Online Orientation Considerations

For most people in higher education, this time of year means the start of a new semester. We have succumb to the holiday rush, and now we are making a mad dash to kick off the new year with the Spring semester. For those instructors teaching online, part of the rush always entails hosting some type of orientation session for students. On my campus, faculty have the choice of hosting orientations as a face-to-face or online session.

Many will argue that they enjoy the face-to-face session because it gives them the chance to personally meet their students. After all, this may be the one and only chance they will physically be in the same location. I have no issue with this train of thought. Please continue to meet face-to-face, but integrate an online component into your orientation session. It will give you and your students a head start.

An instructor must change their pedagogy when they transition from the traditional classroom to online instruction. This paradigm shift needs to make it all the way to the level of the course orientation. Teaching strategies in an online course are different, and so orientation strategies must change as well!

With the above paragraphs as a given, I share with you a Web site. This site is one that I recommend faculty send their students to as part of their orientation:

http://www.harperdoit.net/dlo/DLOwebsite/index.htm

I have several reasons why I like this site. The first (and honest) reason is that I helped put some of the content together. Secondly, this site is well rounded. It makes an attempt to walk students through multiple areas that are necessary for successful distance learners. Finally, the site delivers the information in a nonthreatening way while addressing multiple learning styles that inevitably access the site.

The site is divided into three major sections: Learning online, Using Blackboard, and computer skills. Each of these sections is a learning unit unto itself. An instructor could assign a specific piece, or they could have their students complete all three units. We have instructors that link to a specific component. Most of the time this is done with the Blackboard section. Instructors will link to a piece as a reminder for students on how to complete a task. For instance, submit an assignment in Blackboard.

Regardless of how its used, this site, or something like it should be available for instructors teaching an online course. It's a great way to introduce students to online learning. It's also a great way to show students early in the course that while there may not be a course prerequisite, there is a certain level of technology proficiency and an appropriate mind-set for taking an online course. Just like a face-to-face course, it's important for the student to know what they're getting into.

Many have probably already started their semester, but think about implementing something like this for next semester's online orientation. After initially setting up the site, the work is minimal. The session can be accessed anywhere you can get an Internet connection, and watching which students encounter problems with the distance environment you will be able to intervene and help those students determine if this really is the learning format for them.

Using the various surveys, tools, and video tutorials, students will have a good idea of what it is like to be a student in a virtual classroom. They will have an environment in which they can experience online learning. They can control that experience and learn about things that they may never ask about in a face-to-face session for fear of being ridiculed by their peers. Finding a comfort zone early in the semester means, the technology recedes into the background, the content becomes king, and the students are stars.

Useful links:
http://www.harperdoit.net/dlo/DLOwebsite/index.htm

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