24th Annual Conference on Distance Teaching & Learning
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Rich Media Instruction:
The Top Six Reasons Faculty Teach Online
Diane Zorn, Course Director, School of Arts & Letters
Course Instructor, Business Ethics Program, School of Administrative Studies
Course Coordinator, Applied Business Ethics, Schulich School of Business
York University, Toronto, Canada
Introduction
The main point of this presentation is that online education ought to embrace rich media instruction that
uses webcasting and podcasting. I show that the main reasons faculty choose to teach online are also
reasons to embrace rich media. With reference to my own online course design and teaching practices, I
explain how my fully online WebCT course, which uses Mediasite webcasting and podcasting, is studentcentered, highly interactive and can promote deep and durable learning.
Why Embrace Rich Media: The Top Six Reasons Faculty Teach Online
The following list of the top six reasons that faculty choose to teach online (McKenzie, B., et al 2000) are
also reasons to embrace rich media instruction: (a) desire to get students more involved with technology;
(b) opportunity to use technology more innovatively to enhance course quality; (c) opportunity to meet
needs of students at a distance; (d) increased flexibility in working hours and location: (e) response to
students asking for on-line educational opportunities; and (f) chance to interact with students more
frequently. I will outline each of these reasons below.
Desire to Get Students More Involved With Technology
The number one reason that faculty choose to teach online is to get students more involved by using
technology. More involved students are students more apt to be engaged in learning. Marc Prensky (2001)
observed: “Our students have changed radically” and “are no longer the people our educational system
was designed to teach” (1). Today’s students are “digital learners” (Brown, 2000) or “Digital Natives”
(Prensky, 2001). The three dimensions that characterize digital learners are: one, comfort and ability to
“read” text, image and screen, including “information navigation”; two, discovery based learning rather
than formal, authority-based, lecture-oriented learning; and three, a bias toward action (Brown, 2000).
The number one reason that faculty teach online is to address the ways that digital learners “think and
process information fundamentally differently from their predecessors” (Prensky, 2001).
The fully online, rich media learning environments that I design and implement embed Mediasite taped
video webcast presentations, along with video and audio podcasts of these presentations, into a fully
online, WebCT course management system. The video webcast presentations include lectures, welcome
messages from myself (the course instructor), Teaching Assistants and the authors of the textbooks for the
course, coaching and mentoring messages, and modeling of skills.
Here are some of various reasons that students get more involved with learning in my rich media course.
Kelly Parke, the Senior Multimedia Designer at York University, myself and the Faculty Support Centre
team have created a flexible learning environment that provides individualized learning approaches that
serve each student in ways that he or she can most benefit. My course enables greater choice for students
in the following ways. Students can choose the mode of delivery of course material that fits their
lifestyle. Students can interact with the lectures in one or all of three different formats: (a) using a
standard PC or Mac computer, (b) audio or MP3 format, or (c) Video Podcast format. Students can also
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individually customize the mode of delivery; for example, Mediasite allows students to play the lectures
at double speed and maintain the same audio pitch. This is used for review purposes as a way to “speed
watch” sections. Mediasite also allows students to play the lectures slower; e.g., English as a second
language student.
My learning environment also allows students to interact with and customize software components; for
example, the WebCT calendar function is not static. It can be altered and used for personal use. This
customization allows the WebCT calendar to act as a place to keep more than basic date information.
The course design addresses different learning styles. The course site is designed to address the fact that
different students will use the site differently based on how they learn. Consider the case of a student
looking up when an assignment is due. This information is repeated in several different areas of the site. If
a student is a visual learner, they may click on the icon of the calendar and immediately see when an
assignment is due. If a student is a linear thinker, they may go the “Basic Course Info” part of the site and
click on “Requirements” and scroll down through the assignments listed in chronological order to the
assignment that concerns them. The “Assignments Info” section of the site contains comprehensive
written explanations of how the assignments are to be done, along with embedded instructional videos
and PDF samples of previous students’ graded work as models.
The lectures are designed to be interactive experiences that accommodate different learning styles.
Kinesthetic learners who need to be active, take frequent breaks and learn by touching and doing, will
enjoy that the lectures punctuated by exercises, videos, and links to other online resources.
Auditory learners can listen the lectures on their MP3 players. Also, one of the lectures in module two
uses pieces of music to model the conceptual analysis process. Visual learners will be happy to watch the
lectures and video clips associated with the lectures. The technology, software, and hardware
accommodate different learning styles. Different options are available for allowing the learner to choose
the environment, place or time that suits them best. Some students used all of the different modes in
combination for true flexibility.
Opportunity to Use Technology More Innovatively to Enhance Course Quality
The number two reason that faculty teach online is to create a “high-quality” course. In the context of
online teaching and learning, the concept “quality” is broadened to include greater individualization of
learning experiences. Carol Twigg (2001) observed that “the problem with applying old solutions to new
problems in the world of online learning is that these applications tend to produce results that are as ‘as
good as’ what we have done before” (p. 4). Student-centered, highly interactive, rich media, online
learning environments offer new approaches that go beyond producing no significant difference between
online learning and learning that takes place in a physical classroom. To paraphrase Twigg (2001), the
focus needs to be on what we can do with technology that we cannot do without it (pg. 9).
Moving toward rich media online instruction radically increases the array of possibilities presented to
each individual student. This second main reason that faculty choose to teach online corresponds with a
central finding of the 2001 Pew Symposia in Learning and Technology that “rather than maintaining a
fixed view of what all students want or what all students need, we need to be flexible and create
environments that enable greater choice for students” (Twigg, 2001, p. 7). As Carol Twigg (2000)
explained: “The ability to customize the learning environment so that each student can achieve in a
variety of ways increases the likelihood that learning success online will be higher than learning success
in the traditional classroom, dominated by a one-size-fits-all approach” (9). A fundamental assumption of
my course design is that greater quality means greater individualization of learning experiences for
students. I do not begin with the thought “all students need …” Rich media instruction and technology
allows me to meet the needs of diverse students when, where, and how they want to learn, rather than
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trying to replicate the in-class environment. My courses take the concept of quality far beyond what is
possible in a conventional classroom.
Opportunity to Meet Needs of Students at a Distance
Another main reason that faculty choose to teach online is the opportunity to meet needs of students at a
distance. Courses like the ones that I design and teach with rich media webcasts converted into video and
audio podcasts are ideal for meeting the needs of students at a distance. The students enrolled in my fully
online classes are taking the course from the Greater Toronto area and across Canada and the United
States, Australia, Pakistan, the Middle East and Europe. Approximately 8 to 10% of my students use
video hand-held devices to view the lectures, such as video iPods or Sony Playstations. Approximately
30% of the class use mp3 players to listen to the lectures. The majority of students view the lectures and
other video presentations on their PCs or Macs.
Consider the example of a student of mine who was taking the course from the coast of Cape Breton in
Canada, a remote community in eastern Canada. Although students are warned that they should not take
my course if their computers and web browsers do not meet specified conditions, every semester there are
a handful of students who enroll without meeting the conditions. The student in Cape Breton was such a
student who enrolled with only unreliable dial-up Internet access. The student spent over ten hours
downloading iTunes. Once iTunes was downloaded to their computer, the student was able to download
all of the lectures and other presentations in the course as mp3 files. The student was able to succeed in
the course by viewing the lectures on a video iPod.
Increased Flexibility in Working Hours and Location
Another central reason that faculty teach online is the increased flexibility in working hours and location.
A study examining the overall attitude of higher education toward teaching via distance education found
that an intrinsic motivating factor for faculty is that “teaching online provided optimal working
conditions, as they were able to ‘teach’ at any time and from any place” (Maguire, 2005, p. 4) adding to
their “overall job satisfaction” (Schifter, 2000).
The easiest and least time consuming part of designing and implementing my fully online, rich media
courses is the webcasts and podcasts. In the past I have taped live, in-class lectures that were webcast live
for an online section of a course and then available later as video and audio podcasts. On many occasions
I have gone into the studio at York University, stood behind a camera, and taped my lectures, welcome
messages, coaching and mentoring presentations and much more. I have been designing and teaching
online courses for five years now, every year I have more and more time for my own research and being
able to work from home more often has greatly improved my quality of life.
Response to Students Asking for On-line Educational Opportunities
A key reason that faculty members teach online is to “respond” to student demand for online education. A
current trend affecting distance education is “students shopping for courses that meet their schedules and
circumstances” (Howell et al., 2003, p. 2). Howell et al. (2003) explained that more and more learners are
demanding that programs are flexible to accommodate their other responsibilities and their learning styles
even if it means transferring the credit to the university where they will earn their degrees (Carnevale,
2000; Johnstone et al., 2002; Paulson 2002). Johnstone et al. (2002) called the acquiring and exchanging
credit at different institutions than the one the student receives their degree from as “academic currency”
and note that it is growing (as cited in Howell et al., 2003, p. 2).
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Chance to Interact With Students More Frequently
The sixth top reason that faculty choose to teach online is for the chance to interact with students more
frequently. Many faculty members are under the false impression that online teaching means less
interaction with students. This may have been true in the past before the advent of webcasting and highly
interactive course management systems. This is not true now! Faculty members teaching studentcentered, highly interactive, fully online, rich media courses, like the ones that I design and teach have
more interactions with students. In an in class course I have little interaction with students, although
students have much interaction with each other. Very few students come to my office hours and very few
students ask questions in class. Online, rich media courses can be highly interactive learning
environments. Here is a summary list of how my own course design broadens the meaning of
“interaction” to go beyond what is possible in a conventional classroom. This list reflects student-tostudent and instructor-to-student interactions, often coupled with built-in continuous assessment: video
welcome messages, instructional video messages, coaching video messages, grading criteria video
messages, lectures, virtual office hours, Ombuds-Buddies, email messages, dedicated threaded discussion
rooms, private learning team tutorial rooms, real-time student chat lounges and meeting rooms.
The “Student Lounges” enable students to chat in real time. The “homework and tests” room give
students immediate feedback. The professor’s “Virtual Office Hours” allow students to get immediate and
direct answers in real time to their questions. Also, many rooms on the site contain pages with links to
online resources.
My course design helps students feel they are part of a learning community through appropriate and
varied human interaction through building students’ confidence and enacting mentorship. The course
design gives students the confidence that they can succeed by providing recorded instructional and
coaching videos. Each module page contains an instructional, welcome message on how to succeed in
that module. To view these messages, go to “Course Work” and click on “Module One”, “Module Two”,
and “Module Three”. The site also provides coaching videos discussing how to successfully complete
individual assignments. To view these videos, enter the “Course Work” room and click on “Assignments
Info”. Instructional videos on how to use the Mediasite lectures effectively and the main components of
WebCT are also provided in the “Make the Most of the Website” room.
Active mentorship builds community and facilitates student discussion in several ways. The varied
“Discussion Rooms” enact collaborative learning, in particular, “Post Questions & Comments for
Students - Prof NEVER Looks Here.” Community erupts in the private, learning team tutorial rooms.
Interactions in the “Post Questions for the Professor Here” is another community that gives rise to
collaborative learning. Kelly Parke’s video on how to use the Mediasite lectures effectively and the
instructional video that explains the features of the WebCT software also offer mentoring. These
instructional modules also gave a confidence level to the online user that they have somewhere to turn for
help or advice. With feedback from the students, these “help” sections will be increased.
The welcome messages on the homepage from the professor and the teaching assistant set a welcoming
tone to the whole course and provide face-to-face interaction. Also, I handpicked the warm and friendly
icons throughout the course. Interactions with the “Ombuds Buddies” also put students at ease, since they
feel that their needs and concerns matter. The face-to-face experience of the coaching and training videos
also set a positive, noncompetitive, online learning climate.
Ongoing, weekly homework submissions throughout the course, even when not graded, provide a form of
built-in, continuous assessment. The instructional videos coach students on how to successfully complete
assignments while clarifying expectations. “Ombuds Buddies” ensure continued instructor and design
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accountability. The “My Grades” section of the site allows students to calculate and monitor their
progress in the course.
Promoting Deep and Durable Online Learning
I would like to close my presentation by addressing the ways that online, rich media learning
environments can promote deep and durable learning. For this final part of presentation, I draw heavily
from the best source that I know of about online instruction that promotes deep learning, Van B. Weigel’s
(2002) book, Deep Learning for a Digital Age.
Deep and Surface Learning
Van Weigel (2002) outlines the clear differences between deep and surface learning. His explanation,
adapted from Noel Entwistle’s (2001) research on assessment to promote deep learning, states that deep
learners: “ relate ideas to previous knowledge and experience…look for patterns and underlying
principles…check evidence and relate it to conclusions…examine logic and argument cautiously and
critically…are aware of the understanding that develops while learning…become actively interested in
the course content” (6). Surface learners: “treat the course as unrelated bits of knowledge…memorize
facts and carry out procedures routinely…find difficulty in making sense of new ideas presented…see
little value or meaning in either courses or tasks…study without reflecting on either purpose or
strategy…feel undue pressure and worry about work” (6). Deep learning is rooted in conditionalized
knowledge that specifies use contexts, metacognition that involves monitoring and reflecting on one’s
level of knowledge, and communities of inquiry or practice.
Cognitive Apprenticeship
Cognitive apprenticeship, traditional apprenticeship learning applied to thinking or cognitive skills, is the
learning methodology best suited to achieve the aims of deep learning (Van Weigel, 2002). Collins,
Brown and Newman (1989) (as cited in Van Weigel, 2002) have identified six teaching methods that
facilitate cognitive apprenticeship: modeling, coaching, scaffolding, articulating, reflecting and exploring.
Modeling, showing someone how something is done, involves “the externalization of internal cognitive
processes” in which “the teacher puts her mind on display, walking her students through her approach to a
problem making explicit the internal steps she took and strategies she used along the way” (10). I achieve
this online using webcasting (video streaming) with a synchronized and video captured document
projector.
Coaching occurs when an instructor observes students in the classroom and gives feedback for
improvement. Van Weigel (2002) noted that: “whereas modeling emphasizes the student’s role as
observer, coaching requires teachers to observe students in the performance of some task or skill (usually
in the context of problem solving) and to ask questions or to offer feedback on the student’s performance”
(10). Here are two examples of how I provide coaching in my online courses. One, I cut and paste
students’ homework answers into a Word doc. Using the “comment” function in Word, I insert comments
throughout the homework. I then convert the document into a PDF and provide it as a handout, a resource
to be used with a webcast of me taking up the homework samples and elaborating on my comments. A
second way that I provide coaching is by providing a written document about assignment grading criteria.
Then I create a webcast of me explaining the grading criteria in more detail. This video streamed
presentation is coupled with PDF handouts consisting of sample graded assignments from students from
past years.
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Scaffolding refers to the various ways that the teacher and the learning community help in the
construction of knowledge; for example, hints and aides built into the curriculum designed to help
students complete a task. Some of the ways that I provide scaffolding are through video instructional
messages (in addition to the lectures), video coaching messages, communicating high expectations with
orientation and welcome messages, private learning team rooms, and dedicated discussion rooms, such as
“Post Message for Prof Here,” “Post Message for TA Here,” and “Post Message for Other Students Here:
Prof and TA never enter.”
Deep learning also requires that students be given opportunities to articulate what they have learned. Van
Weigel (2002) explains that the “effect is to draw out the internal reasoning processes of students by
encouraging them to articulate their response to an idea or their approach to a problem” (11). This
teaching practice “encourages students to see an idea from the perspective of another student” and
“allows teacher to draw on the thinking of students to serve as a model for their peers” (11). I enable an
articulation process in the following ways: Peer Review in Private Learning Team Rooms, Learning team
blogs, discussion dedicated to students only, quizzes taken up with webcasting, internet based research
team projects.
Reflecting gives students a chance to debrief their learning, a “process that can take the form of
comparing notes or conducting an “abstracted replay” of one’s thought processes” (Van Weigel, 2002:
11). One way that I encourage students to note the ways in which their performance differs from other
students is by providing a webcast about assignment grading criteria, along with supporting materials,
such as a “grade your own assignment” handout, peer review, and postings to private learning teams.
The final method of cognitive apprenticeship, exploring, “encourages students to tackle new knowledge
domains and problems on their own” (Van Weigel, 2002: 11). I progressively withdraw the scaffolding
intended to support the students by: designing my courses in cumulative Skills-based Modules, providing
face-to-face video streamed messages explicitly giving students permission to explore, and embedding
links to YouTube videos and other sites and resources on the internet.
Conclusion
Deep and durable learning can best be realized through rich media instruction that is student-centered and
highly interactive. I do not advocate the use of technology for its own sake. My conclusions answer the
question “What Do Faculty Want?” (Chizmar & Williams, 2001): “Faculty want instructional technology
driven by pedagogical goals” (Chizmar & Williams, 2001: 19).
References
Brown, J. S. (2000, April). Growing up digital: How the Web changes work, education, and the ways
people learn. Change.
Carnevale, D. (2000, Sept 8). Accrediting bodies consider new standards for distance education programs.
The Chronicle of Higher Education, 47(2).
Chizmar, J.F. (2001). What do faculty want? Educause Quarterly 24(1), 18-24.
Collins, A., Brown, J.S., & Newman, S.E. (1989). Cognitive apprenticeship: Teaching the crafts of
reading, writing and mathematics. In L.B. Resnick (Ed.), Knowing, learning, and instruction:
Essays in honor of Robert Glaser. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
Entwistle, N. (2001). Promoting deep learning through teaching and assessment.” In Linda Suskie (Ed.),
Assessment to promote deep learning, Washington, DC: American Association for Higher
Education.
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author(s) and the Annual Conference on Distance Teaching & Learning
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24th Annual Conference on Distance Teaching & Learning
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Howell, S.L., Williams, P.B., & Lindsay, N.K. (2003. Fall). Thirty-two trends affecting distance
education: An informed foundation for strategic planning. Online Journal of Distance Learning
Administration 6(3). (On-line), http://www.westga.edcu/~distance/ojdla/fall63/howell63.html
Johnstone, S.M., Ewell, P., & Paulson, K. (2002). Student learning as academic currency. ACE Center for
Policy Analysis, (On-line), http://www.acenet.edu/bookstore/pdf/distributed-learning/distributedlearning-04.pdf
Maguire, L.L. (2005, Spring). Literature review–faculty participation in online distance education:
Barriers and motivators. Online Journal of Distance Learning Administration, 8(1). (On-line),
http://www.westga.edu/~distance/ojdla/spring81/maguire81.htm
McKenzie, B. K., Mims, N., Bennett, E., & Waugh, M., (2000, Winter). Needs, concerns and practices of
online instructors. Online Journal of Distance Learning Administration, 3(3). (On-line),
http://www.westga.edu/~distance/ojdla/fall33/mckenzie33.html
Paulson, K. (2002) Reconfiguring faculty roles for virtual settings. The Journal of Higher Education,
73(1), 123-140.
Prensky, M (2001, October). Digital natives, digital immigrants. On the Horizon, 9(5). (On-line),
www.marcprensky.com
Schifter, C.C. (2000). Factors influencing faculty participation in distance education: A factor analysis.
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Twigg, C (2001). Innovations in online learning: moving beyond no significant difference. The Pew
Symposia of Learning and Technology, Center for Academic Transformation, Rensselaer
Polytechnic Institute.
Van Weigel, B. (2002). Deep learning for a digital age: Technology’s untapped potential to enrich
higher education. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
About the Presenter
Diane Zorn is a Course Director, Instructor and Coordinator at York University. She designs,
implements and teaches fully online, rich media courses using Mediasite technology and audio and video
podcasting. She was the second university instructor in Canada to offer video podcasts of her lectures.
She has been nominated for the Ontario Council of Universities 2006 Teaching with Technology Award,
the Atkinson Dean’s Award for Excellence in Teaching 2007, and the Commonwealth of Learning
Excellence in Distance Education Award 2008. She was awarded York’s University Wide Teaching
Award in 2007 and the United States Distance Learning Association Excellence in Distance Learning
Teaching Silver Award 2008.
Address: School of Arts and Letters
Room 625, Atkinson Building
York University
4700 Keele Street
Toronto, Ontario M3J 1P3
Canada
E-mail: zorn@yorku.ca
URL:
www.yorku.ca/zorn
Phone: 647.880.1237
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