Managing Classrooms in a Technological Environment

Designing the Learning Environment

No matter how good your teaching plans, if the details are not well managed the learning encounter will not be successful. In traditional settings, most of these logistical details are handled automatically. Classrooms are scheduled, meeting times set, media delivered, and the library is a short walk away. For the distance educator, this logistical infrastructure must be actively monitored.

We normally take the basic elements of our learning environment for granted. In a distance learning context, we need to consider many questions about what structures students will need in order to be successful. What is the schedule of activities? Where will activities take place? Who presents what to whom? How? What materials will be needed? When? Will special arrangements be needed for copyrighted materials or test security? What happens if something doesn't work? What are the channels of communication?

While, at first, this extra responsibility is quite a burden, it also provides the opportunity for teachers to be in much greater control of learning environments than when they are constrained by the timetables and traditions of the campus classroom. Lectures do not have to be fit into 50 minute periods. Discussions do not have to be completed in fifteen minutes, nor do they have to occur in separate corners of a room simultaneously. Presentations are not limited to chalkboards or overhead projectors, and videos are not limited to one-time viewing. In short, the teacher has tremendous flexibility when constructing the learning environment. The trick is to discover the best way to manage such details so that they support the type of learning experience you want your students to have.

Making Some Choices
Given the chance to leave aside many of the traditional constraints of the classroom, consider how to maximize a distance learning environment to promote your teaching goals. You may find it helpful to reflect on what metaphor best suits your teaching style as look at you will need. If teaching were a garden, you would need a garden bed, plants, fertilizers and insecticides, as well as hoses, rakes, and shovels. If teaching were a voyage, you would need to get tickets and an itinerary. You would need to know where to eat and sleep and decide how you will travel.

Of course, it is easier to imagine the distance environment using the metaphor of a classroom. Such a comforting image may indeed prove to be a helpful guide in deciding how to organize the parts of your lesson. However, if the traditional classroom has not served your lessons well because they are too compartmentalized or too time-bound, re-creating these constraints in a distance setting is not especially valuable, even if familiar.

Whatever your image, it is critical to have some overarching, guiding vision of what you want your learning environment to look like. An ad hoc approach to addressing the details of managing distance learning settings can lead to a great deal of last minute panic. This will leave students feeling particularly frustrated, as they too realize that they cannot rely on the traditional infrastructure to automatically meet their needs. The question of choice, therefore, is less about the selection of technical means to address one need or another; but one of choosing the nature of the overall learning environment, thereby allowing you to design structures that meet needs beforehand.

Checking Off the Details
Developing an efficient distance learning setting involves careful attention to details. The network of communication that ties learners, information, and teacher together must be built along one or more media. Whether or not these contact points are ready (and students know about them) will determine how smoothly the learning plans are carried out. Some points to consider in creating the web of support for your learning environment:

Pre-Instruction Phase
Consider the information and communication needs that exist before you start your distance course. How will you share information about the nature and purpose of the course? How can students contact you for additional information? How can they register? Who will explain all the questions that come with registration (admissions, fees, etc.)? Who will provide academic advice (about pre-requisites, academic requirements, career/degree aspirations, etc.)? How will students know what to do to prepare for the course (to obtain textbooks, videos, web sites and passwords, etc.)?

Instruction Phase
Once the course has begun, clear communication about instructions, activities, and assignments is an obvious need. It is important to assure that there is an on-going communication process for clarifying expectations for teachers and students. The rhythms and routines discussed weeks ago provide natural frameworks for organizing information. For some routines, the management of presentations will be important; for others, the management of electronic conversations. As you think through the rhythms of your class, check off the communication strategies that will provide the necessary points of contact.

Feedback Phase
The communications that accompany instruction are also important. Students need to be involved in regular and frequent interactions that give them feedback on how well they are doing. An earlier week's discussion of feedback systems also provides a general framework for deciding what kinds of details must be addressed. What contact points will assure students that they are making progress? How can these be designed to communicate the messages that suit your lessons?

Production Preparation
Most of the communication points used in distance education require some media production. The fact that most media production requires time means that one of the vital course management issues for distance educators is finding out how to anticipate needs early enough to allow for production. Production time frames are usually laid out in terms of months. Occasionally, small projects can be produced in weeks. Only rarely can something worthwhile be produced in a couple of days. Thus, as you begin to plan the schedule of details that will put in place a web of essential contacts, make sure you plan far enough in advance so that there is time to produce the necessary media materials.

Discussion Focus
Share a metaphor that might help you organize the kind of learning environment appropriate for your course. Point out some of the organizational issues that are suggested by this metaphor and ask the others to offer their insights. Are you considering everything? What are suitable ways to managing this part of the course details?