Page 95 - Resources and Support for the Online Educator

The Necessity of Preparing Teacher Candidates to Teach Online CHAPTER 6

teaching requires an intentional coordination of the interactions of learners
with each other and with the instructor. Success with the teaching presence
requires planning and an understanding of the needs of students.

Teacher candidates would need to practice using all three presences in the CoI
framework as they develop an online learning environment either as a stand-alone
lesson or in the context of a larger unit. Teacher educators can also use the CoI
framework as a basis for reviewing teacher candidate progress as they develop these
skills. One excellent strategy for developing the skills needed in all three presences
is to provide teacher candidates with their own course shells in their methods
class or student teaching seminar. It is often possible to set up instructor accounts
for teacher candidates, depending upon the learning management system used by
an institution, which will allow teacher candidates to create their own learning
environments sometimes known as shells or sandboxes. Some colleges/schools
of education have used open-source tools such as Moodle to provide these shells,
while others make use of Google Classroom. The learning management system
chosen is less important than providing teacher candidates with a space
and creative license to design and practice teaching using an online structure.

From a faculty perspective, a little encouragement goes a long way. The CoI frame-
work can support the expectation that teacher candidates will develop an online
lesson to enhance their student teaching experience. Intermediary steps that lead
toward the skills required of online teaching could dovetail well with skills taught
through existing teacher preparation coursework. As an example, take the task of
developing an assessment using an online discussion forum. As teacher candidates
use their content knowledge to design an online lesson, they may use a discussion
forum as a formative assessment tool. This activity would be a good place to prac-
tice designing prompts grounded in the content (cognitive presence) and, through
careful monitoring of the discussion, to ensure students stay on track and are
respectful of each other’s opinions (social presence). The overall placement of such
an assessment could take advantage of the interactivity of online environments
and be designed in such a way that they complement the overall lesson design
(teacher presence).
Teacher candidates can further practice formative assessments by developing open-
ended questions to supplement a video they might be using as a digital resource.
Sites such as TedEd (ed.ted.com/) allow teacher candidates the opportunity to
create a video and develop a variety of assessments ranging from more constrained

Championing Technology Infusion in Teacher Preparation 121

Excerpted from Chapter 6, “The Necessity of Preparing Teacher Candidates to Teach Online.”

Championing Technology Infusion in Teacher Preparation 95