iNACOL VSS: Effective Teaching Practices, Part II

Part II

These survey items, which asked students about teacher practices, showed a statistical significant correlation between student perception and student achievement:

• My teacher is paying attention to what I'm doing in this class.
• My teacher in this class remembers my name.
• If I saw my teacher outside this classroom, s/he would remember my name.
• My teacher treats all students in this class the same.
• The pace of online lessons works for me in this class.
• When learning something new in my online course,  I fee that my teacher provides the help I need to understand and practice new knowledge.
• My teacher explains that I am able to ask questions during this class.
• I feel challenged and engaged using a computer to help me learn.

Other Interesting Results:

• Time: There was no relationship between time students spent logged into the learning management system and achievement, which suggests that students need to learn at their own pace. There was, however, a relationship between the amount of time a teacher spent logged into the system and student achievement.
• Communication: Students seemed to prefer meeting face-to-face with a teacher when they had a question, and there was not relationship between the number of messages sent by teachers and student achievement. 
• Content: Student achievement was higher when teachers customized their courses. 

Bottom line? The educator in the classroom is still the most critical element, and technology use is not a silver bullet. Technology has the potential to enhance the role of the educator, not to diminish it. 

Online teachers must strive to do what they do best--answer questions, foster conversations, dive deeper into topics, mentor, provide encouragement. It's the interaction between the teacher and the students that matters.