Immersion in practice

Scenario B: What might the principle of Immersion look like in practice?

Trainee Jenna is an experienced instructor in a traditional writing environment, and she is interested in learning to teach writing online. However, she has attended two other faculty workshops in the past that have not been successful for her. Of these experiences, she says: "They wasted my time. I went into the classes hoping to figure out the software and see what I could do with my [traditional] syllabus in an online course, but the facilitator just kept talking. She told me what to do, but she didn't show me or give me time to figure out where I messed up. I'd get halfway through one exercise and she'd start talking again. And I didn't get any feedback for what I was able to muddle through. There was no follow-up after the workshops. I just left frustrated. I've already wasted six hours of my time. Why should I try this again?"

One of Jenna's main problems stems from her lack of immersion into the online environment (and, most likely, into the specific platforms or software provided by her institution). Indeed, she has specifically asked for a training setting in which oral talk plays a lesser role than online practice and feedback. In light of her needs, a program director would do well to provide training that immerses Jenna into the role of instructor-trainee, which can be a safe way to experiment as a "student" of online learning. Her practice, and its inherent successes and failures, will therefore be contextualized for her as part of the training, which may lessen her feelings of somewhat aimless "muddling."”

Taken directly from Chapter 2 of Preparing Educators for Online Writing Instruction: Principles and Processes, the following are some specific training methods that employ online immersion in the training procedures that we have developed:

• All information-based communications, with the exception of extreme cases, are handled through email, synchronous chat, or listserv discussions, as well as through reference materials on a website, which are available both to trainees and trainers.
• All meetings of trainees and trainers are arranged and conducted on the web, as are asynchronous scheduling and progress reports, and synchronous or asynchronous technology or pedagogy troubleshooting.
• The trainer models the learning process and the training material by acting in the online roles of both "teacher" and "student."
• Trainees have the opportunity to practice their skills both privately and online for the trainer, who then assesses the results.
• During live simulations of teacher-to-student interactions, trainee and trainer use synchronous chat media to conduct side discussions, or "training chats," as they deem necessary.  This dual process enables sophisticated metacognitive discussion of the unfolding teaching experience (and, not incidentally, enables the adult learner to manage his/her own learning). (14)

Program directors may think of other training procedures that immerse their trainers and trainees into the online setting. Of course, immersion need not exclude the possibility of a telephone call for distance educators and face-to-face conversation for local ones; however, we think that most communicative and educational connections can be made online, as they most likely will be for students in differing educational settings.