The major differences between face-to-face teaching and tele-teaching relate to planning, delivery, and logistics. A good ITV course includes the following steps:
When you make the transition from the traditional classroom to teaching via distance technology, you will find yourself playing a new role. Due to the highly technical nature of this delivery mode, distance education requires team effort. You will join a team which includes communication technicians and other support personnel. As in any other collaborative activity, planning and communicating with other team members are keys to success.
Create a plan that describes how you will accomplish these steps and provide a written summary to your team members. Be sure to take into account the extra lead time needed to produce or adapt materials for distance education as well as the logistical considerations of managing supporting materials and exams at a distance.
Think about your typical students and their learning environments. Are they full-time students or working parents? How might the profile of your typical student change as your course becomes available to other campuses? What about students' access to libraries or to e-mail? Each site receiving your class or program will have a slightly different situation. Increased access to University of Minnesota courses and programs via technology will very likely mean increasing numbers of part-time adult learners. How might this change affect your teaching strategy?
In describing students, be sure to include:
This is a critical step. A clear statement of desired outcomes and a detailed content outline form the foundation for all of the remaining steps in planning and carrying out your course or program. Your outline should include a list of the topics you will cover in each session. Under each topic heading, list the specific items to be covered. Be sure to give each member of your planning team a copy. The outcomes list and content outline are the main documents you will use when meeting with UM-ITV staff to discuss your needs. They also form the basis for other components of your course or program. For example, outcome statements turn into benefit statements in promoting your course or program; they form a road map for your remote-site facilitators and become the benchmarks for assessing learner performance. The content outline also provides the basis for your syllabus.
When preparing your content outline you need to consider modularizing your course content. Presenting content material in modules is a method of pacing a class. When adults sit in front of a television screen their usual attention span is between 10 and 15 minutes long. By breaking class content into 10 to 15 minute modules you are not trying to fight the way students have been preconditioned by the television medium. For example, if you have 45 minutes of content that needs to be delivered during a class period, it's better to deliver the content in modules and use one of several interactive strategies between the content modules to re-engage the viewer - your student.
When your content outline is complete, visit your electronic classroom and, if possible, the classrooms that will receive your class. Each classroom has a slightly different layout, and technology requirements make the seating arrangements relatively inflexible. Most instructional techniques (e.g.,. case studies, interviews, panel discussions, role-playing) can be adapted to distance education. However, you will need to plan ahead for any special physical arrangements. A planning spreadsheet, one for each session, is a useful tool for communicating your instructional strategy to the rest of your planning team. Use one column to list topic items from your content outline. The next column should list the time you plan to allot for that item. Additional columns can be used to list required media support, printed materials, guest presenters, videotapes, etc. Your design for classroom interaction requires special attention in a distance education environment. See a list of Teaching Tips for some techniques that other distance educators have used to establish rapport and facilitate interaction.
Syllabi, textbooks, and other course materials must be sent to the remote sites well in advance of the first class presentation, so begin your planning of support materials early. Distributing materials to several sites is easier with preplanning and good communication with key contact people at each site. Each site has its own policy for distributing materials at the remote sites, but support staff can assist you.
Your syllabus should be as detailed as possible and include the anticipated course schedule, assignments and due dates, expectations, and other requirements. Clearly state in the syllabus how and when you can be reached out of class. Also include information for students on what they should do if a question arises, such as who to call or what to do if there's a problem or how to make up a missed class.
The electronic classroom is equipped to allow you to use a wide variety of supporting materials. All of the following can be used successfully with ITV:
As in any educational experience, you will want to evaluate your own work and get feedback from participants in order to improve your course or program. The electronic classroom brings new elements into the equation--for example, a multi-site "classroom", a wider diversity of students, and an unfamiliar technology. Use both ongoing and summative evaluations for the best help in creating a better course.
Some ideas for collecting evaluation data as your course proceeds:
Consider including the following items:
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