دانلود رایگان مقاله مشکل حضور آموزش در نظریه تراکنش آموزش از راه دور

Abstract

This article explores the challenges online teachers face in establishing a teaching persona. While many online teachers believe that they create and control their teaching presence, drawing on transactional distance theory and relational distance theory, this paper argues that such an assumption can result in increased distance between teacher and students. This increased distance makes it more difficult for online students to accurately sense who their teacher is. Problematically, this sense of who the teacher is can be a powerful element to help online students succeed within the course. To help students to perceive, more clearly, who the teacher of the course is, the article recommends frequent and varied communication between teacher and students, the utilization of multimodal communication methods to provide differing opportunities for students to make meaning, for teachers to share who they are with students, and to proactively encourage the formation of relationships between course participants through course design.

8. Conclusion

Online, students and teacher both struggle to conceptualize each other. For teachers, as it is for students, it is a challenge to envision who each other is and what they are like. While teaching a class of unidentified individuals can be a challenge, the repercussions can be more severe for students if they cannot establish a vision of the teacher’s persona. In reality, it can be this persona and an ensuing connection with that teacher that could be the difference between a student completing the course or dropping it. However, unless multiple modes and media are used to provide students with possibilities of creating the teacher’s presence,some students will be at a disadvantage to connect with the teacher. Providing students with purposefully varied interactions can help students to develop a more realistic perception of who the teacher is, creating a stronger sense of a teacher’s presence, and solidifying a strong bond between student and teacher, all of which can help the student succeed. This relationship is incredibly powerful; as Debra Purdy (2015) noted, there is no significant learning without a significant relationship. However, teachers have to keep in mind that for each online student, the teacher’s presence will be slightly different, just as no two readings of any text will result in the same meaning (Beach, 1993, p. 31; Fish, 1980, p. 78). Each student has varying experiences and interest levels, and by considering each student as an individual, with unique needs, a teacher may more effectively provide opportunities for all students to access the content of the class.