This week in class we are having a discussion on the role of the instructor in face to face courses vs. distance education. I really feel the role in itself does not change that much since the ultimate role is to teach the students. What I do see is how we as instructors implement that role.
Teaching face to face give you instant feedback from the students and it forms an immediate line of communication open both ways. With Distance education that line of communication is different since it is more of a online conversation without human feel (with asynchronous courses) but this does not mean we can't engage the student to see if they have actually grasped the concept.
Finally, I think it is important that both F2F instructors and DE instructors know what the pros and cons are in each type of learning environment, but I feel it is important for each type of instructor to specialize in either F2F or DE in order to provide a better product and learning experience for the students. What are your thoughts?
Hi Antonio
ReplyDeleteIt's an interesting idea that instructors should focus on online or F2F. If their contractual requirements for their particular institution allow that perhaps – for example at the UKOU, delivery is mostly online but some modules do have F2F tutorials and residential schools.
Regarding your comment about instant feedback – do you think you might be able to achieve that in an elearning context through some technologies such as video conferencing?
Sue