Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Ideally, an online teacher should be able to focus entirely on helping their students
achieve course learning objectives primarily by communicating with individual students
about their work. To this end, most virtual schools relieve teachers of course design
duties by using teams of curriculum specialists, content experts, and instructional
designers to build the courses thereby allowing teachers to focus their professional
attention on students and their families.
The virtual teacher’s role involves getting to know individual students’ strengths,
weaknesses, learning styles, and interests. If the school provides curriculum and lesson
materials, the teacher can modify the pace and lesson content as needed to personalize
the learning for each student. The teacher also helps students schedule their time and
become independent learners. Individual support is provided through email,
synchronous sessions, and additional supplementary resources. Finally, the virtual
teacher must comply with state requirements to document attendance and student
work.
According to NEA’s Guide to Teaching Online Courses (n.d.), an online teacher needs
to:
Getting used to the curriculum provided via technology can also be a challenge for
transitioning teachers. Staying up to date and current with the latest technologies and
learning to use the technology to differentiate and individualize instruction for all
students can be an important set of skills to master.
Academic integrity can be a challenge in an online setting. Instructors are not always
able to see students doing their work and are not sure what help from peers, parents, or
other outside sources students receive on assignments or exams they submit.
Technology like built-in plagiarism checker tools, lock-down browsers, and paginated
assessments with question banks, can help but are not always available nor infallible.
Instructors can help students be accountable for their own learning by educating
students on the importance of academic integrity, getting to know students individually
to recognize their level of work, conducting live student assessments, offering a variety
of assessment questions and instructions, using authentic assessments, and employing
other creative means.
New virtual teachers become successful when they develop a growth mindset,
consistently ask stakeholders for feedback, and continually explore new and innovative
engagement methods.
Below is a typical day for a virtual teacher working in a full-time virtual program where
students are not required to have face-to-face meetings. A day may not be as flexible as
this for a virtual teacher in a blended or hybrid program, but for the most part, virtual
FOUNDATIONS OF VIRTUAL INSTRUCTION WEEK3
teachers do have more flexibility in their teaching schedules than traditional classroom
teachers.
Logging In: Log in to the LMS, staff calendar, email, and instant message systems.
These stay open throughout the day to check for new communications.
Checking Messages: Check messages from staff, students, and parents, to prioritize
any urgent changes, updates, circumstances, or questions that may arise.
Grading: Some teachers enjoy using the early hours for grading student work,
which is a good use of time if it’s still too early to make phone calls. The more
promptly a student receives feedback, the more likely the student will be to review
and use that feedback.
Phone Calls: After 8 or 9 am in the student’s local time, it’s appropriate to return
calls missed from the previous day and initiate new or scheduled calls or contacts
needed to check in with students, verify subject mastery, discuss a submitted
assignment, or outline next steps.
Planning: This includes planning for future synchronous sessions, drafting
communications to students, mapping out needed phone calls, etc.
Synchronous Lessons: This includes holding virtual lessons for students or opening
up the virtual classroom platform for students to drop in for help.
Meetings/Training/Collaboration: Virtual teachers may attend staff meetings,
collaborate with their professional learning community (PLC), and participate
virtually in professional development activities as part of the workday.
Virtual teachers are most successful when they deliberately plan time for each of these
activities throughout the day rather than jump around from task to task when something
comes up. It’s okay to not answer the phone if you are in the middle of grading or
planning tasks and then set aside time to return and initiate calls later. Keep in mind that
a response can still be considered “prompt” if it occurs within an hour or even a day of
receipt of the original assignment or email message.
A typical virtual teaching schedule follows a predictable, consistent school year cycle.
While there are weekly and monthly routines that affect your planning, there may also
be opportunities to add some variety to your schedule by setting up field trips to meet
students, becoming involved in school committees, administering state testing, and
helping to run information sessions for prospective students and their families. There is
a consistent schedule, with some variety added in.
Summary
In this module, you applied what you learned about the synchronous and asynchronous
technologies used to teach online to analyze the similarities and differences between
teaching in a classroom and online. You examined how different and evolving virtual
delivery models affect instruction. You also explored the challenges of transitioning to a
virtual setting, the role of a virtual teacher, and a typical day on the job. In the next
module, you will study virtual school funding, planning for equity and access in online
learning, legal considerations, and the impact these have on the virtual teacher.