Teacher+Roles

= A3 assignment: __ **Teacher Roles using ICT** __=



**Course coordinator**
The Coordinator is the leader of the programme and s/he is present at all the phases of the course design: since the beginning, when learning needs are established, through the designing phase, implementation, link among the different actors (institution, instructors, administration staff, designers…). Her/his duties consist on:
 * Undertaking a marketing analysis, comparing similar didactic offerings (f-2-f and online) and outlining the expected audience and ways to reach it.
 * Checking that the administrative procedures and the technological infrastructures can effectively support the course management.
 * Designing the curriculum, the main learning goal and the competences to be developed.
 * Designing the main features of the learning environment.
 * Selecting and coordinating authors and tutors.
 * Assembling and coordinating the professionals (authors, editors, technicians, graphics) of the production team and keeping contacts with the administrative staff.
 * Periodically reporting to the institution about the course.
 * Monitoring the course as a whole.
 * Disseminating the results of the course.
 * Re-designing the online course to update it and/ or on the basis of the students’ achievements, tutors’ and students’ comments and evaluation questionnaires.

From D.Rowntree, "The tutor's role in teaching via computer conferencing"

Learning “Chef” - Experience & Interaction Designer
This a more ..tasty description of the function of an instructional designer. The online teacher has to analyze the learning needs posed by different parties (students, organization, curriculum etc), identify beforehand if, when and how ICT will be beneficial for student learning. Then plan how to integrate it so as to achieve deep knowledge combining pedagogical methods and technological tools. In this process s/he has to exhibit scientific and artistic mastery so as achieve the sought results. That's why online the emphasis shouldn't be around content but rather activities, interactions comprising an appealing and meaningful learning experience (remember[| Lao-Tse]). The process resembles how a good chef can mix diverse integridients to cook a delicious meal experience. A related sub-role could be //case study designer//.

**Facilitator**
S/he will enable students to transform information into knowledge by asking questions, providing examples or modelling, and giving advice and suggestions. S/he should encourage students to investigate sources of information, explain and detail their ideas, and organise the knowledge they have built for presentation purposes. Also the teacher has to plan and integrate efficiently multiple synchronous & asynchronous communication channels for teacher - student and also student - student interaction. For example, observe & provide effective collective and individual feedback to students, offer virtual office hours etc. A finding revealed by study conducted by the European Training Foundation in 2005, says that there is another need regarding the facilitator role which is the __personal-emotional facilitation__, the need for facilitation of discussion groups in the personal-emotional sphere for the members of the group. Examples of meaningful emotional behaviours that were appreciated by the students in an online course included: ‘The encouragement you sent me… I needed that very much’; ‘The (personal) support and assistance, you have no idea how much better they made me feel’; and ‘The quick (individual) response to this need was very heartening and encouraging, and gave me lots of motivation’.

**Expert learner**
S/he should have much experience as a learner and be an avid learner her/himself understanding strategies and techniques for acquiring new knowledge, using it and transferring it to other domains efficiently and effectively. Ideally, s/he should be experienced in learning in a virtual environment understanding how all the tools available can contribute to facilitate learning. Especially in the domain of online learning, the teacher is desirable to have adequate learning experience as a student himself so as to be able to understand and experience the learning curve and other obstacles the learners might face.

**Coach/Mentor**
S/he motivates course participants to make the best effort possible, progress and finish a course or training session successfully. S/he helps participants through material, activities and so forth offering encouragement and strategies to get the most out of the learning opportunity. Another function of the teacher as coach is providing guidance for the completion of learning activities & assignment by modeling, that is explaining and analysing what the students have to do and how they can work individually and in teams.

**Content Expert**
S/he should be quite familiar with the course content with the aim of offering strategies for learning content, suggesting helpful resources, asking effective questions, providing insight and facilitating discussions.

**Motivator & Entertainer**
The online teacher should foremost fight hard to keep the students motivated so as to participate actively (and avoid attrition). One of the best ways to motivate is to provide a flavor of entertainment, fun or humor in the learning blend according to his/her learning style. As a passionate lover of the subject he should be able to explain, demostrate and convince about the importance of the learning subject or course. Also he should provide extra learning material, resources and links to further open the dimensions of learning.

**Creator**/Developer **of the learning/instructional materials**
S/he is in charge of creating specific materials designed to achieve the goals of the course, so s/he must be an expert field, and coordinate with the programme’s coordinator. This role could be done by the Content expert, mentioned above.

**Designer and manager of the learning environment**
This can be the role of a UOC VLE's manager, who implements those functionalities required by the course coordinator and individual courses' authors. In some contexts this role can be assigned to an educational technologist.

**Administrator**
In terms of administration, the online teacher has a greater responsibility than the conventional teacher in planning and managing the schedule, maintaining the pace of progress, setting goals and checking student achievement, and managing assignments, papers, and examinations.

A different approach to the teacher presence/rules in a virtual learning environment can be found in Moore & Kearsley (2005, p. 136-137), where they classify the online teaching presence accordingly with the functions performed by the instructor and divide it into three main categories: teaching functions, student progress functions, and learner support functions.

//Teaching Functions//
 * Elaborating course content
 * Supervising and moderating
 * Supervising individuals and group projects

//Student Progress Functions//
 * Grading assignments and providing feedback on progress
 * Keeping students records
 * Helping students manage their study
 * Motivating students

//Learner Support Functions//
 * Answering or referring administrative questions
 * Answering or referring technical questions
 * Answering or referring counseling questions
 * Representing students with administration
 * Evaluating course effectiveness

On the other hand of the discussion about teaching roles, is the context where those roles are performed. In that context, the increase usage of ICT as a medium to delivery instructional content has raised the awareness about the importance of online learning communities to promote and foster learning in virtual learning environments, and the use of communities of practices has been proved successful when opportunities for interaction are careful planned by teachers involved in the process (Akyol, Garrison, and Ozden, 2009). The community of inquiry (CoI) framework developed by Garrison, Anderson, and Archer (2000) provides a model to be used to promote effective online community of practices and can be used by online teachers while performing different roles, such as: course coordinators, instructional designers, facilitators, expert learner, mentors, content experts, motivators, designers and administrators to provide students with an effective online learning environment.

The CoI framework contains three elements: social presence, cognitive presence, and teaching presence that interact between themselves and impact in the learner’s educational experience (Figure 1) as a whole. The framework is based on a collaborative constructivist pedagogical approach, where the CoI provides the space to develop individual and social knowledge.



Figure 1: CoI framework

The three elements of the CoI framework can be defined as follow:

**Social presence** - “the ability of participants to identify with the community (e.g., course of study), communicate purposefully in a trusting environment, and develop interpersonal relationships by way of projecting their individual personalities” (Garrison, 2009, p. 352).

**Cognitive presence** - “the extent to which the participants in any particular configuration of a community of inquiry are able to construct meaning through sustained communication” (Garrison, Anderson, and Archer, 2001, p. 11).

**Teaching presence** - “the design, facilitation and direction of cognitive and social processes for the purpose of realizing personally meaningful and educationally worthwhile learning outcomes” (Anderson, Rourke, Garrison, & Archer, 2001, p. 5). Teaching presence has a regulatory and mediating role, which brings “all the elements of a community of inquiry together in a balanced and functional relationship congruent with the intended outcomes and the needs and capabilities of the learners” (Garrison & Anderson, 2003, p. 29). There are three categories of teaching presence: design and organization, facilitating discourse, and direct instruction. Design and organization is the macro-level structure of the learning experience. Facilitating discourse is critical to maintaining students’ interest, motivation, and engagement. The third category, direct instruction, is associated with more specific content issues, such as diagnosing misconceptions, injecting knowledge from diverse sources, or summarizing the discussion (Garrison & Anderson, 2003). By using the term teaching instead of teacher, the possibility of distributing the responsibilities and roles of a teacher among participants is emphasized”. (Akyol, Garrison, and Ozden, 2009, p. 67-68)


 * //Important Note: //** this citation provides such a great summary of the teaching presence that I decide to include it with its originals citations instead of rewriting it. To give credits to the authors, the sources are cited at the end.

The importance of the teaching presence is reinforced for the importance of the psychological presence of the teacher (Shin, 2003) for a successful distance education experience. As part of the transactional distance theory (Moore, 2004), psychological distance can be understood as the “gap of understanding and communication between the teachers and learners caused by geographic distance that must be bridged through distinctive procedures in instructional design and the facilitation of interaction” (Moore & Kearsley, 2005, p. 223). And it can be consider as a function of dialog and structure.

The instructor designer plays an important role in the process of reducing the transactional/psychological distance gap in a virtual learning environment. Transactional distance can also be defined as a function of dialog and structure, and the new web 2.0 tools can be used to improve the dialog between teachers and learners. Some of the new roles are listed bellow.

**New roles coming along with the web 2.0 tools**
From Thomas Stone ( Element K blogger  )
 * Blog author
 * Forum moderator or discussion generator
 * Wiki contributor and/or gardener (seeding, pruning, weeding, etc.)
 * Podcast host/interviewer
 * Significant ink bookmarker
 * Significant micro-messaging contributor
 * Social networking site profile administrator (and participant of course)

**Characteristics of e-teachers**

 * flexible thinking
 * openness to change
 * focus on process rather than outcomes
 * curiosity
 * interest
 * independence
 * self-confidence

e-teacher skills
A teacher who wants to implement a blended (or bi-modal) learning scenario with ICT needs to build to a certain degree & maintain three important qualities & skills: 1. Knowledge of and experience with the content/subject area to be taught (aka content expert) 2. Technological knowledge & experience with the tools to be used (aka expert learner & course material developer) 3. Pedagogical knowledge to plan & integrate ICT successfully into teaching according to sound instructional models (aka learning chef) via Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK)

In short, ICT can be described as a //magnifying glass//, helpting a good lesson become brilliant, but also exposing a poor course as mediocre. A teacher who is a good pedagogue is expected to be also a good online teacher. This is a teacher who constantly searches for, develops, and applies innovative and quality teaching methods to improve his pupils’ learning. . The Online Teacher. //Elearningeuropa.info//. Retrieved March 30, 2005


 * Some References**
 * Garrison, D.R., Anderson, T., & Archer, W. (2000). Critical inquiry in a text-based environment: Computer conferencing in higher education. The Internet and Higher Education, 2(2-3), 87-105.
 * Garrison, D. R., Anderson, T., Archer, W. (2001). Critical thinking, cognitive presence, and computer conferencing in distance education. American Journal of Distance Education, 15(1).
 * Garrison, D.R., & Anderson, T. (2003). E-Learning in the 21st century: A framework for research and practice. London: Routledge/Falmer.
 * Garrison, D. R. (2009). Communities of inquiry in online learning: Social, teaching and cognitive presence. In C. Howard et al. (Eds.), Encyclopedia of distance and online learning (2nd ed., pp. 352-355). Hershey, PA: IGI Global.
 * Moore, Michael G.; Kearsley, Greg (2005). Distance Education: A Systems View. Second Edition. Wadsworth Publishing. 392 pages
 * Shin, Namin (2003). Transactional Presence as a Critical Predictor of Success in Distance Learning Distance Education, Vol. 24, No. 1, 2003 - [[file:Shin-2003-TransactionalPresence.pdf]]


 * More Articles on Community of Practice and Transactional Distance**
 * [[file:v11n1_9arbaugh.pdf]]
 * [[file:gun118.pdf]]
 * [[file:gun117.pdf]]
 * [[file:10.1.1.118.9695.pdf]]
 * [[file:OnlineAndBlendedCommunitiesOfInquiry.pdf]]