Facilitate

An important aspect of teaching in a digital environment is building presence or an online teaching persona. Richardson, Besser, Koehler, Lim and Strait (2016) found that presence is important to student success in online courses, and that there are different aspects to building presence:

  • setting the tone;
  • taking the online environment into consideration;
  • using sharing as a communication strategy; and
  • using feedback as a communication strategy.

Garrison and Cleveland-Innes (2005) suggest that there are other important requirements of the online facilitator, such as:

  • giving clear guidelines to students about the expectations for participation;
  • sustaining participation (via questioning, focussing and modelling); and
  • shaping the direction of learning and progressing meaning-making and understanding.

Baran, Correia and Thompson (2011) suggest that the following support should be provided to teaching staff who are online facilitators. Consider how these can be incorporated into your own personal development plan:

  • teachers should be encouraged to collaborate with other online teachers and listen to their voices as they transform and create their online teacher personas;
  • online teachers should be encouraged to pursue pedagogical inquiry and creativity;
  • attempts should be made to engage teachers in learner-centered teaching approaches; and
  • online teachers should be encouraged to promote community building around online teaching.

Digital Literacy

Siemens, Gašević and Dawson (2015, p. 42) state that “instructors’ attitude towards technology use and their levels of digital literacy play an important role in shaping overall learning experience” and that students require a high level of digital literacy. Building digital capability Links to an external site. in both staff and students has many different aspects. Jisc are currently conducting a building digital capability project, and have resources for students, including a guide for developing students’ digital literacy Links to an external site.. The University of Exeter has a digital learner test Links to an external site. for students.