How to be Present as an Online Teacher

Teaching matters so turn up.   Your course matters so turn up.   Your students matter so turn up.

You know that.

I don’t need to give you the latest research on why being present in your online course is important.

It is obvious.

When you show up and care about your students you will lift their spirits and encourage their learning.  When you are present in the course then there is a greater chance that your students succeed.

It is a teaching strategy that works over and over again.  It doesn’t matter if the student is five or fifty five.

But how do you “Turn Up”?

Well to answer that question you need to understand some online teaching theory.  Garrison, Anderson and Archer (2000) described three types of online presence – teaching, social and cognitive presence.

Teaching Presence

Teacher presence starts before the course starts.  It is all the work you are doing behind the scenes to make sure the course looks like a teaching unit and not a book.  It is the planning, the course organisation and the specific ways you write the lessons.
It is the audio and video links and the little anecdotal stories that will remind your students that you,  a real person, wrote the course just for them.

Teacher presence is also what you do during the course.  It is the questions that you ask and the discussions you are involved in.  It is when you take charge during disputes and the emails you send to let your students know when there is a problem.

Social Presence

Social presence occurs when your members see each other as real people and a collective group that are going to learn together.  As teacher it is your role to foster this community spirit.  Social presence is extremely important in the first couple of weeks when your members are getting to know each other.  It is your job to comment and speak individually to every student.

It is your job to make sure that no one feels left out.

Cognitive Presence

The final way to show that you are present in the course is to create activities that ensure your students are cognitive present. By  finding out what your member’s current knowledge and skills are in relation to what you are teaching.

And the best way to find this out is to just ask them.

Pam Slim, in her Escape from Cubic Nation Community, has a great strategy for making sure that she, and all her members, are being cognitive present.  At the beginning of each month she asks her members what their goals are, how they will achieve each goal and how the rest of the community can help the member.

This is a great strategy for so many reasons.

• Pam can gauge where the member is in their journey
• The entire commounity can see how they all can help each other
• Over months she can determine if that member is learning and growing from her support
• The other members feel connected with each other as they see how they are all ‘in the same boat’ and connected

Be Present

See what happens when you becoming really present in your online course.  Your students have more opportunities to connect and engage.  And with every interaction your students will learn more.

You have started a ripple effect.

How do you turn up in your courses?  Do you have any questions about teacher presence?  Let me know in the comments below.