COMMUNICATION STRATEGIES IN ONLINE ENVIRONMENTS

WELCOME o Facilitator name Position at university Contact info

LEARNING OUTCOMES By the end of this module, you should be able to: o Distinguish between the various types of communication available in online contexts o Outline the importance of clarity in written expression o Design a communicative learning activity that will increase the level of interactivity in the online environment

AGENDA o Online courses as “Communities of Inquiry” o Importance of clarity in communication for blended and online courses o Types of: Asynchronous communication Synchronous communication

ONLINE COURSES AS COMMUNITIES OF INQUIRY

ONLINE COMMUNICATION BARRIERS Video o Barriers to online communication in educational settings

ACTIVITY: COMMUNICATION BARRIERS o Take a moment to think about your own experiences with communicating online. o What were the barriers to effectively communicating using online tools?

o Based on the Garrison, Anderson, Archer (2000) reading you were given, Community of Inquiry (CoI) is based on the interactions and the presence created between Students, Instructors and the Content. WHAT IS COMMUNITY OF INQUIRY?

COMMUNITY OF INQUIRY Based on: Communication Medium

COGNITIVE, SOCIAL, TEACHING PRESENCE PresenceCategoriesIndicators Cognitive Trigger Exploration Integration Sense of puzzlement Information exchange Connecting ideas Social Emotional expression Open communication Group cohesion Emoticons Risk free expression Encouraging collaboration Teaching Instructional management Building understanding Direct instruction Defining discussion topics Sharing personal meaning Focusing discussion Source: Garrison, D. R., Anderson, T., & Archer, W. (2000). Critical inquiry in a text-based environment: Computer conferencing in higher education.

DEVELOPING AN ONLINE COMMUNITY Video o Strategies for developing an online community

DISCUSSION o How would you apply the community of inquiry model to your course? Think of at least one strategy you can use to establish cognitive presence, social presence and teaching presence in your course.

CLARITY IN WRITTEN EXPRESSION

INTERACTION WITH CONTENT Content

CLARITY OF WRITTEN EXPRESSION o Know exactly what the instructor wants o Choose words carefully o Be aware of how “everybody interprets things differently” Source: Vonderwell, S. (2002). An examination of asynchronous communication experiences and perspectives of students in an online course: a case study. The Internet and Higher Education, 6, Retrieved from

TYPES OF SYNCHRONOUS AND ASYNCHRONOUS COMMUNICATION

COMMUNICATION VIDEOS Videos o Has education changed since the industrial revolution? o Effective Online Discussions

ACTIVITY: COMMUNICATION VIDEOS o How can the communication strategies from the second video could be implemented into your course? o How have those ideas been used in this module?

ACTIVITY: COMMUNICATION TOOLS o As a class, brainstorm a list of communication tools that are available at your institution. Communication Tools Synchronous ToolsAsynchronous Tools

ACTIVITY: COMMUNICATION TOOLS o Individually, think about a goal/outcome for your course and an activity that will help you reach this goal. o Using the list generated earlier, which communication tools do you think will work for the activity and help you reach your goal?

HOMEWORK o Taking the feedback you were given, design a communicative activity for your course/module.

SUMMARY o Community of Inquiry model provides a way to structure interactions in online learning environments based on cognitive, social and teaching presence. o Establishing and maintaining cognitive, social, and teaching presence is associated with high levels of deep and meaningful learning.

SUMMARY o In online learning, clarify of written expression is so important because students experience stronger interaction with content than with peers and instructors. o There are a variety of synchronous and asynchronous tools you can use to improve online communication and support your learning outcomes.

THANK YOU o Questions? o Comments? o Help? Contact information – facilitator’s and departmental

REFERENCES 1. Chao, T. (2004) Instructional Strategies for Creating Meaningful Online Dialogue. Retrieved from onlinedialogue.pdf 2. COFA.online. (2011, February 22). Conducting Effective Online Discussions. Retrieved April 9, 2014, from episodes?view=video&video= drcreyn. (2012, March 10). How do you relate to the CoI? Retrieved April 9, 2014, from Q38.

REFERENCES 4. Freedman, S.C., Tello, S.F. & Lewis, D. (2013). Strategies for Improving Instructor-Student Communication in Online Education. In Virtual Education: Cases in Learning and Teaching Technologies (Chapter 10). Retrieved from 5. 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), Retrieved from iry_in_a_text.pdf. 6. Lewis, J. (2013, May 22). Communication Strategies for Managing Online Teaching. Retrieved April 9, 2014, from

REFERENCES 7. MacIntyre, S. (2011). Conducting Effective Online Discussions. Learning to Teach Online. Retrieved from pdf/Discussions_LTTO.pdf. 8. PSU World Campus Faculty Development. (2010, September 27). Planning Communication Strategies. Retrieved April 9, 2014, from 62&feature=iv&src_vid=T5vwKFt3B5w&v=PtqX5XqZZJo. 9. TeacherStream, LLC. (2009). Mastering Online Discussion Board Facilitation. Retrieved from mastering-online-discussion-board-facilitation.pdf 10. Vonderwell, S. (2002). An examination of asynchronous communication experiences and perspectives of students in an online course: a case study. The Internet and Higher Education, 6, Retrieved from