specialist, the online facilitator guides students to key concepts and skills. This may be the most familiar role to experienced educators.

  Follow assigned discussions and review assignments carefully and offer resources that most appropriately expand student learning and correct misconceptions.
  Designate a discussion forum for student questions and their answers. This will not only stem the onslaught of questions requiring individual answers, but also provide an opportunity for peer teaching as students can respond to each other. Respond promptly to questions—always within 24 hours.
  Help keep assigned discussion topics on track by providing a forum for socializing and off-topic conversations. 

Social: It's up to the online facilitator to create a welcoming online learning community so students become comfortable exchanging ideas in this virtual space that they may be approaching with some anxiety: they usually can't see or hear others in their virtual classroom.

  Model discussion behavior with a conversational, personal, and encouraging tone as well as frequency of responses.
  Greet students in an introductions or icebreaker forum or activity.
  Maintain a daily presence with a combination of posts in assigned discussion forums, announcements, and feedback.

Managerial: Stay organized! Mishandling of procedural and administrative tasks can be more obvious in an online class when students can't access the online classroom or don't have a virtual group area in which to collaborate.

  Monitor attendance to follow up with missing students. This can be more important than in traditional teaching because of possible technical difficulties or flagging motivation.
  Reveal and hide course materials and activities to optimize student learning and avoid confusion.
  Alert students about how long instructional materials will continue to be available after the end of class.

Technical: By assisting participants to become comfortable with the technologies used in the course, the technology ideally becomes transparent and students focus on the learning objectives.

  Update or replace broken links.
  Ensure all instructional materials are offered in a universally accessible format.
  Announce information related to interruptions of access to servers delivering course materials in advance (when possible) or immediately after (when necessary). 

These roles are similar to what instructors in the traditional classroom are already accustomed to—but they take on new meaning in an online classroom.

Derived from Assessing Online Facilitation (See more tips for online facilitation http://humboldt.edu/~aof).

Berge, Z. L. (1995). Facilitating Computer Conferencing: Recommendations from the Field. Educational Technology. 35(1) 22-30. The Role of the Online Instructor/Facilitator.

Collison, G., et al. (2000). Facilitating online learning: Effective strategies for moderators. Atwood Publishing; Madison, WI.

Headley, Scot. (October/November 2005). Five roles I play in online courses. Innovate: Journal of Online Education Vol. 2, Issue 1. Retrieved October 6, 2006 from (Must register to view, but account is free.)

Hootstein, Ed. (2002) Wearing Four Pairs of Shoes: The Roles of E-Learning Facilitators.

What Makes a Successful Online Facilitator? Illinois Online Network.