I have been lucky to have opportunities to teach in both a traditional classroom and online. Combining these two modalities has made me a better teacher overall and allows me to recognize the benefits of both types of classrooms for different types of individuals – both at a student level and as an educator.
In a traditional classroom, an instructor walks around the room while students work and can hear bits and pieces of conversations. In an online classroom, the work is more focused and all content related to the course is available within the threads of the course. In an online course, it’s easier to correct students who present misinformation, whereas in a traditional classroom I might not have heard them tell their friend the wrong answer while they are working on a group assignment.
It is also much easier to gauge participation in an online classroom and reach out to students who are in need of additional help. In a traditional classroom there are often students who are so quiet that the only chance I had to assess their knowledge was in graded papers. Within the online classroom, it is more clear what concepts students do not understand and common misconceptions regarding the materials that I might not notice in the traditional setting. Knowing this can help me to revamp assignments for my traditional courses as well.
Explaining and lecturing in an online classroom is a very different beast than lecturing in a traditional classroom. Traditional lecture is verbal – now often accompanied by a PowerPoint or video clips – but mostly verbal. In an online setting, this lecture must be typed and it is vital that my communication is on the student’s level and very clear. It is necessary to think about how to word concepts so students can understand them and make sure I can check for their understanding as well.
In a traditional classroom, I can provide the students who are not verbal learners with copies of the written lecture I created for my online students. This allows me to cover a different type of learning style and has been quite beneficial in the traditional courses I’ve taught. All teachers know that catering to different learning styles is crucial for a successful classroom – be that online or traditional. The main goal of everything a teacher does is to assure that the student learns the material.
Having the experience of teaching in both a traditional classroom and an online setting has enabled me to figure out new and creative ways to elicit student learning. While there are pros and cons to both types of education and each has their own style and requirements, merging the two modalities has allowed me to look at teaching with a different perspective than I might have otherwise. I would encourage any teacher to try out both types of teaching and to use their experiences to continue to foster their own growth as well as to work to improve student learning.
About the Author
Jamie Weitl is a WAHM teaching for several online universities and raising three precocious little ones. In her spare time she enjoys writing, baking, and running. For more info, see my Google Plus Profile.
