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Perhaps the most striking
difference between the traditional classrooms and distance education courses
is in the area of communication and interaction.
In the distance education environment, you don't have the benefit of seeing
students' nonverbal cues (unless you're using live videoconferencing)
to gauge how well you're teaching. The feedback you receive from students'
evaluations, telephone calls, and electronic mail messages will assist
you in determining your success in getting information across. But for
these methods to be really helpful to you, you have to
plan for interaction.
Interaction in a distance education environment can be either live (synchronous) or delayed (asynchronous, or not in "real time"). Synchronous interaction takes place with such technologies as online chat rooms and videoconferencing. Asynchronous interaction can be done with bulletin boards, e-mail, and correspondence carried on by mail. Interaction, in a traditional
or distance teaching environment, must be planned and orchestrated. The
key, then, to interactivity is thoughtful
instructional design that takes into account the teaching
objectives, creative teaching methods, and appropriate distance delivery
technologies. You may want to review the Instructional
Design tips at the
beginning of this module section of
this module for more information.
 Next,
learn about different types of interaction... |
