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Educator's Voice

Volume 3, Issue 4
April 18, 2002

"High Touch" in a "High Tech" World: Strategies for Individualizing Online Learning

Over the last several years, I have had the luxury of conversing with countless online instructors regarding "what works" in online education. To my surprise, I have found that many, if not most, conversations have centered on "the best way to create highly attractive visual presentations." The focus often seems to be on teaching as information distribution, and on motivating students by offering some "sizzle" in their presentations - employing cute animated gifs, blinking letters, animated simulations of processes such as swallowing reminiscent of Alka Seltzer commercials, etc.

I don't have a problem with the notion of creating visually exciting presentations. However, I am somewhat surprised that there is so much concern about presentations, because in conversations with many of the most successful experienced online teachers, I find a very different focus. More often than not, we talk about the relationships they have with their students - and their strategies for engaging their students from the individual learner's point of view. These instructors have concern about the visual aspects of their courses like most, but much of their energy clearly is invested in what I would call "high touch mentoring."

When one takes a look at the most successful online teachers - i.e., those who obtain high student participation, high learning outcomes, and apparently high rates of student satisfaction, one finds that they demonstrate a very rich, active, respectful and responsive style of communication. More specifically, these "superior" online mentors often engage in one or more of the following kinds of actions or strategies:

• They provide a safe climate. They recognize that many anxious new online learners need some reassurance. Early and often, they let students know that there are numerous supports available to assist them - including the Orientation Course, the Help Notes, the 24x7 Help Desk, and their peers and the teacher. Most of all, they explicitly assure students that it is okay to ask for help, to trust them, and to trust that they will be very available and accessible - in the course, and/or by email, and/or by phone or in person.
  
  
• They invite input regarding the goals and agenda of the course. While they are mindful of the fact that they are content experts with clear ideas as to what students need, they also realize that learners often benefit from content that matches their individual academic and personal goals. These instructors also comfortably allow their students some measure of independence and control over their learning.
  
  
• They provide much individualized feedback - through email, in threaded discussions, as well as various other course communication tools. Knowing that learners will be gratified by and work harder for a teacher who cares about them, they give their students lots of positive messages about what they are doing well. They also offer constructive criticism when called for, provide models of good performance, and recommend links to resources for enhancing understanding of subject matter and/or to enable students to pursue material related to individual interests.
  
  
• They connect learners with one another. They appreciate that in interactive and collaborative learning situations, individuals have an opportunity to gain perspective and think reflectively, and this often produces higher levels of cognition as well as self-esteem. In turn, they fully employ threaded discussions and various collaborative assignments, as they foster much peer-peer interaction.

So, what am I driving at here?

Well, it comes down to this: In this "High Tech" world of ours, becoming more "High Touch" in communicating with the individuals who make up your class will probably lead to higher levels of achievement and satisfaction for your students. It will probably pay off for you as well.

       -- Edward H. Ladon, PhD

TIP

Using Images from the Web

There are a lot of excellent, content-specific images on the Web that you can find using the Google.com search engine. If you want to make your course more visually appealing, while providing relevant images to aid in your student's understanding of the material, Google's image search function is extremely useful.

However, the nagging issue of using copyrighted material holds instructors back from using more images from the Web. Indeed, if you copy a photo from another website you need to provide the source of the photo, diagram or graph from which you copied it. But, don't let that completely thwart your desire to use images that are "out there." *

To copy any image off the Web, right click on it and choose "Save image as" to save the image to your hard drive. (Mac users: click on the image and hold for several seconds until a dialogue box pops up to ask you where you want to save the image.)

By making the image a hyperlink to the source from which you have drawn it, you can provide the Web source to anyone who clicks on the image by using the HTML view in the eCollege Visual Editor to add a little, simple HTML code.

Here are the steps:

1. Find an image on Google
   
   
2. Save it to your hard drive
   
   
3. Upload it into the appropriate page in your course using the photo Link Wizard in the Visual Editor (click on the little picture frame icon on the Visual Editor tool bar).
   
   
4. Save
   
   
5. Click on the HTML view button (upper right corner of Visual Editor).
   
   
6. Find the image code, something like <IMG alt=bacteria src="/EC/Courses/CRS-Engl2154-281472/bacteria.gif">
   
   
7. Insert this code : <A href="http://webaddress of your image source"> just before the image HTML code above so that it looks like: <A href="http://webaddress of your image source"> <IMG alt=bacteria src="/EC/Courses/CRS-Engl2154-281472/bacteria.gif">
   
   
8. Make sure you have entered the correct Web address.
   
   
9. Then close this new HTML code by placing </A> after the image source so that it looks like this: <A href="http://webaddress of your image source"><IMG alt=bacteria src="/EC/Courses/CRS-Engl2154-281472/bacteria.gif"></A>
   
   
10. Save and test the functionality of the link in Course view, making sure that when you click on the image, it takes you to the website you got the image from.

Now you have provided a direct link to the website that you got the image from. Most likely, if a student clicks on the image, he/she will be taken to a good website with valuable supplementary content.

       -- Stephen Shugart, MFA

*Make sure you check with your institution's administrative contact to see if they have more specific policies regarding copyright.