Blog 3 - eLearning vs Traditional Teaching Environment

What is the role of the teacher in eLearning environment? How does this compare to the role of a teacher in a traditional face-to-face environment?

A teacher in an eLearning environment, like that in a traditional brick-and-mortar class, must be able to juggle multiple roles. William Ayers wrote that “teaching is instructing, advising, counseling, organizing, assessing, guiding, goading, showing, managing, modeling, coaching, disciplining, prodding, preaching, persuading, proselytizing, listening, interacting, nursing, and inspiring” (Ayers, 2001, p. 4). The teacher, whether in an eLearning or a brick-and-mortar environment, must wear various hats.

The eLearning teacher must be a facilitator of the learning, not directly leading the class. They do not directly teach the material. They are a monitor – making sure that all students clearly understand their roles and responsibilities, students are conducting themselves in the class, and watch students’ progress to ensure that no student falls behind. The eLearning teacher helps the student access the information of the lesson using technology. The teacher must monitor the student’s progress through assignments, postings in discussion sites, blogs, podcasts, e-mails, or other communications. It is important that the eLearning session always keeps students informed; this constant contact is essential.

The eLearning teacher may rely on a facilitator in a distant site to help the origination classroom teacher’s needs. The facilitator needs to actively watch and participate with the students, encourage educator/learner interaction, address any issues (answer questions, instructional problems, or disciplinary problems) that arise at the distant site, provide assessments or papers to the students, and be the operator and troubleshooter of the equipment. Advanced planning and training for both the eLearning teacher and the facilitator is necessary.

In a traditional face-to-face environment, a teacher-centered instructional strategy, the teacher presents (lectures), demonstrates, review and practice the learned information in a drill-and-practice method, and identifies students that might be struggling and include them in intervention group for tutoring. In an eLearning environment, a student-centered instructional approach, the student is the center. There is discussion, cooperative learning groups, simulations, problem solving, and educational games. The teacher must select the best instructional strategy for the moment.

In both the face-to-face and eLearning environment the teacher must be able to adjust and modify the lesson to help student learning. The eLearning teacher requires more flexibility, technology knowledge, and an understanding of the digital environment. In an eLearning environment this can be a challenge as the teacher may not be able to pick up visual and physical clues from their students. This is especially true if there is no visual contact between the student and the teacher. The eLearning teacher must make sure that personal contact is maintained, such as using the student’s first name and addressing student interests. These are communication elements that people use in face-to-face environments. Assessments are done in both environments; an assessment is to provide the teacher information on the student’s learning and make adjustments to the lesson. In an eLearning environment this adjustment might be able to occur quicker with electronic scoring; the scoring in for a traditional teacher might be delayed as the teacher must review each assessment and this review could be several hours, days, or even weeks.

It all boils down to teaching methodology. No matter how the learning is delivered, good teaching is still good teaching. 

Works Cited

Ayers, W. (2001). To Teach the journey of a teacher. New York: Teachers College Press.