Gavilan faculty has training in online course delivery

To train instructors for online instruction, Gavilan College prepared a series of courses for instructors to help them become familiar with the technology they would be using, and to learn best practices for designing and delivering online courses at the college level. Faculty become the students in the Gavilan Online Teacher Training (GOTT), learning how to create online instruction while simultaneously navigating an online environment.

“With the current generation, moving forward online is integrated into everything they do,” said Aleah Kropholler, who works in Instructional Design. “We need to integrate that into the educational system as well.”

Peter Howell, a Distance Education instructor, noted the differences between teaching classes in English, sociology, water treatment, yoga, or graphic design. “The things students are learning are so diverse, you have to treat them, construct them differently.”

“At the beginning of Shelter-In-Place, I heard comments from instructors about failing their students, failing themselves,” said Kropholler. “The best thing I can do in instructional design is make those places a little more familiar. Creating the safest space possible was one of the things we tried to do with GOTT.”

There are four levels of GOTT: GOTT 1 focuses on the nuts and bolts of using Canvas, the program that houses all of the online classes: pages, assignments, gradebook, quiz, studio, zoom and accessibility.

GOTT 2 focuses on careful planning and intentional design. Deliverables include building learning modules, grading assignments, accounts, discussions, embedding video, building in student support resources.

GOTT 3 and 4, to be offered over winter break, provide advanced skills for online teaching.

When GOTT 1 and 2 rolled out over the summer Gavilan instructors rushed to apply.
260 instructors, both fulltime and part-time, participated in the training.

“The training we are doing now will reverberate ten years out,” said Howell. “Even when we get back into the classroom, instructors will be so much more capable, in terms of flexibility.”
Students who are already comfortable online can work through their pathways faster and be better equipped to navigate and earn their degrees. The college will be better equipped to offer those classes.

For the fall semester, instructors new to online teaching were able to have Online Teaching Mentors embedded in their classes. The mentors work to ensure online courses align with course design standards.

“The pandemic has taught us to not get complacent,” said Lawrence. “I hope we learn that we can’t avoid technology any longer,” she said. “The grace period of not using technology has changed, and students need to be able to use the tools they will encounter at CSUs, UCs, and in their careers.”

“One of the silver linings, the benefits of this crazy situation may be that the quiet ones in class are able to speak up, be heard, participate more fully in the online classes,” said Howell. “That could be a game changer, for a generation that is off the charts with anxiety and depression.”

In their online classes, instructors must design and facilitate those moments of exchange so the class has more engagement between instructor and student, student to instructor, and student to student.

“In our online classes, how do we simulate a face-to-face environment, warm and inviting?” asked Kropholler. “As people, how do we translate the warmth and communication we bring to the physical classroom into the online classroom?”

“This is no longer an emergency,” said Lawrence. “Teachers know they need to learn this new mode of instruction to deliver good education to their students.”