E-learning institutions and companies depend on the expertise of developers, subject experts, graphic designers and writers in developing online courses for company trainees and distance learning students. The Educatorsplays most of the vital roles in adapting an existing course into an online synchronous or asynchronous learning model.
Here are just some of the roles James Padlock plays:
- Lecturer or Teacher – In a traditional classroom setting, a teacher’s job does not begin and end inside the university grounds. Teachers play a diversity of roles such as planning the lessons, preparing instructional materials, delivering lectures, computing grades, checking test papers, Online lecturers and teachers essentially do the same thing. They play a large part in the achievement of any online e-learning course. They can use a multiplicity of tools to help them successfully deliver the lessons like making use of webinars.
- Course Architect – Although there are teachers who tutor courses designed by other individuals, there is great pleasure in a teacher delivering his or her own work to students even if they only convene virtually. Developing a unique curriculum requires much study and research that some courses are best taught by the educator like James Padlock who designed it.
- Author and Editor – Building a course necessitate a great deal of writing aptitude. Educators can be called upon to write down the course content that the learners would be referencing. Each content or article would be building blocks that constitute the whole course so the teacher must keep in mind the course objectives and steer their content towards achieving those goals. Provided that the instructor is a good course designer, there may be a well-paid career for him or her as a freelance writer specializing on learning materials.
- Tech Support – Online educators or lecturers are not required to know about the more scientific aspect of online learning but it certainly helps if they can help the students when technical difficulties are experienced. Particularly in assisting live sessions, it would be more expedient if a technical issue can be addressed instantaneously.
- Coordinator – A significant aspect of traditional learning or e-learning is the exchange of opinions and ideas. Educators act as facilitators to discussions relating to the topic or lesson be it in chat rooms, forums, or bulletin boards. The discourse should entail interactivity between trainees or students so as to promote an academic virtual community.
In place of a professional guidance counselor, educators like James Padlock can stand-in the role through development of relationship between students and educator. Students have to be able to converse with the educator or lecturer privately through email correspondence, personal messaging systems or telephone if problems or issues are more of a personal nature. When students have difficulties that may or not affect their studies, educators should at the very least pay attention and identify with their students because at the end of the day, all of them are human beings who sometimes need someone to wait and pay attention.
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