What I Learned About Distance Education - Summer 09

Since I took the EDTEC700 Class this summer on Web Conferencing, the points I am going to cover reflect on what I learned in that course. Of course, there was much more learned than what can be confined to 3 bullet points. However, within those confines, here's a quick summary:

*One the first, and most remembered, lesson learned was that no matter how much an instructor practices their delivery, something can still go wrong at the time of presentation. During my first delivered lesson, I hit some button on the screen that caused my slides to auto advance at a rapid pace. Therefore, I had to do some troubleshooting while my classroom audience waited for me to fix the problem. This not only wasted valuable time since we had back-to-back presentations scheduled, but it also unnerved me prior to delivery. And as it turned out, even though the problem appeared to be fixed on my end and during the remainder of the lesson, the archive did not record correctly. So the same issue was evident on the archived recording for any student viewing the lesson in that format. The lesson learned here is that it is critical to not only review lesson content, but learn about the screen content as well for the application the lesson will be delivered within. It's important that you understand the purpose of and how to use the command/buttons displayed on the delivery screens being used. Because Murphy's Law is inevitable and in an online format, your only options are to fix the problem, work around the problem if possible, or cancel the session.

*Being able to prepare then deliver online presentations as part of the course was invaluable. It developed a deep appreciation for the differences required in preparing for an online delivery versus classroom delivery. Even with all of my years conducting classroom training, I was not prepared for the challenges of online instruction. Some of the challenges included the multi-tasking required to present the lesson: respond to chat comments, display supplemental video/visual content, switch to breakout rooms, share an application on the screen, and be sure the session is recorded. Each of these become critical for the audience comprehension of the lesson as well as a smooth delivery. The key to success was once again, adequate preparation. I had to practice the delivery and required multi-tasking steps many times before actually delivering the lesson in front of my classroom audience. It was only with adequate "run-throughs" that I was able to confidently utilize the online tools available to me without distracting from the lesson content. In fact, I always had a printed outline (with step-by-step instructions) that covered each part of the lesson to be delivered. No matter how simple the task seemed, I still included it in the Outline. Because when unexpected problems would arise, it was easy to become flustered and forget what needed to be done next.

*The use of audio and video during online instruction was especially challenging. Dr. Saba required us to utilize video of ourselves while presenting. This turned out to include issues such as good lighting and eye contact with the camera. I never did get the lighting perfected even though I tried using every lamp in the house surrounding my desk. But shadows and brightness were always an issue. What I realized through my own endeavors as well as lessons viewed is that having a dark video of the presenter is more frustrating than interesting. And then you have to throw in "eye contact". With my webcam located at the top of my laptop screen, that became difficult to perfect as well. This was due to the need to look straight ahead at the camera while at the same time needing to look down on the screen to perform the multiple tasks required to present the lesson materials. I even tried placing my printed Outline on a stand right next to my webcam by taping it along the top edge of my desk. But that did not help when I needed to look down at the screen for the next button or command to click on. What I would do differently is utilize a external webcam that could be placed at an angle which would allow me to look straight ahead at both the camera and the screen.

All in all, the lessons were invaluable and the course very informative. Since I hope to do online instruction in the future, the lessons were critical to my future success.