Poor Trinh! She has let the methods of communication get out of control and now she is feeling overwhelmed. Just as a f2f teacher might find themselves overwhelmed with classroom management issues, Trinh needs to better organize her class so that her workload becomes manageable. Anderson, Archer, and Garrison (1999) refer to this as instructional management. It is also worthy to mention that while Trinh says that she believes in learner-centered classes, by having students immediately contact her with questions and inquiries, she is setting up a very teacher-centered class and thusly overwhelming herself.
She needs to streamline communication so that it becomes manageable for her. Perhaps she should use the blackboard platform to create a help needed discussion board, or one for questions. There students could post questions and answer them for each other, then Trinh could help if needed. This would eliminate repeated questions as well. These discussion boards would go far in creating a community of inquiry.
Another option, though not one I would personally like, would be to set up online office hours, perhaps a once or twice weekly google hangout that students could join. She could have them at different times so that all students could attend despite their time zone. The students already log on for live lectures so this would not be asking too much.
Anderson, Archer, and Garrison state that “student activity is influenced by tutor behavior” (2000). Therefore it would seem that a more visible teacher presence would create a learning environment where students approach topics with more depth and a higher level of critical inquiry. Therefore by increasing the visibility of her contributions via a discussion board or an online conference Trinh would be helping to guide thinking and analysis and indeed learning to a higher level.
In creating these options, she could also specify on the homepage ways to get in touch, with email being explicitly stated as a last resort. The changes I suggest will not only help to Trinh to create a more manageable workload, but will serve her to create the more learner-centered class she desires.
Garrison, D. R., Anderson, T., & Archer, W. (1999). Critical inquiry in a text-based environment: Computer conferencing in higher education. The Internet and Higher Education, 2(2-3), 87-105. Retrieved from http://www.anitacrawley.net/Articles/GarrisonAndersonArcher2000.pdf
I think it is important for Trinh to communicate clear guidelines and expectations for how communication will take place for the course. Suggestions I have are similar to what Amber has already eluded to. Perhaps she could consolidate her emails and forward them to one particular email. The best solution would be to encourage students to post questions on a discussion forum so that questions/answers are beneficial to more people since they are visible. If students are advised to provide their input into other classmates questions this will create a greater sense of community among the learners. Lastly, for Trinh to avoid checking email frequently throughout the day there can be specific times stated where he will be checking his email. When this information is being communicated then students may alter their expectation of when a response can be anticipated.
Synchronous online office hours is the last resort as this is very time consuming for Trinh. A teleconference can be scheduled if a certain number of students agree to attend to make the time worthwhile. These sessions should be recorded if possible to benefit those who could not attend such as the recent videoconferences held by Natasha to discuss the LMS assignment.
Hi Amber; Hi Edwin;
You both have some excellent ideas. The bottom line is that Trinh needs to spend some serious time on instructional management so that the time she devotes to communicating with her students is used to its best advantage. Discussion boards and online office hours are both great ideas. Consolidating her emails into one location would also help, as would setting up clear guidelines for the students. It is likely that her students are frustrated as well in terms of how to best contact her.
Now I’m going to have a challenge coming up with some other ideas. LOL!
Kind regards,
Tanya
I think one of the reasons we have such similar ideas is that we are writing from our own experience. Professors in the MET program are experts in online learning and therefore practice solid instructional management strategies. We have seen these modelled and therefore they make complete sense for us to suggest. I think it would be much harder for professors to think this way if they had not been exposed to such good practice.
Hi Amber,
I think you’ve zeroed in on a bit part of the problem. She definitely needs to narrow her communication down to a manageable level.
I think your solution of offering google hangouts at different days and times is a reasonable solution. It does allow her to keep the face to face interactions. I do think there is some potential for her to run into the same issue with managing her time if she spreads herself too thin offering these hangouts. She’ll have to be very careful with what she decides to offer.