A couple of years ago, I was asked late one Friday night if I could teach an online course for a college in a mid-southern state. I was told that I would have 11 students and that none of the students had ever participated in an online course. Well, yes, I was up to the challenge and would be glad to teach the course. It was my first experience teaching online. The fear that the students were feeling was also present in my heart and mind, but I knew the platform, completed numerous hours of training on the course process, outline, attributes, etc. I thought I was ready to go.

I prepared for more than 30 hours during the weekend. I developed a Power Point presentation, set the syllabus, and reviewed the quizzes, mid-term and final. I provided chat room discussion guides for the students to follow in the interactive chat room. I developed resources for the students to use in the development of their class projects, including Internet sites and attached documents. I was more than just prepared, I was ready for anything and everything, or so I thought.

The first night of class I was in the chat room at the appointed time for the course to start. For me, that time was 15 minutes before the class started. I kept watching the chat room for students to appear. Five minutes before the class started I had two students. Where were the rest of the students who are supposed to be online at this predetermined time and place? I had sent out 10 emails before the course started. I communicated the time, place and a syllabus via email. Why were they not appearing in the course? Ten minutes after the start of the class I had five of the 11, and 20 minutes after the class started I had 10 of the 11 students in the chat room. I was in disaster mode and knew I had failed in some way shape or form. I would never be asked back to teach anything for this university.

I started by asking who was having problems with the course. Most of the students indicated that they were coming from other courses and that they could not meet in any chat room on this night because they were in other on-ground classes. This, of course, confused me, but I just went with the flow of the conversation and told myself I would deal with the scheduling conflict later. The students also indicated that they had not received much training on how to use the course software. Well, it was now time to regroup and start over. I provided some of the basics about the discussion boards and interactive chat room. I explained how to complete the quizzes and exams and reviewed the lesson process and syllabus. It took over one hour to get the basics of the online course operations completed. We also scheduled another class day and time that met everyone’s needs.

I then started on the lesson. The chat process was truly like pulling teeth. I would present questions and the students would not respond. One student asked me, “What answer do you want me to provide?” I typed back, “Whatever answer you want to provide related to the question.” It was a very neutralizing process for my ego. I had always thought I was a great teacher, but this was going to either break me or make me. I was voting on the breaking aspect at this particular point.

We finally ended this agonizing process over 2.5 hours after the class started. I was thinking the whole time, “These students have absolutely no voice.” The students did not know what to say or how to say it. They were nonresponsive. They did not know the first thing about this online process, and I felt that all my planning and developing was not going to be utilized. I imagined that I would be providing basic skills for learning how to use an online course and that would be about the full extent of my teaching.

During the week between the first and second class, I sent emails every day reminding all of the students to complete the online tutorials before the next class. I made sure to let them know that the class started promptly at 6 pm CST and that I expected everyone to be online when the class started. I told them what chat room we would start in for our second class. I provided chat room guides for everyone to review for the next lesson and reviewed the topics we would concentrate on during our second session. The course was 10 weeks in length and I knew I could catch up, but could the students keep up and get into the online process? That was the real question. Was I expecting too much from a bunch of students who had never taken an online course? The truth was that I was still fearful that I would not be successful.

Our second class started on time, and 10 of 11 students were on time and online in the right chat room. I covered the lessons, reviewed the PowerPoint presentations and asked for questions about their projects (the students were to complete a project by the end of the class session as part of the requirement for their mid-term and final exam). A couple of students had questions, but again without a clear understanding of what they needed or wanted. Their questions were vague, displaying a lack of clarity about what they were supposed to do.  Clearly, they were still overwhelmed or lost in the cascade of requirements presented in an online course.   I decided that the best approach would be to break down the project into separate parts (I still teach this online course utilizing this method) and have them turn in a part of their assigned project every week. It actually worked very well, and at the end of the course, everyone was finished with his or her project before our last class.

Completing the projects prior to the last night of class was about developing a sense of value for the students. They came into the new world of education with certain expectations. Why not enhance those expectations with something that will help them throughout their lives and will also provide additional course value? Instead of holding a regular class the last night of the course, I provided a seminar for the students. I now typically give students a list of seminars or workshops to choose from.

This class selected my communication workshop. I provided an instrument that identifies one’s communication style and then provided some analysis of the styles and demonstrated how each may fit into the workplace. As I went through the process of defining what each of the four styles meant, you could see the level of engagement in their responses change. Our predetermined one-hour class turned into over two hours, and that two-hour period happened within the blink of an eye. I was able to see clearly how an online course can change perceptions and give a voice to the students. The students responded without prompting. They responded to each other about their different communication styles. Those students who knew each other compared their own perceptions. It was a transformation that I will never forget and will cherish forever.

I believe that the students agreed with my own observations of the class. This transformation did not happen overnight. It was really the 10-week process of engagement that made the difference. Enabling students to become involved in their own learning was an absolutely positive outcome for everyone in the class, including myself.

This introduction to the world of online instruction was a very cathartic and rewarding experience for me. It completely changed my perception of online teaching. By enhancing students’ educational involvement and engagement, a stimulus for professional and personal growth was introduced. This effort also provided a true pathway for the students to have a voice in their online process.

Value-added is the formal term for this experience, but the joy you see in the students’ words; the expressed desires of continuing a process that initially appeared to be lost; and the inspirational presence of learning without pressure gave new meaning to the idea of learning online. Giving students their own voice in an online educational setting really works. It will, if presented with purpose, make the difference between interactive learning and passive acceptance. Giving students a voice may even make a difference in how professors see the online learning process. My recommendation is to engage your students in developing their own strengths and talents through learning. It may make a difference in your own learning engagement and provide more than a voice for your students.

I am currently teaching my 3rd course online for this same university.

Written and submitted by Dr. Jim Jones