This site will look much better in a browser that supports web standards, but is accessible to any browser or Internet device.
Questions like these are often on the mind of faculty planning a sponsored education course. Many faculty and administrators believe that teaching at a distance is the same as teaching a traditional course. But teaching an interactive television course, or any sponsored education course, is quite different and often requires an instructor to sharpen some teaching skills and incorporate new ones. Without some modification, traditional, podium-based courses come across to distance learners as "talking heads," instructors' faces talking at the students over television sets without any type of interaction; or as "shiny rings" or "moving hands," appendages writing words and numbers while students blindly copy what is written on the television screen.
As Carol Hobaugh, instructor in faculty development for the U.S. Army Medical Department and School, puts it; "We can no longer be 'tellers' of information; the hour-long lectures we once thought were so successful in our traditional classrooms do not necessarily translate well to a sponsored education environment. We are encouraged to make our distance classes more interactive, to plan for more student involvement" (121).
Quality distance courses require careful planning and organization; instructional design that incorporates the strengths of, and opportunities provided in, the different delivery systems (audio, video, computing, and print); as well as skills necessary when teaching at a distance.
In the excerpt that follows, Tom Cyrs outlines some of the planning, organization, and skills faculty need to consider when planning an ITV course.
An instructor cannot walk into a teleclassroom unprepared and "wing it." It will show within seven seconds. The telelesson must be planned and the instructor organized well in advance of a telelesson. Good teleteaching is a team effort involving instructional designers, a television producer or videoconferencing technician, graphic artist, editor, and often times a librarian who is a WWW specialist. Instructors should have at least one full semester to plan and coordinate all the components of a telecourse.
What are some of the specific skills that are needed for quality telecourses using interactive television? Visual thinking skills for one. These include the ability to communicate difficult concepts and ideas with graphics, pictures, video clips, artifacts, visual analogy, and storytelling. Instructors need to be better verbal and nonverbal communicators. Interactive television magnifies one's ability to articulate, pace, image, and personalize. Involving students in their learning beyond the customary questioning between instructor and student (most student questions ask for clarification rather than probing ideas) is important. Interactive television demands that students become involved in field site activities that match learning performance objectives. Handouts are no longer optional. Without them, students spend most of their time trying to figure out what is important and what to put in their notes. Personalization skills need practice and feedback.
Of equal importance to course design and modification is the intructor's familiarity with the television technology. In some instances there will be a television coordinator and camera operator in a teleclassroom. When using compressed videoconferencing equipment, the instructor may be expected to operate the television equipment as well as teach the course. This can involve switching between the television camera on the instructor and the document camera to show graphics and pictures. The instructor might also be expected to run the videotape recorder, slide projector, and computer if it is used. Teleinstructors needs lots of time to master the technology plus staff to help them.
Further considerations for teaching on interactive television that will help to build quality telecourses follow.
Consider how good you want your course to be. Do you want a top quality, very good quality, good quality, or mediocre telecourse?
Who are your students? What is their age? Gender? Are they adult learners? What are their concerns? Needs? Experience?
Demand training on how to modify a traditional course for delivery via interactive television.
Plan a telecourse completely at least one semester before teaching it.
Put the lesson in context. Tell your students where they have been, where they are going, and what will come next.
Identify 3-4 key points per telelesson. There can be a number of subpoints, but limit the content coverage to 3-4 key points per 50-minute telelesson. These key points should be reinforced with stories, anecdotes, and other involvement activities.
Base the selection of key teaching points on a learning performance objective. Classify each learning performance objective as primarily cognitive, affective, or psychomotor. If cognitive, determine the intended intellectual level as knowledge, comprehension, application, or critical thinking. Focus on application and critical thinking skills rather than on memory and comprehension only.
Divide the topic into 5 ten-minute or 10 five-minute segments within a 50-minute teleclass with closure at the end of each segment.
Motivate students by:
Telling them why the objectives are important to them and why they need to master them.
Explaining how these objectives relate to other courses and how they might relate to other professional skills;
Explaining to the students how they can benefit by mastering the objectives. Tell them what is in it for them;
Explaining how the students can apply the data or skill immediately in their lives;
Using attention focusing techniques such as grabbers, multiple examples, storytelling, and personal anecdotes.
Use multiple examples (for instance) and non-examples (don't confuse A with B).
Use transitions statements. These statements are needed for the benefit of off-site students and are used between a presentation and initiation of activities, exercises, stories, anecdotes, or demonstrations. Students should understand the relevance of each component and how it contributes to the learning performance objective. You must minimize confusion and the need for any type of clarification.
Visualize as much as possible with pictures, graphics, video clips, word pictures, and other visualization techniques.
Reinforce every point and subpoint with as many visuals as possible. Use color liberally. Use color to cue and reinforce words.
Use three times as many visuals for television and web-based presentations than you would use in traditional teaching.
Use videoclips to reinforce key points.
Put all visuals into a 3 x 4 aspect ratio for television and computer screens. That is, three units high and four units wide. This horizontal format is unforgiving. Vertical pictures will be cut off at the top or bottom and have a great deal of bleed space along the sides.
Print must be large and bold (24 point minimum).
Plan all questions. Talk no longer than 8-10 minutes before asking a question, or for an opinion. Use why and how questions.
Match all questions to a learning performance objective.
Begin with questions that most students can answer. (These might be factual recall questions.) Then graduate to higher-level questions.
Classify every question as knowledge, comprehension, application, or critical thinking.
Allow adequate response time (called wait time) of at least 3-5 seconds.
Provide as much positive feedback as possible.
Involve students in meaningful and well designed activities and exercises at least 30 (preferably 50) percent of the class time. Don't equate teaching with talking. Trust your students and teach them how to function effectively in small group team activities
Include 3--5 planned two- to five-minute activities per class hour.
Provide student handouts that are correlated with the television or computer screen. If audioconferencing is used, number each segment of a handout for easy reference.
Involve students by name and site location.
Try a couple of these student involvement activities:
A small group of three to five students work within a determined time limit without a leader to answer a question or solve a problem and come to some kind of conclusion. The results/conclusions of the short discussion are reported to all students who may be asked to write a short paper of their discussion.
A brief (one- or two-paragraph) description of a real or fabricated situation that is analyzed in stages by small groups of students one of whom functions as the recorder. Each group presents their project for a given amount of time. All data can be provided or only partial data. In the latter case students are asked to make assumptions that will affect the final outcome or recommendations. The same technique could be used with a visual scenario, still or motion.
Real world descriptions of problems with all accompanying data are developed by the instructor. Students, working in small groups, are asked to resolve the problem within a given period of time. Each small group makes recommendations as to how to solve the problem. The instructor acts as a resource person and as moderator during the final presentations.
These provide an opportunity for the students to practice skills. These could include labeling, rank ordering, multiple choice, true/false, and completion. Exercises must be completed in a defined time period. After the exercises are corrected, a discussion follows with the instructor moderating comments and asking questions.
Short self-tests that are not graded. Answers are provided to the students. The purpose is to provide a quick feedback mechanism to the student so that he or she can check progress toward mastering the learning performance objectives.
Given a concept, problem, situation, or principle, the student is asked to provide examples and non-examples from their professional and personal experiences.
Students tell what they think the consequences will be if something is not done or mastered. This technique usually relates to the learning performance objectives for a class. The students speculate as to the need for mastery and discuss what would happen if they did not master the objective.
The student fills in a word or phrase to a question. The instructor then writes the correct fill-in. The student modifies his or her response if necessary.
A detailed verbal outline of a presentation with key words/phrases left out. The latter are filled in by the student as the lecture progresses.
These are combinations of key words and phrases and geometric shapes to show relationships among ideas. They are used during a lecture to graphically convey ideas and concepts. Word pictures require the student to fill in words or phrases.
Each student is given an unlabeled diagram or picture. The student copies the labels as they are filled in by the instructor during the presentation.
During the last five minutes of class the instructor hands out a half-sheet of paper that says:
"A question I still have about (topic of lecture) but have been afraid to ask is . . . "
Responses to these questions are addressed during the first 5 to 15 minutes of the next class.
During the last few minutes of class, students are asked to respond to one of the following types of questions, which are reviewed after class by the instructor:
a. What was the most confusing point that I made in class today?
b. What were the two most important points that you learned today?
c. What did you like best about today's class?
Students are given one minute at the end of class to summarize a major point of the lesson that day or ask a question about some confusion they might have had. The students share their summaries, questions, and thoughts with the rest of class, allowing anyone to respond.
Each student is asked to summarize the three most important points of a lecture. The students are given three minutes to compose their summaries. The instructor also writes down what he or she thought were the three most important points. Discussion follows.
Prepare handouts or study guides as learning management tools. Correlate any graphics, pictures, word pictures, or structured notes that appear on the television screen with the handout. Number each segment on the television screen and have the same number appear with the corresponding graphic in the handout.
Number handouts and correlate them with notes and graphics on the television screen.
When you create handouts or study guides, use a consistent format. Have someone proof, proof, and proof. Don't trust your computer's spellchecking.
Develop effective verbal and nonverbal presentation skills. Show a sense of enthusiasm for what you are teaching.
Learn to pace and time yourself. Plan on speaking for no longer than 8-10 minutes without involving your students with a question or activity. Change your pacing--slow for new concepts and faster when reviewing.
Open each teleclass with a visual statement. Don't stand at the podium and say, "Good Morning." This will be deadly.
Develop a personal signature that is consistent from class to class. This could be a graphic, what you are doing when the class opens, music, or a videoclip on location.
Maintain eye contact with both the students present and the field site students.
Personalize your class in any way that you can. Personal comments, handwritten notes, e-mail, and personal phone calls will help to maintain a degree of comfort.
Plan on how you want to look. Create a visual image and personal signature. Ask to be videotaped and then review (with a trusted colleague) how you look, sound, and move.
Plan how you dress. Do you want a very formal, formal, business casual, casual relaxed, or theatrical image? This could change for different classes.
Demand training on the new television equipment with ample opportunity to practice with feedback.
Ask that each teleclass be videotaped for review and evaluation by the instructor and anyone else who can help.
Practice with the camera operator to develop the type of camera shots that you like. Do you prefer a medium shot, close up, or extreme close up of you when you teach? If you do not have a camera operator, can you preset the television camera with the type of desired shots?
When you create handouts or study guides, use a consistent format. Have someone proof, proof, and proof. Don't trust your computer's spellchecking.
Explore how you can integrate the capabilties of the Internet, the World Wide Web, e-mail, audioconferencing, and any other technology into your interactive television telecourse.
Establish ground rules the first day of the teleclass. When will the students be allowed to ask questions? How will you handle punctuality or absence from a teleclass? How do you want to be addressed and how do you want the students to address each other?
Who said that teaching on televsion was the same as traditional teaching? Many of the skills do transfer but need to be adjusted for delivery on interactive television.
The purpose of sponsored education through interactive television is to bring instruction to students who otherwise could not receive it. The instruction uses a different metaphor of teaching. Rather than teacher-centered, sponsored education is meant to be student-centered. Learning performance objectives are identified and instruction built around them for support. sponsored education is meant to be active rather than passive. Interactive activities are built into the ISAT model rather than left to chance. Instruction is designed for the student. Teleinstructors teach students rather than telecourses.