Online instructors are hired because they are judged as having the right combination of education, teaching experience, content expertise, and professional accomplishments. But once an instructor is in the classroom, these abilities and achievements can go only so far. There also must be a constant injection of personality.
The following are suggestions for conveying a positive, supportive, and enthusiastic personality.
Establish a friendly and inviting personality on day one of class. You have only one chance to make a first impression, and in the online classroom this is especially true—and important—as your personality on day one can be examined, experienced, and revisited throughout the course. Thus, any postings on day one that speak of you must convey that you care about the class, the students, and the subject, and that you are looking forward to the course and are eager to help your students.
Never confuse personality with teaching strategy. One can have the right—the best—teaching strategies ever created, yet a bland or dull online personality can make those teaching strategies nothing more than two-dimensional. Once those strategies are sprinkled with heavy doses of an upbeat and just downright nice personality, they truly come alive—and the students will react in a more engaged manner.
Sometimes you may need be an actor who wears the right personality. Your everyday, “Hey, this is me” personality might not be the one that is right for online teaching, and that’s fine…as long as you can play the role of an online instructor with a great, enthusiastic personality for your students (as well as your online supervisors, support team, and colleagues). Students take their lead from you—the way you come across to them will determine just how engaged and motivated they remain throughout the course.
Use your interest in the subject to help build your online teaching personality. You were selected to teach your subject partially because of your academic and/or professional expertise and interest in the subject, so share it with your students. Beyond what has been prestocked in your course, you can add articles, pictures, essays, cartoons, interviews, YouTube (and the like) snippets, and factoids that add richness and depth to your subject. The students will immediately know you really are “into” the subject, and your excitement and enthusiasm for the subject will spill over to your students.
Control knee-jerk reactions. Students can write or do things that get us upset. And we can make egregious errors in our hasty reactions to these student mistakes and oversights that may not only cost us our students’ respect and rapport, but possibly our jobs as well. So hold back—take some time before you respond, and if you don’t have the time—such as in a live chat, a phone call, or a videoconference—always remember that your actions and reactions are not merely yours but also the school’s, and because you are the instructor you are always held to a higher standard than your students are.
Be careful of your vocabulary choice. Each of us has words we use on a regular basis; they are part of who and what we are, and they often simply pour out. But our online courses demand that we pay special attention to the words we write, the context of those words, and the perception of the message we are trying to get across. Once posted, our words will live on throughout the course, and thus we must focus on the vocabulary we choose.
Help your personality come alive with audio and/or audiovisual. Today’s technology allows us to get closer to our students—and lets our personalities really shine through. Skype, MP3, Twitter, Facebook, Jing, Adobe Connect, Prezi, Wimba, and other tools can take us to our students in an audio and/or visual way and thus allows students to see and hear an instructor who is excited, enthusiastic, caring, and dedicated to his or her students, the subject, and the course.
Errol Craig Sull has been teaching online courses for 17 years and has a national reputation in the subject, writing and conducting workshops on distance learning. He is currently putting the finishing touches on two online teaching books.
Excerpted from Teaching Online with Errol: Personality DOES Matter in Teaching Online! Online Classroom (Oct. 2010): 6,7.
This Post Has 11 Comments
Hello Errol:
Thank you for providing a very thoughtful post about online teaching. I have also been an online instructor for several years and understand the importance of developing an engaging virtual presence.
You have made a very good point about the need to avoid a dull or bland personality. Also, avoiding knee-jerk reactions is important because we can lose control of our professionalism and tone when we respond emotionally. It is best to walk away from the computer and come back when we’ve had a moment to breathe and formulate a response.
You’ve also mentioned several audio technological tools. Have you utilized all of these tools? If so, do you have a favorite? Right now my favorite is Jing because of the ability to create a video and a screen shot.
Dr. J
Dr. J – if I might, try screen-cast-o-matic. There are no downloads. You can record a PPT slide show with narration, or you can do a screen cast. The cost is quite low $9-12 a year and you are not locked in to five minutes. You can also download in several formats like MP3 or upload to hosting sites like You Tube and my favorite – Google Docs.____Take Care__TK
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Thank you for your insights. There certainly is a difference between a face to face and an online personality. Your points here have made me reflect on my own instruction and consider these differences in my instructional situations. I believe my personality in my online classes is rather dull, whereas my personality in my regular online personal life is more similar to my face to face personality in my personal life. I am also aware of the fact that I am somewhat of on actor on stage in my face to face classes, but I haven't really considered this possibility in my online classes. Good food for thought.
As this fall will be my first time teaching online, these suggestions sound useful. One of the comments always made by students who took my "live" classes was that I was fun. I liked the direct access to students and hope to be able to translate my enthusiasm for my subject via the modalities learned in this class. I am enjoying the articles and videos which I have accessed so far.
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Thank you for posting this good information. i will be refering to your comments later in the semester when I interact with the class.
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With the online course I have taught I miss the face-to-face interaction with the students. I prefer the in-class web-enhanced classes that I have taught. With that type of class i can meet the students, lecture, have many physics demos for them to see in person rather than on video, solve problems with them in class and then have homework and assignments completed on-line