Appreciative teaching in an online environment

Two appreciative teachers

I’ve been teaching part-time and now full-time as an online university instructor since 2002. This work aligns well with my coaching and consulting work, and has, in fact, included coaching of learners and now faculty. Recently, with the turmoil surrounding online, mostly for-profit institutions and their open enrollment policies, I’ve been thinking about what works best with learners who may have excellent preparation for graduate work as well as with learners who have no preparation for graduate work–in the same courseroom.

Robbin Parry, who is pictured here, is one of my colleagues at Capella University. She is a masterful appreciative teacher. With bright, curious, and sometimes agressive learners, she is curious, calm, and wants to know what works best for them in a learning environment. With learners who have had less opportunity to prepare, or have come from environments where the challenge and stimulation may be less rich, she is curious, calm and–you guessed it, wanting to know what works best for them in a learning environment.

It is one thing, I find, to be consistently positive and curious about what works for learners when they are within a fairly narrow range of ability. It is another to be so when each learner presents a very different challenge and opportunity.

One thing that seems to work well for me is to picture a learner as someone who really wants to get the most out of each class. As I get to know something about their background I am able to suggest readings, videos, and podcasts that are geared to their level of experience and help them to raise their own bar to the level of the course materials. For those who could get into Michigan State or Cal Poly I try to find similar materials to enrich their experience beyond the level of the course materials.