Thomas J. Tobin University of Wisconsin-Madison

Secret Boss Training:

Get Everyone to Observe

Online Courses

Distance Learning Administration conference

Jekyll Island, GA – June 25, 2018

Good teaching practices share 7 core elements.

Know when to do formative and summative evaluation.

Much of what we observe isn’t actually teaching.

Draw a clear line about e-mail, non-LMS interactions.

The Four Secrets

Image © 2009 Sippanont Samchai. Used under CC BY-NC-SA license from Flickr.com

Image © 2009 Niklas Morberg. Used under CC BY-SA license from Flickr.com

Secret 1: 7 Principles

1. Encourage student-faculty contact.

2. Develop student reciprocity & cooperation.

3. Use active learning techniques.

4. Give prompt feedback.

5. Emphasize time-on-task.

6. Communicate high expectations.

7. Respect diverse ways of learning.

Chickering & Gamson (1986); Chickering & Ehrmann (1996)

Image © 2015 Salvatore Gerace. Used under CC BY-SA license from Flickr.com

Formative vs. Summative

Secret 2: Be Prepared Image © 2006 Craig Oppenheimer. Used under CC BY-NC-SA license from Flickr.com

Image © 2008 Andrew Sorensen. Used under CC BY-NC license from Flickr.com

What Is Teaching?

Image © 2007 Anders Adermark. Used under CC BY-NC-ND license from Flickr.com

Secret 3: Less Than You Think

•Are students learning?

Student Learning

•Do students enjoy the experience?

Student Satisfaction • Is online

equivalent to face-to-face?

Accreditation

•Does the instructor foster the experience?

Quality

Institutional Resources

Program & Curriculum

Course Content &

Design

Teaching Behaviors

Institutional Context

Student Characteristics

Technology

Teaching Behaviors Course Content

& Design

Teaching Behaviors

Instructional interactions done

in the moment:

• Demonstrations

• Discussion

• Assessment & Feedback

• Instructional Supplement

• Administrative Tasks

©2009 John Amis. Used under Creative Commons BY-NC license from Flickr.com.

Course Content & Design

Instructional content, materials, and

resources prepared ahead of time:

• Slide decks, visuals, videos

• Directions

• Assignments

• Resources

• Materials

©2009 “Joe Shlabotnik.” Used under Creative Commons BY-NC-SA license from Flickr.com.

Facilitation

• Timely

• Frequent

• Engaging

• Relationship-Building

• Synchronous

• Asynchronous

Instruction

• Multimodal

• Ongoing

• Applied

• Interactive

• Student-Centered

• Personalized

Grading & Feedback

• Specific

• Elaborative

• Individualized

• Immediate

• Rubric-Driven

• Student-Oriented

Administration

• Current

• Clear

• Proactive

• Timely

• Policy-Driven

• Detailed

• Aligned

Effective Teaching Behaviors

Image © 2010 Pierre Kortum. Used under CC BY-SA license from Flickr.com

Teaching with (and in) Technology

Image © 2008 Linus Bohman. Used under CC BY license from Flickr.com

Secret 4: Get Hip to Tech

Assignment feedback speed & quality

Discussion frequency & quality

Student-question answer speed

Announcement frequency

Personal & contact info

Log-in frequency (Piña and Bohn, 2014)

Image © 2013 James Ballard. Used under Creative Commons BY-NC-SA license from Flickr.com.

Measurable Online Teaching Behaviors

F2F bias: good teaching ...

is embodied.

is intuitive.

happens in real time.

appears effortless.

is measured the same in all modes.

… and online bias: quantity bias.

Image © 2015 US Naval War College, used under CC-BY license from Flickr.com

Observational Bias

What communication is allowed with observed faculty?

How far beyond the e-classroom can observers go?

Set observation scope & duration.

Who can assist the observer?

Define teaching behaviors.

Know who created what.

Look in live or post-facto?

Administrative Review

Online Observation Rubric

Image © 2013 Bruce Guenter. Used under CC BY license from Flickr.com

Look and Think Image ©2007 Marco Magrini, Used under CC BY-NC-ND license from Flickr.com.

©2010 Northern Alberta Institute of Technology. Used under Creative Commons BY-ND license from Flickr.com.

Sal Monella: Food

Safety 101

Sa

l M

on

ella

, Fo

od

Sa

fety

10

1

What Did You See?

Image ©2011 Rodrigo Tejedai, Used under CC BY-NC-ND license from Flickr.com.

Take-Aways

Image © 2007 Scott J. Waldron, used under CC-BY license from Flickr.com

Copyright

Academic Integrity

Accessibility & UDL

Evaluating Online Teaching

thomasjtobin.com