Fixed

I fixed my blog permissions so that you should be able to post any information to the blog that you have.

Thank you for your patience and sorry for the confusion.

Brett

Blended Learning Article Critique Draft

Hi Stephanie,

This is only the second article critique that I have ever written. It is a rough draft but I had to finish it early. I am leaving on a school trip with my grade 9 students tomorrow and not arriving back until late on the 31st. I will not have Internet access so I'll get back in touch with you on the 31st or 1st.

Thank you for your work in advance!

Brett

The journal article that I will be reviewing is titled Assessing Teaching Presence in a Computer Conferencing Context? It was written by Terry Anderson, Liam Rourke, D. Randy Garrison, and Walter Archer and was published in the Journal of Asynchronous Learning Networks, volume 5, issue 2, September 2001. It is contained on pages 1-17. Terry Anderson is a professor at Athabasca University and the Canadian Research Chair in Distance Education. While Liam Rourke, D. Randy Garrison, and Walter Archer are all professors at the University of Alberta. They are all well published in the field of Education Technology and Distance Education.

The authors of this article have touched on the traditional teacher role in a single multi-level classroom as an introduction to their article. They explain that as in the past today’s online instruction fulfill many roles to accomplish online learning. The roles that the author’s touch on are the online teaching being a designer of the online course, a facilitator of an online social environment where learning will take place, and finally a traditional subject matter expert in the course being taught. Anderson, Rourke, Garrison, and Archer defined the above mentioned three rolls of an online teacher based upon previous research in the field of study and their own personal experiences as online instructors. The authors then created an empirical method based upon previous models in the form of a software program in order to test for teaching presence in an online graduate level university course.

At the end of the article Anderson, Rourke, Garrison, and Archer presented the results of their empirical testing to show teacher presence in online courses. They tested their tool on two online courses to gain initial data on teaching presence. Finally the authors invited others to expand upon their tools and to refine them to create more theoretical and empirical information to help future online teachers develop their own teacher presence.

The article written by Anderson, Rourke, Garrison, and Archer is a combination of work that they have built on the framework of other authors. They have layered their definition of teaching presence in an online course upon the models of teaching roles in a computer conference that Berge and Paulsen did in 1995, Mason’s work in 1991, and Rossman’s analysis in 1991. From the scaffolding on previous work the four authors have helped create a basis for their definitions that is well based in completed research and not just created from new research in the area.

The actual definition that was created states “We define teaching presence as the design, facilitation, and direction of cognitive and social process for the purpose of realizing personally meaningful and educationally worthwhile learning outcomes.” Anderson, Rourke, Garrison, and Archer [1]. I will discuss the three categories in brief below.

The first and most detailed section of a teaching presence according to the authors of the article is the design and organization section. I agree with this assessment of an online course. My very limited experience with online extensions of my regular classroom have supported what was stated by Anderson, Rourke, Garrison, and Archer that “… the process of designing and planning the online course is usually more extensive and time-consuming than is the analogous process in classroom based teaching.” [1]. When designing an online course you have to think of every possible problem or direction that your class will go in. Unlike a traditional classroom you are not physically in a location when the students might meet to be able to handle any issues or problems. You also have to create a classroom culture by “… providing guidelines and tips and modeling appropriate etiquette and effective use of the medium.” [1]. Once again in the limited experience with online teaching that I have I did not set up the etiquette and use rules with my grade 9 students. As a result I ended up dealing with issues regarding online language and attacks on other students viewpoints.

The next section of teaching presence that was described by the four authors was facilitating discourse during the course. The main issue that I have with an online course is the feeling of being alone and not having connections with my peers or the instructor in the course. The authors address these feeling by stating that “… the teacher regularly reads and comments on students postings, constantly searching for ways to support the development of the learning community.” [1]. This constant feedback and connection helps build a teaching presence by showing students that there is someone on the other side of the monitor that is interested in their work.

Finally Anderson, Rourke, Garrison, and Archer describe themselves almost as an instructional design model subject matter expert. They describe themselves in the direct instruction method of their teaching presence definition as a “… subject matter expert is expected to provide direct instruction by interjecting comments, referring students to information resources, and organizing activities that allow the students to construct the content in their own minds and personal contexts.” [1]. The authors basically state that they have to be available to keep the discussion moving along and in the right direction. If their students are struggling they need to provide timely resources or help to keep them moving in the right direction.

I agree with Anderson, Rourke, Garrison, and Archers three main sections of teaching presence in an online course. The three sections of Design and Organization, Facilitating Discourse, and Direct Instruction basically mirror my own limited experiences with online instruction and my experience of in class teaching. Without detailed pre-planning of activities, constant checking and building of an online community, and actually being available for the students’ online learning will not take place. Unlike a regular classroom where your teacher presence is established by standing in a room you have to work on the author’s three described sections to effectively create a teaching presence online.

The most important thing that I have taken away for this article that I need to incorporate into my course redesign section is to create an online teaching presence in my courses. As in a classroom it is not as simple as saying here is your material, now get to work. You have to work to create that teaching presence through course design, facilitating discourse, and of course directing the instruction.

The most work that I will need to do is course design. I will need to pull from my previous experiences that I gained in my instructional design course. As Anderson, Rourke, Garrison, and Archer explain “This category also involves designing and administering an appropriate mix of group and individual activities that take place during the course.” [1]. So, obviously I will need to create both group and individual activities during the course design. As the author’s also show I’ll need to be able to create flexible timelines and the ability to: set curriculum, design methods for discussion, establish time parameters for a project, use the medium of online effectively, and watch for netiquette rules.

The next major thing that I have picked up from this article is that I have to be an active participant in the course. In a normal classroom I can establish a teaching presence by just being in the room. A look towards a student or my mere physical presence can be enough to have the students continue to work on their assignments. In an online environment I would lack these abilities. It would be by questioning the students, keeping the conversations going that I would be able to “… maintaining the interest, motivation, and engagement of students in active learning.” [1]. So, by being an active participant in the online discussions I can help the students’ learning.

Finally by being available to provide direct instruction I will reinforce my role as the instructor. By being able to help students as a subject matter expert, provider of resources, or creator of deadlines I can be seen in the more traditional role of a teacher. As in a normal classroom I will need to be available online during lessons in order to be able to directly teach a class.

In conclusion I find that there is more to creating a teaching presence and encouraging online learning than just “throwing up the materials online” like I had originally thought. Unlike a normal classroom where I would be able to judge and react to students if my lesson was not working, I don’t have this option in an online course. Thus I will have to really put in the extra time for preparation before the class goes live and online. This extra time for lessons, activities, discussions, and such will help an online class move forward. I will also have to provide direct teaching like I would in a normal classroom. There is no easy fix to take the teaching load off by moving things online. I will still have the same duties as a normal classroom teacher. Finally, I will have to keep in touch and on top of all my students and their work. This will allow me to provide discourse and keep the students moving forward in their learning. I’m looking forward to re-designing one of my courses to have online components during this course.

REFERENCES:

1. Anderson, T., Archer, W., Garrison, D., Rourke, L. (2001). Assessing Teaching Presence in a Computer Conferencing Context. The Journal of Asynchronous Learning Networks 5(2) (pp. 1-17)

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This is only a test, sorry for whoever reads it.