This session will explore how online full time faculty use technologies and strategies to decrease transactional distance, while also creating efficiencies in the online classroom. Multiple strategies with specific examples will be presented to promote cognitive, social, and teaching presence in the online classroom.
Background
As online education continues to increase in popularity (Allen, Seaman, Poulin, & Strout, 2016), it is becoming more important for online instructors to provide a high quality learing experience to students. One obstacle that conitnues in online education is that of transactional distance between learners and instructors (Moore, 1993). Community of Inquiry (CoI) identified three different elements to optimize the online teaching and learning experience: social presence, cognitive presence, and teaching presence (Garrison, Anderson, & Archer, 2000).
Purpose and description of the presentation
This presentation will use transactional distance and CoI as the theoretical backgrounds. The purpose of the study is to share experiences of online full time faculty in using technologies and other strategies to promote the elements of CoI, and decrease the transactional distance in the online environment. The unique culture of online full time faculty has led to a collaborative environment in which faculty are able to share best practices with one another. One of the presenters is in a very unique role where she teaches a minimum of 160 students at all times. This has caused her to be more creative and seek new strategies for efficiencies and student support. This presentation will share these strategies along with strategies from other online full time faculty. Participants will be able to apply these strategies in their online teaching experiences.
The presentation will be interactive with multiple opportunities for participants to try some of the ideas.