Converting your classroom to the online world

In this week's assignment for my online classroom we were tasked with a case study. A trainer has decided his student's are not participating enough in his classroom and wants to change his training sessions to blended learning of some in class and some online training. In order to adapt his training session there will be many things that need to be considered. I created a document to help him begin to think of the areas he will need to develop, adapt and change in order to move some of his training content online.

Converting Your Classroom to the Online World

There are many factors to consider when adapting some of your training to a distance learning program. This guide will help you to review the areas needed to get your program online.

Pre-Planning

Before you can have an online training program there are some things you need to consider and plan.
•What online classroom platform will you be using?
•Are there more costs involved to purchase this or other technologies?
•Investigate the technology skills of your learners as you may need to consider creating new training documents on how to use their new online environment
•How much of the content will go online?
•Will you need an instructional designer to help you set up and design your online classroom?
•Set up a timeline to determine if you have enough time to organize these factors before the training begins.
•Have a backup plan if your technology goes down so students are aware what they need to do. (Simonson, Smaldino, Albright & Zvacek, 2009).
•What will be the break-down of grading and the requirements of your training program?
•Consider reviewing and changing your syllabus as a guide to help you plan the curriculum.

Content

The online environment is different from a traditional classroom so your classroom materials will need to be adapted and changed for the online world.
•To ensure your students remain engaged it is a good idea to review your current content and add in visuals. (Simonson, Smaldino, Albright & Zvacek, 2009). These visuals could include multimedia videos, tables, or charts.
•To ensure the students are engaging in their online classroom and participating you need to ask problem solving questions, create experience driven activities and have a group project. (Simonson, Smaldino, Albright & Zvacek, 2009). These will ensure the students are able to collaborate and pull examples from their own experiences.
•Also, “time constraints for class delivery, lack of eye contact, visualization of the materials, and planning for interaction require a reconsideration of classroom dynamics (Simonson, Smaldino, Albright & Zvacek, 2009). These will ensure the students are able to collaborate and remain engaged.
•Will you be changing how you grade your students?
•How much of the class time will be spent online vs. in the classroom?

Instructor’s role

As an online instructor there are aspects of your role that will need to adapt and change as you need to ensure students are participating. “Learners who are engaged in learning are actively participating in their own understanding of the content. The ‘kiss of death’ for any distance course is the lack of student participation.” (Simonson, Smaldino, Albright & Zvacek, 2009).
•It is your responsibility as an instructor to determine if students are participating enough or if they need to be pushed to engage more with their classmates.
•The key to online learning is your discussion board. It will be where students are posting their assignments, discussing issues or ideas with each other and really showing their knowledge.
•As an instructor you will need to set up hours and times when you will be login to review the student’s work and posting to the discussion board.
•Students will be engaged in their online learning experience if they feel their instructor is challenging their learning experience and helping them to learn as much as possible.

Technology

In order to prepare for online learning there are a few technical questions you will need to ask yourself.
•Will the students need training for the online environment?
•Do the students need to purchase anything or have computer requirements?
•What happens if your technology goes down?
•If you are going to have an online database for your resources you need to ensure students know how to organize access.
•All technology including the online classroom will need to be tested to ensure it is functioning and there are no issues with content.

Resources

•Will students need access to any online resources?
•Do any of your resources need to be scanned or added into your database?
•Have you added in any new media or visuals?

Preparing your Student’s

Currently, your students have not been communicating effectively in person. It is important that you make them aware of what their new requirements will be if they are in an online environment. Here are some steps to prepare your student’s for this change.
•It is possible to have students that have not been in school for at least 10 years and there last experience in school did not use the internet let alone a computer. This means many could have limited computer skills and have never navigated an online classroom.
•As a new distance learner your student might be a little intimidated as they are not use to navigating and learn in an online classroom. It will take some time for them to figure out where everything is and really ensure that you are not missing any important information.
•“Just as the instructor must take responsibility for learning about students, learners in the distance learning education classroom must assume ownership in their learning experiences (Simonson, Smaldino, Albright & Zvacek, 2009).”
•It will be important to encourage your student to participate online but set minimum login and discussion board posting requirements. It will be an incentive to participate if they receive lower grades for not participating enough.
•Ensure you communicate what your expectations are for your students.
•Allow the student’s to communicate with one another by encouraging them to post their details or have assignments that create discussion with their classmates.



REFERENCES

Piskurich, Dr. George. "Facilitating Online Learning" Laureate Online Education, 2011. Retrieved from Distance Learning module

Simonson, M., Smaldino, S., Albright, M., & Zvacek, S. (2009). Teaching and learning at a distance: Foundations of distance education (4th ed.) Boston, MA: Pearson.