Photo by Lena Bell on Unsplash
What:
This week’s class discussion was widely based on Online Learning. With the advent of the internet and the proliferation of access to information and knowledge, distance education was a clear next step in the genesis of education or at least a viable option. For the purpose of this blog, I am going to call it Distance Learning (DE). According to an article by Ní Shé, Farrell, Brunton, Costello, Donlon, Trevaskis, Eccles, they say that, “[t]oday many providers of distance education have become fully online where all teaching and learning materials are made available to students online, generally via the institutions Virtual Learning Environment (VLE)” (2019, p 18). Though the article is based on findings for university and higher education settings, I believe there is transferability. DE affords the option for parents to school their children, or have their students educated, in their home for a variety of reasons, be it health (both physical or mental), values, or proximity to a physical building. There are those who are weary DE, those who say that it is robbing the student of the valuable social aspects a public school provides. Others will counter with the schools cannot protect the values that the students’ families want them to be raised with. Both are valid points. But if we are going to talk about the efficacy of DE, we must look at the technology involved and what makes a good DE Teacher.
I work for a school district with a thriving DE program. It is called E-Bus. E-Bus has been operating for 25 years and has an enrolment of approximately 4500-5000 students (from around BC and beyond, with about 1000 being full time enrolled (FTE). The numbers are hard to calculate exactly as they have students taking one course while enrolled at another school, or just one course to reach graduation. In DE, the numbers always fluctuate. Beyond the numbers, there is a massive amount of technology involved, both by the school, and the student, to make this enterprise work.
So What:
I had a sit-down, well… a stand in the hall, chat with a teacher from E-Bus, and I asked him some questions about his job, and the tech they use to deliver their courses. Though this teacher is in my school and I see him every day, I have very little knowledge of his daily routines, as I am sure is common in schools that have DE teachers. We are in different worlds, even though we share a physical building. We had a fantastic talk that was enlightening.
First of all, this teacher suffers from a chronic physical ailment and teaching at E-Bus allows him the flexible hours that will fit his schedule. He is always in on the weekend and works his hours, just not in an 8-4, 5 day a week fashion. This is fantastic accommodation that DE affords. If we are to be inclusive to all students, which we should be, then we have to be inclusive to all workers if possible.
Secondly, his workload is interesting. I have asked many E-Bus teachers about how many students they teach at a given time. As you can imagine, with the fluctuation in course starts and finishes, that number changes often. As I understand it, the teachers in elementary have 25 families they look after and give education to in all disciplines. High school teachers can have as many as 200+ students at a time. As a classroom teacher, I find that number to be astonishing and in a classroom that would be 50 per class. However, DE is different in a way, as this teacher explains. He says that there are self-starters who he never really has to interact with as they complete their assignments without prodding and can fly through the course. However, there are students that may take 2 years to finish a course, and DE allows for that flexibility too. I cannot speak to whether this number of students is manageable, as I have never taught DE. Furthermore, with a lack of provincial class size limits for DE, the point is moot anyway. So how does the learning happen? How are all reached? Tech.
E-Bus runs off Moodle. Moodle is a Learning Management System (LMS) and it is open source. Through Moodle, the units are delivered. They also rely on Office 365 from Microsoft to deliver all their software needs through an online platform (cloud-based) and therefore not requiring the students to have the software on their physical computer. They also use a video recorder/editor called Camtasia. Though Social Media Platforms, like Facebook, are a viable way to communicate with students, it is frowned upon as it is a great way to get viruses, along with other confidentiality issues. The tech is allowing for the potential of a good online experience for the students and the teachers. But is it different being a teacher online vs. a regular school?
Now What:
To the question of DE and in school education being different, I would say it clearly is. However, the skills required to be a good teacher in this platform seem to match up well with regular schools. According to Ni She et al., the main factors important to successful online teaching are: presence, facilitation and supporting students (p34). When one looks at the descriptions of these (Table 10, p34) it discusses all the things that are effective in OE, but they are the same as good teaching in a classroom. Words like support, facilitation, presence, timely feedback, ETC. all play a role as an educator no matter the venue. I feel that I, and others, tend to try to differentiate what something is based on its mode of delivery. Yes, they are different, but the ideals are the same: Education. There are ways to create a tie between DE and conventual education through technology.
Overall, I was truly ignorant of the daily duties of a colleague that works in the same building as myself. We are together but in different worlds. There is a lot that I can learn from him as to how to incorporate the software he uses in my classroom. This has been a fantastic week of learning, and growth, and I am better for it.
By: Andrew Vogelsang
References
Shé Ní, C., Farrell, O., Brunton, J., Costello, E., Donlon, E., Trevaskis, S., & Eccles, S. (2019). Teaching online is different: Critical perspectives from the literature. Retrieved from Dublin City University website: https://openteach.ie/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/Teaching-online-is-different.pdf