Leadership in Online Learning
Welcome guest blogger Holly Caracappa. She connects leadership with online education. I’ve taken many online courses and can attest to the applicability of her comments. Enjoy.
Online education boasts of convenience, independence and flexibility – students can study in their home on their own schedule. The tradeoff for such advantages is the personal interaction component of education. Because of the remote nature of eLearning, traditional leadership tactics must be adapted to fit the distance learning arena.
Unlike physical campuses where leaders can implement study sessions, create campus organizations and spearhead group projects, eLearning leaders take on a more invisible role. Even though distance learners rarely find themselves engaged in live debates with their peers, online study requires a great deal of discussion and collaboration to be successful. Forums substitute written communication for verbal discussion.
Students attending accredited online degree programs must learn to lead through thoughtful and relevant writing. This stimulating engagement will evoke participation from fellow classmates and helps to build an interconnected, productive learning community. Moreover, in virtual learning environments students not comfortable with public speaking can find their voices, making online education conducive to fostering a broad leadership base.
Don’t believe that subtle leadership works? Consider a jazz ensemble. Jazz musicians do not improvise in isolation, but instead listen to the group’s initial direction, respond to it, and subsequently influence others in the group through their authentic response. It is a call and response leadership model.
Rather than spewing words into online forums, insightful e-learners digest the contributions of others before responding, leading the group toward the ultimate learning goal. In this sense, online leadership mirrors in-person leadership where a person must listen, reflect, and devise a plan of action in response to the group. This subtle leadership by participation fosters a collegial environment ready for intellectual inquiry, debate and exchange.
(Holly Caracappa is a writer for eCollegeFinder.org, an online education portal dedicated to matching students with the top online schools and best accredited online colleges.)
For the past ten years, I have been delivering live broadcasts via the Internet teaching my graduate-level Occupational Safety and Health Management Systems course in the Center for Applied Environmental Public Health at Tulane University in New Orleans. I am located in Scottsdale, AZ. The link given above must be new because our programs are not listed. Go here to learn more: http://www.sph.tulane.edu/CAEPH/dl/index.htm
We offer three masters in Occupational Health and Safety Management, Industrial Hygiene, and Disaster Management. The programs are heavy on application with some theory sprinkled in.
My students are located throughout the USA and overseas. In fact, several years ago one of my students logged into class via an internet cafe in Africa. The technology we use allows all of my students to see my presentation and hear the lecture. In addition, the technology allows me to turn the floor over to any student so they can ask a question or make a contribution. There is a chat board to type questions also.
Indeed, this is the way of the future.
Jim,
It’s exciting to learn yet another interesting side of you and your business. I don’t know why I didn’t know this.
Enjoy!
Dan
I’ve taught for years at a small Christian liberal arts school (Huntington University). When we started to venture into graduate work we needed to do some tinkering. So 5 years ago I launched a largely online MA in Youth Ministry Leadership (www.youthministryleadership.com). We’ve been able to serve students from around the country by calibrating each course to meet only once in an intense, 3 day “retreat” environment after and before doing 6 weeks of online work. I know that this delivery is still not as convenient as an entire online environment, but the features of leadership growth and interdependence identified by Holly are present with a surprising sense of community as a bonus. Thanks for a great post; I intend to circulate it to the blue chip faculty I’ve secured who are distributed all around the country.
Dave,
Glad you enjoyed Holly’s work. I appreciate you sharing your real world example.
I look forward to your future comments.
Best,
Dan
Leadership Jazz strikes again! Great post Holly!
We are in the midst of the virtual information transition. Storage, an issue for centuries, soon no longer will be.
The past model kept all of the information in one repository, such as the bricks and mortar buildings on expansive campuses.
The new model is that the information is digitized and globally accessible. Major paradigm shift. (Analogous with the dying video rental stores with all of the online video venues.)
Is it then about customer convenience and choices for learning as much for renting a video. Most motivated adult learners cannot quit work and go to school and still exist.
(Dan’s family has a recent graduate who has had computer access his entire life. That generation has attended the traditional model of learning and at the same time accessed the new technology to learn even more. It will be interesting to see where they go with this.)
Traditional academics have aligned with online learning as a valid educational venue, yet there is a vested financial interest in keeping students in physical presence of the buildings as long as possible. How else to justify the buildings and other supports (and expenses) when the information will soon be digital?
Not to diminish the importance of face-to-face interactions as it is key to what connects us as humans, helps us grow and learn too. Leaders can be looking at benefits of both learning processes and offer variations, again offering an excellent service.
Do I still love a book in my hand, you bet! There is still a level of comfort and ease with a book, that computers (and iPads) do not have. Do I have instant access to millions of books and blogs that I can scan on the net, yep. Sans that, no Leadership Freak! 😉
Doc,
If not for my vast education, I would be forced to look up “Sans” on the Internet!
I think education will soon seamlessly blend online and “in person” into one continuous experience.
My regards,
Dan
Hi, Thanks for sharing the information..