Skills for effective online educators

1. DEVELOPMENT OF
EFFECTIVE
EDUCATORS
Necessary skills needed by effective
distance learning professionals.
Ben Sullens
CUR532 – Melinda Medina
March 30, 2015

2. ONLINE EDUCATION V. OTHER
FORMAL METHODS OF LEARNING
 Online education is similar to any other formal education:
 learners’ needs are assessed;
 content is negotiated or prescribed; learning activities are orchestrated; and
 learning is assessed. (Anderson, 2004)

3. SELECT IMPORTANT SKILLS FOR
ONLINE EDUCATORS
Understanding the Educators
Role Building an Online Community
 Palloff and Pratt (2011)
discuss in their book various
key points that define an
excellent online instructor,
almost every point is around
what the online educators
role is in the classroom,
online or otherwise.
 Community is also a key
aspect of an online
classroom. Palloff and Pratt
(2011) quote Brook and
Oliver (2003), “social
phenomenon of community
may be put to good use in
the support of online
learning. This is well
supported by … the role of
social interaction in the
construction on knowledge.”

4. THREE ROLES OF EFFECTIVE ONLINE
TEACHERS
 Anderson, Rourke, Archer, and Garrison (2001) described three
roles that a teacher accomplishes in the process of creating a
effective online teaching presence.
 First, is the design and organization of the learning experience that takes
place before the establishment of the learning community and during its
operation (Anderson, 2004).
 Second, teaching involves devising and implementing activities to encourage
discourse between and among students, between the teacher and the
student, and between individual students and groups of students and content
resources (Anderson, 2002).
 Third, the teaching role goes beyond that of moderating the learning
experiences when the teacher adds subject matter expertise through a variety
of forms of direct instruction (Anderson, 2004)

5. DEVELOPMENT OF A FACULTY'S
ROLE
 The development of an online educator is similar to the route
taken by traditional educators. The process includes
 Getting to know the school
 Learning the basics on online instruction
 Refining details of the educators field
 Developing the educator as a leader (Palloff and Pratt, 2011)

6. COMMUNITY
Classrooms that have a sense
of community thrive. In online
and distance classrooms, you
lose the ability to create
community in the physical
sense. Thing an online
educator can do to build a
community in their virtual
spaces by developing an online
presence as soon as possible
in the course (Palloff & Platt,
2011).

7. CREATING A COMMUNITY
 Charalambos, Michalinos, and Chamberlain (2004) describe what
they believe to be the common characteristics of the learning
community, which include
 a common sense of responsibility among participants toward assigned tasks
and their peers; joint vision and control of the community equally shared
among members;
 a safe environment where opinions can be freely shared and questions asked
without fear of retribution;
 structural dependence that establishes the need to interact and share
resources;
 and mutual support among members and subgroups.

8. TYPES OF PRESENCE IN AN ONLINE
COMMUNITY
 Cognitive presence
 Development of an environment that supports the development and growth of
critical thinking skills
 Social presence
 “…establishment of a supportive environment such that students feel the
necessary degree of comfort and safety to express their ideas in a
collaborative context (Anderson, 2004).”
 Teaching presence
 “…teaching presence is delegated to or assumed by students as they
contribute their own skills and knowledge to the developing learning
community (Anderson, 2004).”

9. HOW CAN AN EDUCATOR LEARN TO
DEVELOP COMMUNITY
 With online education, you lose the face to face interaction and
everything that comes with a physical classroom. This loss does
not mean educators lose the ability to create connections. It can
be something as simple as an email or private message to
something as complex as a becoming a mentor to a student
online or off.
 The most important learning that can happen in creating
community, is experiencing the educator role and what needs to
happen for a successful classroom community.

10. SUMMARY
 Teaching in an online context can be an invigorating experience
for both the student and the teacher. Online educators can look
towards their students and build experiences for them to bridge
new ideas and existing concepts.
 It’s up to the students to bring their own backgrounds into the mix
and build on their own experiences to learn and grow.

11. REFERENCES
 Anderson. T.. (2004). Teaching in an Online Learning Context.
Theory and Practice of Online Learning, 1(1), 273-294. Athabasca
University.
 Charalambos, V., Michalinos, Z., & Chamberlain, R. (2004). The
design of online learning communities: Critical issues. Educational
Media International, 41(2), 135–143
 Palloff, R. M., & Pratt, K. (2011). The Excellent Online Instructor:
Strategies for Professional Development . New York, NY: Wiley.