Page 5 - Demo

Introduction 5
scheduling, and self-organization. What a lot of people like about online classes is how flexible they are, and that you can do them at any time. One of the drawbacks is you can do them at any time so it’s easy to put off when life happens – to pick up a shift at work, when you or your kid is sick, when you have caregiving responsibilities – they’re just a lot of things that can get in the way of it and so helping online students stay on track for completing course work successfully is extremely important.
Another key characteristic of online learning is that all communication, interaction, feedback, engagement with the learner, among learners and with the instructor, relies on technology. Colleges and universities invest heavily into development of the technology infrastructure to administer online programs, and one of the key areas is technology support for stu- dents and faculty. The technology is not limited to just the support services such as the Help Desk but also includes reliable technology delivery sys- tems, privacy and security measures, compliant data management prac- tices, contingency plans for possible service disruptions, course delivery technology, and finally, adequate support for faculty, staff, and students in the development of educational technology skills and the use of learning technology (Online Learning Consortium, 2018). There might be several offices that offer technology support, training, and assistance, typically via the Help Desk offered by the university or through a third party or vendor. This type of technology support might be sufficient as a college technology solution but is not adequate to meet the complex needs of en- suring a quality online teaching and learning experience. Mentoring can address the more subtle human factors at play in online education, given that mentoring is a high-touch strategy, enabling mentees to develop not only the knowledge and skills but also the confidence and comfort neces- sary to successfully navigate the complexities of the online environment.
Kristen Wilke of the University of Missouri System described how a mentoring program could address some of the online students’ needs in this area:
Our Online Course Mentors (OCMs) are embedded into the assigned courses in Canvas, our learning management system. We try to take a holistic approach to student success. Typically, the mentors will send out a weekly message to students around technology, motivation, campus and community resources, and health and wellness. If they are using a new tool for the first time, they might send out troubleshoot- ing tips for the tool. It’s a little more seamless now but when we first became a Google Apps campus — making sure that students knew how to connect to the Google Drive or connect their Google Drive to Canvas, mentors would send troubleshooting tips about those tech- nology issues.