Some great ideas have already been suggested for Trinh. She is obviously a devoted teacher but the popularity of this course is now becoming a burden. If there are no resources to split the course in two, and hire another instructor, perhaps her university does offer the services of an instructional designer. Clearly the way the course is organized no longer works for her. In addition, if she doesn’t get help soon, she will burn out, because this course only counts as half of her annual working load. Perhaps with design help she could reduce her workload and/or argue that her instructional hours warrant reclassification.
If we are using the framework of Garrison, Anderson and Archer (1999), then it could be said that Trinh has put too much emphasis on the ‘Direct Instruction’ category of Teaching Presence (p. 191). Live guest lectures are wonderful, but if she recorded some of these, then time would be freed up both for her students and herself. Answering students’ questions directly is admirable, but she could save a lot of time by creating threaded discussion forums. Students could check in there to see if their question has already been answered before posting their own or deciding to email the instructor directly.
In addition, the inclusion of some discussion forum activities, instead of synchronous online seminars, could actually help her students establish a stronger Cognitive Presence because such activities promote high levels of critical thinking (Garrison et al, 1999, p. 93). Such activities could be designed, like these ones, so that students are encouraged to recognize each other’s contributions thus reducing the need for teacher immediacy.
Reference:
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.
Great ideas Tanya,
And instructional designer is just what she needs! Or some more support or training at least in setting up her course. This would be beneficial both for Trinh and her students! I like your points on how she is focusing on direct instruction. Recording guest lectures is a great idea. Then students can listen at their leisure and won’t have to worry about making it online at a certain time. Plus students who aren’t comfortable in that environment will be better able to learn. Hopefully Trinh gets the help she needs soon because you’re right, she is definitely heading towards burning out!
Hi Amber;
Thanks for your comments.
I suspect that Trinh is what Bates would call a ‘Lone Ranger’. She had a wonderful idea for a course and knew it could work online but had to go it alone instead of get the advice and assistance she needs to make it a real workable success.
I suggested recording lectures for both her and her students’ convenience, but you are right that some students would actually prefer to learn that way.
Thanks for thinking this through!
Kind regards,
Tanya
Hi Tanya,
good suggestions. Just to add to the recordings. One way to expand on them is to limit the recording just to the “lecture time” or even do them asynchronously and then open a discussion forum related to the lecture, potentially with the guest speaker as facilitator (e.g. for a week). The students will then have time to think about the presentation and the questions they have and still have the opportunity to interact with the guest speaker.
Natasha
Hi Natasha;
What an excellent idea! Recording the lectures would save time and be more convenient for everyone, however having a live discussion forum at some later date would be an optimal use of synchronous interaction time because of the critical thinking involved. In addition, Trinh would continue to have that f2f time with her students that she values so dearly.
Thanks for the suggestion.
Kind regards,
Tanya
Hi Tanya,
Trinh could definitely benefit from an instructional designer! It seem both the student interest and the content are there but perhaps they need to be re-imagined by an impartial third party.
One of the glaring issues I see is the course size. You would never expect a teacher in a f2f setting to run a course for 150 student solo. I think administration needs to reallocate budget to provide Trinh with more help (since the course is clearly in high demand) or cut the class size significantly to make it more manageable for 1 person.
Colleen
Hi Colleen;
You are so right that the administration needs to rethink their budget allocation here. It is unrealistic to expect so much of one instructor. At this point, they risk losing Trinh or the interest of the student body if Trinh cannot keep up her current pace. If she had some help, then perhaps they could maintain the high amount of f2f interaction without burning out one individual. I would imagine that such a popular course would be worth investing in.
Thanks for the input.
Kind regards,
Tanya