Abstract
With the onset of a pandemic, there were opportunities and challenges for supporting learners. Schools and universities were physically closed while interaction shifted to a distance learning modality. In some instances, courses became asynchronous, while other courses met synchronously using video conferencing. Educators were adaptable when the pandemic occurred, quickly setting up home offices to meet their learners' needs. This occurrence showed that it was in educators' best interest to understand distance best practices. Distance learning has been utilized at institutions in the United States for the past two decades. However, it has not been widely adopted as mainstream because of the inequities that arise for learners. This chapter will address solutions for systematically addressing inequity from the educator's perspective, maintaining academic rigor, building a community of learners, creating a workflow for educators to interact with learners, and how to amplify learner engagement in the online learning environment.
TopIntroduction
Within higher education settings, students come from a diverse range of backgrounds both in regard to their education, culture, and socioeconomic status. As learning environments transitioned from face-to-face, on-campus to digitally online during COVID-19, it was imperative to remember where our students come from, their experience with digital learning, and the social-emotional support they may need during a global pandemic. While distance teaching and learning has been taking place for decades, this sudden shift to online learning brought on in Spring 2020 was unlike any other learning shift that has occurred in our lifetimes. Typically, a faculty and learner make a choice to teach or learn via distance learning. In our pandemic situation, schools abruptly needed to close their physical doors and turn to virtual options. This chapter will address solutions for systematically addressing inequity from the educator's perspective, maintaining academic rigor, building a community of learners, creating a workflow for educators to interact with learners, and how to amplify learner engagement in the online learning environment.
Key Terms in this Chapter
Distance Learning: A course where the faculty and learners are physically distant to one another.
Learning Environment: A space, virtual or physical, in that the faculty and/or student has created for learning to occur.
Inequity: Learners do not have the choice to engage in a distance learning course but are forcibly placed in an online position, specifically, when COVID-19 occurred and schools shut their physical doors.
Asynchronous: An online course that is taught via a digital learning platform where students can meet the course requirements any time, day, or place.
Synchronous: An online course that is delivered in real-time, where learners and faculty instructors meet together. These sessions often occur through a video conferencing tool but can occur through text chats as well.
Learner-Learner Interaction: Learners interact with other learners enrolled in the same course via communication methods such as discussion boards, video messages, and collaborative class projects.
Learner-Instructor Interaction: Learners communicate regularly with the faculty instructor via video or text class announcements, discussion board posts, video lectures, or electronic communications.
Learner-Content Interaction: Learners interact with the course instructional materials to learn. Examples include watching a video lecture, reading the assigned textbook, or using adaptive learning materials.
Engagement: Learners interact with course material, regularly communicate with the faculty and other learners.