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Mentored
learning: The instructor's view
There has been a lot of buzz in the eLearning industry about 'mentored
learning'. Over 66% of eLearning companies say they offer 'mentored
learning'. But what do those words 'mentored learning' actually
mean? As an instructor and the instructor coordinator for online-learning.com,
I thought it would be worthwhile to share our view of what 'mentored
learning' means from an instructor's perspective.
First, working as an instructor at online-learning.com is interesting,
rewarding and challenging. It is interesting since it allows me
to develop relationships with people from all over the world. I
have worked with students from Germany, Singapore, Hong Kong, Fiji,
Australia, Denmark, Belgium, Pakistan and the list goes on. The
work is rewarding because I work closely with students, guiding
their learning and helping them in their quest for knowledge. The
work is also challenging since students sometimes ask questions
that are not easy to answer. More often than not, these questions
have to do with some aspect of our instruction that we have not
previously considered as ways of seeing our materials in a new light,
from a student's perspective. These questions help me to grow in
my understanding, so I learn new things even as I seek answers to
the student inquiries.
My role as an online instructor makes the student-instructor relationship
quite different from conventional classroom ways of interacting.
The instructor-student relationship in the classroom is a restricted
one and is mostly confined to the time spent in the classroom where
most students have very limited direct interaction with the instructor.
The lesson as 'one-to-many', a limited number of questions as 'one-to-one-heard-by-all'
and the brief personal comments before and after the lecture make
up all of what a group meeting at a blackboard can accomplish. Online
learning provides a much richer environment for exchange of information
and ideas, because comments can be stored, shared and filtered far
more effectively, by students on an as-needed basis.
Students who feel uneasy asking questions in a classroom (over 40%
by most polls) will ask a question by email. Issues of "too easy"
or "known by everyone else" or "too personal" are diminished when
the question stays between the asker and the instructor as an email
reply. The many concerns of "too confrontational" or "stupid" are
also relaxed when only the two parties are privy to the initial
exchange. Then, if the issue is a general one, both the question
and the answer can be tailored and edited and made available as
useful information to the whole class. Even more important, it can
be crafted for specific groups within the class in ways no physical
meeting of any group ever permits. In this online model, students'
comments are more relevant and the instructors' answers are more
cogent because of the time each has to frame and reply to the issue
before it becomes public, for everyone's judgment. From the perspective
of other members, these shared student-instructor email interchanges
are much more valuable because of the editing component. They are
perceived as more relevant in content (usually because they are!)
and as closer to the subject matter, than the more random, less
considered classroom exchanges.
Students in an online course also have the advantage of being able
to ask for help as they need it. Students may need assistance to
complete an assignment--this often happens in the XML authoring
course (PXA) that I instruct. Students may find that they are puzzled
by a particular problem that is preventing them from completing
the assignment. Here, an email to the instructor gets the guidance
needed to successfully complete the assignment. Email inquiries
are handled quickly, in the context of the student's working time,
and they allow students to complete their work with less frustration
and fewer delays. There is no equivalent to this direct interaction
in the conventional classroom. Imagine it, if you will, as the help
you received in junior grades by the teacher moving around the desks,
responding to raised hands as each member needed an immediate answer,
or maybe just giving encouragement to carry on with a good idea.
So, while a first glance might indicate that the physical distance
of online instruction would render help less accessible, in fact
the opposite is true. Students take 'lessons' on their own time
and then receive help across the working day on an as-needed basis,
rather than sitting in a group for a few hours in the hopes of receiving
relevant information, with very limited ability to ask questions
or receive personal help. There is no need to wait until the next
class session, because the student controls the timing and duration
of the lesson by doing it, while enhanced access to the instructor
greatly assists members who need help at any stage, on an individual
basis.
Another way to understand mentored learning at online-learning.com
is to take a closer look at where my time is spent. Although this
is not an exact science, I've listed my major tasks with the average
amount of time spent on each. These numbers are sometimes increased
but seldom fall below the average I have given. The bulk of my efforts
are spent on marking assignments and student inquiries. Other areas
include, well, you'll see below.
Receiving feedback on assignments is the single most critical benefit
for our students, according to the online surveys we conduct during
each session. These comments help students identify most specifically
where they might need to improve to meet the standards required
for work at a professional level. Each student is different and
has individual needs. Some students might start with a strong background
in the subject matter, while others have weaker skills. No two are
alike, even among partners from companies who arrange to take the
course together. We encourage that diversity and find ways to get
members to work and learn together, from their respective strengths.
Assignments help students to not only read about a topic, but then
also to complete a task related to the new information. This is
their first opportunity to demonstrate their knowledge of the course
content under supervision of an instructor to guide their progress.
I believe that this guidance, at the stage where the learner asks
for it directly, is crucial to success in learning new skills.
I receive many inquiries from students as they need assistance with
course software or as they have questions related to completing
their assignments. I encourage these members to send me their assignment
in progress so that I can guide them and help them to identify the
specific areas where they can't proceed further. This guidance is
particularly helpful in PXA, since learning all the intricacies
of XML may seem overwhelming at first. The success rates we enjoy
are, in large part, the result of this intervention in time to build
morale and beat a sense of frustration and failure. Maintaining
email contact with the students is a very enjoyable part of my work,
and I rate it the most significant feature of our maintaining that
important human contact at the core of mentored learning.
Among the ranges of inquiries, some issues are easily resolved;
others require detailed study to find a solution. The ones I (usually!)
like best are questions I've never encountered before. "How could
we have missed that?!" "Who'd have thought of that one?!" And, since
I am the instructor, I must always find a solution. In PXA, because
I make a point of encouraging students to send me their assignments-in-progress,
I'm always assured of a fresh supply of new glitches. Creating DTDs
and stylesheets is quite difficult for everyone in the beginning,
and we've come to anticipate and allow for extra help each time
a section reaches that point. We now have a great deal of experience
and much tutorial material on these issues, and we make these available
in edited forms to each new class. Still, the concepts require real
work and there is no single 'lesson' that fits all minds. So we
'capture' good examples, clear and intriguing explanations and expressions
and reuse them in subsequent classes. This is an important part
of my work and is one of the most sophisticated instructional duties
I perform. Those student questions now often receive a surprisingly
swift response, because I recall a similar situation, a question
rather like this one now, and I respond with an answer I've given,
and then discussed, on a previous occasion.
The amount of my time each student requires varies greatly. Some
students work with little support, pacing themselves and seeking
out answers from Web resources. Others prefer to work with like-minded
peers, in groups, using email (and we don't forbid them the phone!),
chats and shared workspace. The rest are in touch to varying degrees,
seeking encouragement and looking for suggestions on how to proceed
at frequent stages. The world is made up of all kinds, and our job
is to gauge them and integrate them to learn from new forms and
among their peers.
Another important part of my job is sending weekly instructor's
comments to all students. The instructor's comments provide hints
and tricks for assignments, links to relevant web sites and reminders
for Web chats and assignment due dates. When working in an online
course, it is easy to put the work aside and work on other tasks
that are more "visible"-the instructor's comments help to remind
students of what they should be doing each week and to help them
stay on track with the course.
Several Web chats are scheduled during the course. These Web chats
allow students to meet and to "speak" to each other, providing more
human contact-a challenging task in an online environment! Scheduling
chats is the greatest challenge, since many students come from different
parts of the world, where certain chat times might not be suitable
for them. However, I have had students log on at 5 AM or at midnight
so that they could attend a chat! Chats generally run for 1 hour.
Discussion groups are another important feature in an online course.
The discussion group allows students to share ideas and to post
questions. I encourage students to post inquiries to the discussion
group to allow other students to benefit from the dialogue, since
other students may also face a similar challenge. In my experience,
most students prefer to ask questions privately by email. All student
inquiries are answered quickly, whether in the discussion group
or by email.
In an effort to keep the course fresh, I incorporate up-to-date
information into the curriculum. At online-learning.com, we strongly
believe that keeping current is a crucial ingredient to a good class.
That being said, I spend roughly 4 hours a week with my three R's.
Reviewing, reading, and researching. I also have my students participate
in this exercise. Part of the 'Professional XML Authoring' course
is to have students review the latest in XML technology and to post
a summary to a class message board. This is done throughout the
class, and often sparks some very interesting conversation!
Course administration duties include the boring stuff; such as starting
new classes, updating student information, coordinating schedules,
etc.
I must constantly evaluate our courses. ('1-800- How's my Teaching?'
might be a good slogan). And it's in these responses that we get
our clearest insights on ways to improve our courses. Students fill
out online evaluations at the end of the course. We use this feedback
to make continual course upgrades so that the courses reflect the
needs of the students in immediate ways. A significant portion of
my work time is given over to these improvements, so we seldom 'redo'
a course with a major overhaul. Rather, each session provides new
materials and current Web information so incoming students receive
a currency through all parts of their instruction which is seldom
present in much other online instruction.
.
This is a busy - and very rewarding - schedule, but one which I
control as I could not the Monday-Wednesday-Friday routine of a
classroom. I can emphasize the areas of my greatest effectiveness
and respond to areas of greatest need on a flexible schedule of
my making. I like it.
What does mentored learning mean to me as an online instructor?
It means that I have the opportunity to interact with people from
around the globe. I guide these students through their learning
journey, rough for some, smooth for others, but rewarding for both
because they contribute in ways they see valued at all stages of
its progress. I receive my greatest satisfaction when students say
"Wow, I finally did it!"
I think that working under the mentored learning model is the best
of both worlds for the students and for me. Students benefit from
swift responses to their needs and a personalized, individual approach
to learning. I benefit from daily exchanges with students that make
me so current with my field that I'm often getting information,
directly and from students on the day that it appears on the Web.
It's hard to get more current than that - barely even time to report
it in a classroom!
Student success is my success, and I want students to finish the
course with a feeling of accomplishment. When I first started teaching
PXA, the course had a low completion rate. Students would run into
difficulties and, as these compounded, would give up. Now that I
encourage students to send me their work if they are having problems,
the completion rate is much higher, some 40% higher than similar
completion rates in university equivalent courses. Assignments are
not only marked and returned expeditiously (we try for a 2 to 4
day return rate in our marking. Some courses don't even meet within
that brief a time frame!). This re-prioritizing of our resources
has made a large difference in results: students succeed, they learn
and they finish; morale is very high and they come to understand
their results in shorter sequences, with better insights.
Susan Bodnik is an online education instructor and instructor coordinator
at online-learning.com. She holds a degree in English from the University
of Waterloo with special research in communications, rhetoric and
online learning. She is a member of the Society for Technical Communication,
and maintains an active interest in evolving technologies related
to online education and XML. Susan is involved in all aspects of
course development, quality assurance, delivery and evaluation.
She works closely with instructors in all areas, supervising marking,
course development and standards of student performance.
© 2002 Online-learning.com
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