Group+E+Characteristics

Amy McWhorter Barbara Stachelski Kseniya Orlovska John McGill
 * Anna Alessi

ADD YOUR NAME TO THE TOP HERE so I can quickly see who is working on this page.** You're so fast! I like the changes. Amy: I agree. Let's condense the overlap. John: Should we remove some of the items? The directions say a list of 5 for each. Amy I liked your 1-5 the best (now 9-12). 7 could be incorporated into 9.

Amy: Are we defining characteristics of students/faculty who choose to take/teach online courses or Charactistics of those who are successful? I recognize that there will be some overlap in these, but the focus of our responses will probably be different in both.

Amy: I just moved my stuff around so we can keep it organized better. It's much easier to see everything in one place. John McGill: I've just been editing and adding to what I have seen here.

Kseniya Orlovska: "We don't have too much time left. Barbara, Amy, Anna, if you are on-line, let's find a way to finalize our paper, where we can all come to an agreement"

Kseniya Orlovska I would systemize motivational reasons for both teachers and students into the following clusters:

1. Psychological reasons (personality types, learning styles, fears, aggravation + stress (just to find a parking could be a good reason for a person to choose teaching or learning online),

2. Philosophical reasons (people beliefs, stereotypes, biases, values, etc.),

3. Personal reasons (disabilities, family issues, schedule conflicts),

4. Social and economical reasons (resources: time, money, gas),

5. Political reasons (in some countries one of the important reasons can be security reason. Students don’t want to meet certain groups, so they prefer online education. Relations between institutions can be an issue also).

Analyzing available materials, I chose to organize students’ characteristics in the following way: Psychological characteristics: My personal observations and follow ups on the existing researches are showing that a lot of students, choosing on-line education have following psychological characteristics:

1. High intrinsic motivation and self-control 2. High commitments, High level of responsibility and self-commitment 3. Clear picture of their career, educational and personal goals 4. Ability to work independently toward their own goals 5. Self-centered approach (need to be in control) 6. Global knowledge seekers, willing to research outside the box

From all of the social characteristics I will highlight: High volume schedule

Personal characteristics: As the statistics show, most of the students are females between 25 and 34 years old. I think it is important to know, because it gives institutions and instructors extra piece of mind about group dynamic, needs and priorities of the major group of their students.

Characteristics of the teachers:

One of the main characteristics of the online teachers is high technical literacy. Also a lot of them showing high level of creativity and ability to constantly produce not only new strategies to motivate students, but also new ways to present the material and organize on-line learning.

The 5 Key Characteristics of Students 1 - Reliable and accessible home computer with internet connection. (READI presentation CSUF: case study identified significant challenges for one student without home internet access.) 2 - Busy and so they are looking for convenience from registration, to course access, to coursework and materials provided. (listed as strengths in the National Online Learners Priorities Report, 2009. Also taken from my own experience in this course. I was about to drop after not being able to access the course for almost a week. The confusion was frustrating as my schedule is tight and I felt I did not have the time or patience to sort it all out… I’m glad I did though!) (I concur! I had a difficult time getting onto this site due to problems with technology.) 3 - Non-traditional learning is appealing to some students. Students who find it difficult to interact in a F2F environment may look at online learning as a refreshing way to participate in their own learning. This may include students who are deaf or hard of hearing, students with learning disabilities that need more time to comprehend new material, students with physical disabilities that may limit travel to and from a classroom, students who are timid or shy in a classroom environment, and many more. 4 - Students should have the ability and drive to self-motivate. As stated in Smith (2008) p. 14, no one is forcing a student to stay in a classroom for a specific period of time. Online learners need to be able to take initiative to drive their own learning. 5 - Students should also be patient. Feedback is not immediate in an online environment. It may take minutes to hours for a student to get an answer to a question or response to a post. (Not so sure about this one... if there are set "office hours" or protocols to deal with questions students should know that questions may be answered in a 24-48 hour period. Students will at least know when they can expect an answer. If I sent an email after 4 PM I hope that I will have an answer before 4 PM the next day) The point I was trying to get across was not so much about the response time, but the lack of immediate reinforcement in an online environment. No teacher smiling at you or constantly nodding when you get something right (or the opposite if you are missing the mark).

1 - Self Motivated 2 - Follows directions 3 - Good at organization 4 - Willingness to work through confusion: -Students should have the ability and drive to self-motivate. As stated in Smith (2008) p. 14, no one is forcing a student to stay in a classroom for a specific period of time. Online learners need to be able to take initiative to drive their own learning. 5 - Independant thought Follows directions From the National Online Learners Priorities Report 6 - Want to be heard and responded to (Either for feedback or help).

The 5 Key Characteristics of Instructors Who Teach Online Courses

1 - Good organizational skills (QM lit review identifies Welker & Berardino, 2005 indicates courses designed as the semester progresses are unclear and confusing for students.) The best courses will be thoughtfully designed and all objectives, activities, and assessments should be planned before the semester begins.

2 - Instructors should have the ability and desire to monitor the course daily. Timely feedback is important to students, guiding them on the right track. It also makes students feel like the instructor is an active part of the course as opposed to a grader. (National Online Learners Priorities Report, 2009)

3 - Technologically savvy. Instructors must be able to engage students who are a product of today’s Web-society by utilizing a variety of tools that are applicable to the course. They must also be prepared to guide and support students who are new to the online environment by providing simple instructions on how to access or use the technology provided.

4 - Instructors who are motivated to improve would be more likely to teach online. In order to take a course online, significant adjustments to “teaching” must be made and modified as a course progresses. The ability to evaluate one’s self is an essential component of improvement.

5 - Pedagogy-driven ("what do students need to learn and what's the best way to get that across?" comes before "what can I do with the technology available?") Instructors should make all assignments relevant. The more content knowledge the instructor has the more they can discriminate the best materials to provide their students. Instructors recognize and respect the value of the student’s time.

1 - Motivated to instruct others (Amy: this is a characteristic of all instructors I hope. I'm not sure if it's the best for our list. Everything I am reading suggests online "teaching" is less about instruction from the teacher, but guiding students on the right learning path. ) 2 - Able to deliver clear written directions (Amy: I think this falls into both 1 and 2 above) 3 - 4 - Life-long learner (I think this is also covered in 4 above) 5 -

6 - Good Technological Ability. (covered in 3 above)

Step One: Begin by listing those characteristics you each individually find to be key. Step Two: Come to agreement on which 5 you feel as a group are most important to understand as yu consider developing an online curriculum. Step Three: Annotate the list with references, additional informational sites, education statitics, etc.

I just accepted my invitation to this site... Do we have an references for these statistics?


 * This assignment due by 11:55 on Sunday.**