In a recent presentation I attended there was a discussion was about about two groups of students, one undergraduate, the other graduate, who were asked to name the 10 most important qualities of behavior of the teacher during an online course. The top two qualities named they named?

Number one: Communication (that we understand)
Number two: Instructor disposition (we might need help with that)

Teacher disposition can be defined as having empathy, positive view of self, positive view of others, honesty, genuineness, meaningful purpose and vision.

Teacher disposition may lead to better student success with increased learning outcomes.

How do we make sure we are demonstrating the desired disposition during an online course?

Some key qualities:
• Be very present from the start.
• Personalize to each student.
• When a question is asked respond as quickly as possible, if possible immediately.
• Use the person’s name when communicating and if possible write a personal note.
• Provide positive feedback.
• Your tone can and will be detected. Present with positive, high-energy.

Join us for an online class taught from October 8 – November 9, 2012: “Teaching with Technology: Tips, Techniques and Tools”!

In this class, you will learn about using technology tools for teaching distance learning courses. We will discuss options and best practices for asynchronous and synchronous distance classes, as well as “blended” classes that offer both in-person and online options. Adult learning principles will be reviewed. We will examine and discuss examples of software and website tools in teaching.

The class is taught “asynchronously” using the Moodle course management system, so you can complete the classwork at a time convenient for you. Allow approximately 2 hours per week for independent classwork. There are 4 weeks of assignments, readings, and discussions, with the 5th week saved for a “catch-up” week. Upon completion of the class you will receive 8 MLA CE credits.

The class is free and open to residents of the U.S. Class enrollment is limited, so we do ask that you check your schedule to be sure you have time to complete the class.

To register: http://nnlm.gov/ntcc/classes/schedule.html

I recently attending a conference called SIDLIT: Summer Institute of Distance Learning & Instructional Technology.

One of the sessions I attended focused on choosing online activities that support learning objectives. The session talked about integrating the absorb, do, and connect approach; an idea put forth by William Horton, an eLearning guru.

Absorb activities impart facts. A learner may read an article, listen to an audio explanation, or watch a short video, etc. to access and acquire the information. This is sometimes seen as a passive learning activity, but our brain is most likely not in a passive mode as we process the new information and try to make it fit into our existing knowledge framework.

One way to make a seemingly passive learning activity more active is to augment the activity. The University of Arizona Library uses a system called Guide on the Side to augment their library instruction. Watch their tutorial about how to find articles using JSTOR. http://www.library.arizona.edu/applications/quickHelp/tutorial/searching-jstor

I attended the 28th Annual Conference of Distance Teaching & Learning on August 8-10, 2012 in Madison, WI.
In the next few weeks I will be posting about some of the things I encountered during the conference.

The first workshop I attended started with a video produced via Xtranormal.

Xtranormal makes your stories come to life. You select your “animated actors”, type or record your script, add sounds, gestures and voila, you have a short video.

Xtranormal is an online moviemaker program, an easy, full-featured web 2.0 tool. It started as a completely free tool and has now  converted to a pay for points format.  However, previews are still free and may suffice for your purposes. Xtranormal now has a  teacher dashboard to manage classes, students, and assignments, all using a simple and clean web interface.

From their website:

Xtranormal for Education was tested by Noisecast, “The World’s Noisiest Tech Blog”. Xtranormal was quite happy with the results… “We’re about as happy as a kid who just received straight A’s on his report card! You better believe we’ve got this review hanging on the Xtranormal fridge.  The folks over at Noisecast really hit the nail on the head in their assessment of Xtranormal for Education. In the review, they deliver a well-organized and simple overview of the product – what it is in a nutshell; how it works exactly, key features that differentiate the teaching platform from basic, etc. They even created their own Xtranormal video to introduce the review, which reportedly only took about eight minutes to make.”

Try it out.

1. The unexpected will rivet audience attention. Breaking a pattern is a very basic way to grab attention.
2. Be careful with negative instructions. If you don’t want your audience to do something, don’t even put the idea into their heads.
3. Take words seriously. If you want the audience to take your words seriously, make your font size huge and clearly visible.

You can read more ideas from Laura Bergells at: http://maniactive.com/blog/

You’ve carefully prepared for and rehearsed your content for a class and you’re ready to go… but what are some training errors that can “kill” the training regardless of how much you’ve prepared?  In a recent blog post Bob Pike lists four training killers:  1) slow start; 2) a late ending; 3) asking “are there any questions?” and 4) using illegible graphics (the infamous, “you probably can’t see this, but…”).

Read more about those training killers and ways to avoid them:  “Some Training Room Errors are Excusable…“, by Bob Pike, published on May 4, 2012.