Successful distance education and doctoral mentoring in the 21st century requires that adult educators use technologies and autonomous learning strategies. The psychological and communication spaces in an online environment are never the same between any two adult/doctoral learners. This transaction distance is what deeply impacts learning and teaching.
The target audience for this session includes adult educators that teach or mentor adult learners, including doctoral mentors, in an online environment. These adult educators encapsulate the importance of technologies, such as online conferencing tools, to enhance learning and teaching in an online environment. The target audience will include adult educators that are interested in learning how to use two online conferencing tools, Zoom and Skype, so they can improve learning and teaching.
The online conferencing strategies that adult educators and doctoral chairs will learn from this session will enhance doctoral mentoring and teaching and learning by providing opportunities in one-on-one meetings, small group meetings, and oral presentations. Adult educators and doctoral mentors will gain the following learning outcomes from this session:
• To learn about online conferencing tools, Zoom and Skype
• To learn how these online conferencing tools are used to improve online learning and teaching and used in coaching doctoral faculty, particularly doctoral faculty that mentor adult learners
• To learn how to facilitate one-on-one meetings, small group meetings, and oral presentations
This session derives from the theory of transactional distance to enhance doctoral mentoring through distance education of adult learning and teaching by increasing communication and autonomy in an online learning environment. The online conferencing tools, Zoom and Skype, shared in this session provide the ability to enrich the learner and educator/doctoral mentor experience. Some online conferencing strategies that adult educators can use to improve communication and autonomy include one-on-one meetings, coaching, mentoring or tutoring, small group meetings, and oral presentations. This session will showcase the theory of transactional distance via two online conferencing tools, Zoom and Skype, and provide a variety of online conferencing strategies for adult educators and doctoral mentors. The session will also include information about Zoom and Skype, instructions on how to use these online conferencing tools, a demonstration on how easy it is to use these valuable online conferencing tools, and a small group activity.
This session will include a brief introduction, information about two online conferencing tools, Zoom and Skype, examples and strategies of these online conferencing tools, instructions on how to use these online conferencing tools, and a small group activity. Each small group will be asked to explore a suggested strategies or a new strategy, as well as generate new ideas about how online conferencing can help to address challenges or opportunities with their own learners and doctoral mentees. The session will end with a brief discussion about the group activity, followed by final questions, and a wrap up.