1. Working OnlineTutor skills for handling onlinechats, discussions, & contentMary, Jacqui & Andrina

2. Encouraging Online Participation & Motivation 3. Definitions of MotivationMotivation is the willingness to spend time orenergy towards goals, and can be looked in avariety of ways. Some key elements whichimpact on online learning: intrinsic motivation extrinsic motivation 4. Intrinsic & Extrinsic Motivation intrinsic motivation - motivation from the individual, oftenleading to deeper learning behaviour - this can befurther broken down (Kim, 2004) to: motivation to initiate motivation to persist motivation to continue extrinsic motivation - can be very strong still butmotivation comes externally and may lead to moresuperficial learning. other important characteristics of motivation: value - relevance to learner expectancy - likelihood learner can complete task 5. Motivation Issues for Online Courses high drop out rates - (30 - 50 %) more likely to be adults who are more likely tobe motivated assumptions about online courses -participants may assume its self study andmay prefer it to be self study. some participants may be less familiar withtools 6. Suggestions for Initiating, Increasing,and Sustaining Motivation make assumptions and conventions clear before or very early in the course raise awareness of the value of online courses and online tasks include a variety of tasks and types of tasks. Include, shorter and longer, more in depth more fun, some sociable, some group building give clear rubrics and information on assessment - whats due and when model the behaviour you expect praise - privately and in open forums match individuals - one less motivated with someone more motivated start simply with the technology. Building up to more difficult, complex tools/online activities clarify the value of participation make your presence felt, so participants know they are involved and what is expected of them. 7. Tutor Skills for Handling Synchronous and Asynchronous Work Online 8. Online Tutors Need a range of skills to create and maintain a positive successful online learning environment they also need to be committed to the idea of collaborative learning. 9. Online Tutor Skills: 5 Categories technical structural social conceptual time management 10. Online Tutor Technical Skills be familiar with technical features and tools ofthe online platform be able to anticipate student difficulties andrespond with clear and supportive (notdismissive) instructions when things dontwork you need to be able, students enabled 11. Online Tutor Structural Skills able to design tasks and assessments inwhich goals, processes and expectations areclear able to using student-friendly layout, e.g.simple navigation, bullet points, headings,visuals can see how things look and feel from theother side 12. Online Tutor Social Skills Online learning is a social and educational milieu. Tutors need the skills of a social host and a meeting chairperson. In synchronous and asynchronous work this means: being warm and encouraging, with group and 1-1 strategies to invite and reward participation listening or reading between the lines to draw out questions or concerns being able to see the online environment from a students perspective being able to set the tone in etiquette and mutual respect; prepared and able to deal constructively with inappropriate behaviour being perceptive of subtle and not so subtle interactive issues, such as cliques, and non-participation. Diplomacy to deal constructively with dominance. being able to mix people in collaborative work with sensitivity to personality and learning issues being able to give constructive feedback and even criticism 13. Online Tutor Conceptual SkillsOnline tutors need to be able to read, understand and respondto enormous amounts of student output. Specific skills are: weaving: regular posts, for example in a forum, which help thestudents understand the flow of the discussion, with sensitivehandling of different viewpoints, quantity and quality of contribution feeding back their own ideas to help students reach a conclusion synthesis and analysis: being able to summarise in a clear andsuccinct style without losing or distorting the central meaning a questioning style which prompts discovery and learning bystudents negotiating to find ways to accommodate the different needs andinterests of students reformulating and rephrasing incorrect or inappropriate contributions re-directing and controlling to steer discussions back on track, or tomove on to the next point 14. Online Tutor Time-ManagementSkills need to be able to read and respond quickly and at the right time opportunistic teaching and learning the ability to multitask and work under pressure without sacrificing sensitivity to students needs and the quality of their own posts is a must 15. Sample Rubrics that give Rationales for Course Design Decisions 16. Course Design Guiding Principle The design of online courses should be to facilitate learning, so design decisions about the types of tasks involved are crucial to facilitating the learning of each particular group 17. Know your Students Know your audience and their motivations for doing the course. Then you can decide how much collaboration socialisation groupwork chat would be appropriate. This could also depend on whether it is a full time or part time course and how much spare time participants have for various activities 18. Tailoring the Course tailor the course design around the needs of thegroup as one size doesnt fit all do the participants have enough free time to organiseregular synchronous activities or would a greaternumber of asynchronous tasks be more important? could this be adapted if the balance seemsinappropriate as the course is ongoing? If the balanceis inappropriate participants are more likely to dropout if they dont have enough time for synchronousactivities 19. Take Account of Learner Styles the design decisions need to take into account different learning styles and needs if only one or two learner styles are taken into account then participants with other learner styles will probably be alienated 20. Collaboration Issues match participants carefully for collaboration if some participants seem to be much more adept atusing technology match them with participants whoare less adept. This could help the less adeptstudents start to feel more confident with thetechnology at the design stage you could also have some way ofdesigning different collaboration matches that stop thepartnerships from becoming stale. 21. Marking The design of the course should usemarking rubrics to make grading easierand to clarify expectations for students 22. Reflect Real World Skills it would be realistic and eminently useful for decisions about course design to reflect the real world skills that the course is aiming to develop for example, a language course for business people who have to give regular presentations, take part in telephone conferences and video conferences, be part of a virtual team which uses collaborative documents on the web for project work---should engage in learning using these very tools, including a collaborative document on the language of project management, a slideshare presentation on the language of presentations 23. Thank you for your Time The online tutor is a facilitator who uses thespecial qualities of the online environment tocreate and sustain a supportive and effectiveplace to explore, discover and learn -collaboratively