One-question interview on Online Teaching Techniques

Scott B. Johnson

Monica,

I am honored to have been included among your distinguished subjects for your inquiry. I have a few comments in these regards. First, I must comment that the growth of available knowledge is certainly growing, but humans have not increased in their capacity and growth limits according to the same exponential rates as the data.

More to the point, I believe that the techniques as described in Paulsen’s Online Report comprise a exhaustive but not mutually exclusive taxonomy of interaction strategies. The ION site lists many specific strategies and other esteemed colleagues provide endless lists of such techniques. Key to the question here is not whether there is a specific, perfect technique but what are the most likely to be successful techniques for any given individual? Forgive my evasiveness but without a more detailed and specific definition of what we’ll consider perfect, there can be no answer. Anyone but the most profoundly disabled will be able to learn under a variety of conditions to varying degrees of success. The question for the practitioner as well as the theoretician is to identify the set of “likely to lead to a standard of success” strategies available in the current environment and compatible with the present instructional objectives. Consequently, there is likely going to be an increase in the chances of successful learning when we combine likely strategies – that combination again will be determined more by the characteristics of the individual learner than the instructor.

Quality courses will package a series of most-likely-to-succeed strategies in the context of a sensible set of learning goals. How the individual teacher/facilitator handles him/herself in the process of speaking to the class as whole, within-class groups, and individuals become part of the learners experience that extends beyond the design of the course. In other words, even an extremely well designed course can be diminished significantly by an uncommitted, overworked, or incompetent teacher. Conversely, an excellent teacher’s ultimate success in facilitating the learning for one or more people in a class will be somewhat limited by the overall design and structure of the course in which they work. An excellent teacher can improve a bad course’s results but will not likely make it an excellent course by teaching it alone. If given the opportunity, the excellent teacher might rebuild a badly designed course but will only succeed if enough time and support resources are available.

I hope that my responses and thoughts contribute toward your class discussion and your own personal understanding of online learning. I invite you to stay in touch. I took the liberty of extending a Facebook friend invitation and have bookmarked your blog – looks interesting.

Scott B. Johnson