Blog prompt: Reflect on the role of the instructor in an online course. What qualities do you think are essential for an instructor to be effective in a digital space? How have instructors you’ve had in the past successfully (or unsuccessfully) fulfilled this role?
In any course, the instructor is central to learning, not necessarily because the instructor is the centre of attention or knowledge, but because it is he/she/they who leads the class, plans the activities, sets the tone, and evaluates learning. To maximize the value of a course for learners, the instructor must put thought and effort into their work. They must employ a consistently effective pedagogy.
Pedagogy – The study of teaching and its methods. This includes strategies teachers use to create a learning environment, instructional activities, learner engagement, and assessment. (Hotchin, 2025)
Pedagogy
What does it mean to employ an effective pedagogy? Beginning with the end in mind, let us first consider what the instructor brings to the job before students enter the picture.
In my experience, first, an instructor must be knowledgeable in the content area of the course. Without this foundation of expertise, the teacher is not so much a guide as a project manager, helpful with getting things done, but not so much in furthering understanding. Not only do they need to know the course content, but they must know how to help students learn it.
Perhaps they have studied learning theories, or maybe their understanding comes purely from experience and intuition. Either way, a successful instructor has designed the course and lessons with intention.
I have also found effective teachers to be interested in cultivating relationships with and between students, creating a safe and welcoming environment in which to learn. As well, they employ strong communication skills, clear in their verbal and written expression, transparent with expectations, and good listeners and observers. Finally, and particularly with online courses, I have found effective instructors to be organized, able to create a navigable learning environment and lesson or course structure, and offer timely feedback.
| Behaviourism – Teaching based on behaviourist theories focus on helping students change their behaviour based on what they are taught. For example, a behaviourist would consider a student to be successful at learning 3 x 8 if the student can consistently respond to the question with 24. | |
| Cognitivism – Cognitivist teaching is concerned less with what students can observably do and more concerned with students’ thinking processes. A teacher using cognitivist strategies strives to help students develop skills for problem solving, reasoning, language, and mathematical thinking. For example, knowing that 3 x 8 is 3 groups of 8 or 8 groups of 3, and being able use that idea to solve problems is more important than simply knowing the result, 24. | |
| Constructivism – Constructivism considers that learners make their own meaning from personal experience and reasoning. A teacher using a constructivist lens attempts to create authentic situations, similar to those in which the learners will apply the new knowledge, and guides learners to construct meaning and check themselves for accuracy, as in an apprenticeship. | |
| Social Learning Theory – Social learning theory emphasizes external motivators in learning, namely observation of others’ behaviour and its consequences. For example, a student who sees another get praised for participating in a discussion may be more likely to participate in discussion themself. | |
| Connectivism – Connectivism focuses on learning as connecting information sources to form networks. For example, a student who has learned about chess at home, from some websites, and in a local club connects with other players in an online forum, expanding their learning by increasing their network. |
Pedagogy in an Online Context
In an online space, the learning theories and aims underlying the pedagogy are much the same, though the strategies may differ. Teachers still need to design courses and lessons thoughtfully, with learners in mind, whether they are teaching facts with behaviourist stimulus-response-style lessons, helping students learn problem solving strategies using cognitivist approaches, or planning group activities that will support constructivist learning. Additionally, teachers can use Social Learning Theory (Bandura, 1971) to effectively take charge of the social environment in order to ensure students are learning desired beliefs and behaviours from one another.
If teaching strategies are different in an online environment, what do essential teaching qualities look like?
Expertise
In an online course, I have found teachers to create access to their knowledge and understanding less in real-time lecture and conversation, and more through the resources they curate and questions they pose. Their expertise is essential to design and facilitation, described in Garrison, Anderson, and Archer’s Community of Inquiry (CoI) as key functions of teaching presence, an essential component to teaching (Garrison & Archer, 2000).
For example, during a course in Investigations in Mathematics, our instructor taught a class from online. He provided carefully designed problems, gave background information, organized us into groups, and allowed us time to work, breaking in only briefly to lead discussions.
Photo by KATRIN BOLOVTSOVA on Pexels.com.
His understanding of how people learn allowed him to plan a lesson that accessed our prior knowledge, engaged us with well-paced problems, allowed us to learn from one another, and scaffolded our retention through review. He had familiarized himself with the technology platform we were to use (Google Jamboard), enabling him to support us with the use of space so we could focus on learning the content of the course. Meanwhile, his background in Mathematics allowed him to flexibly create more difficult problems when we needed more than had been planned.
Organization
Teaching online also increases the importance of organizational skills in an instructor. In order for students to be able to navigate the course, they need to understand the environment, including course structure and community, and have an ability to find resources (Hotchin, 2025). I have found digital organization to be very challenging as compared to organization of physical materials. No longer are we, as students, able to use memory based on place to find and organize our materials. Nor is visual memory as effective when content is published with the help of templates. We must also hold onto the thoughts of what we are seeking amidst the myriad distractions of websites and links that come to our attention as we hunt through notes, readings, and emails. In my experience, a well-organized virtual space is essential to support students effectively.
In an online French course that I supported my daughter through, the teacher designed a well-balanced course of open sourced readings and videos, learning activities, and formative assessments. All activities, assignments, and deadlines were laid out in a readily accessible course outline. Upon logging into the Learning Management System (LMS), the student could see what tasks had been completed, what percentage of the course was left to do, and suggested target dates of completion for each unit. This organization was very helpful, allowing my daughter to concentrate on improving their French.
Photo by Mikhail Nilov on Pexels.com.
Additionally, the instructor must themself be organized. The principles of CoI (Barnes, 2016) include giving prompt feedback and emphasizing time on task. This can be done if the instructor has managed their own time to regularly attend to their marking and planning tasks.
Communication
As Hotchin (2025) reminds us, effective communication is a crucial part of online teaching. This begins with frequent student-faculty contact, which is one of Chickering and Gamson’s seven principles of online teaching, as referenced in Barnes (2016). For example, in my EDCI 335 course, the class is set up in a social chat on the Mattermost platform, and the instructor is a participant in the whole-class channel. This allows her to connect with us both formally, such as when she posts the week’s tasks or answers questions, and informally, such as when she uses reactions or posts a quick welcome message. In this way, she encourages an active learning community in the class and maintains a strong teacher presence.
Another principle of online teaching is giving prompt feedback (Barnes, 2016), important to letting students know whether they are “on the right track” and give them a sense of being guided. This timely communication helps students feel engaged and know they are learning. Similarly, students benefit from effective communication of the course structure, expectations, and time parameters. In the previously discussed French course, my daughter was able to self-assess her progress and manage her time because she understood where she was in relation to the course structure and expectations. At the same time, the teacher sent emails if she was falling behind, helping her to keep on track when she was struggling. The teacher’s “checking in” when concerned about my daughter’s progress is similar to the initiative a classroom teacher takes when a student is idle in class and, in my teaching experience, a valuable way to offer support when it might be needed.
Relationships
As well, an effective online instructor values relationships. Barnes (2016) points out the importance of a student’s ability to feel present in a learning community, supporting their sense of trust and belonging. Social Learning Theory also highlights the learning that students do by observing one another (Bandura, 1971). The stronger the connections between students, the more they can learn from one another. The instructor facilitates social presence by building strong relationships with students, modeling respectful social behaviour, and encouraging interdependence between students.
In my EDCI 335 course, this is demonstrated in both the course design, in which students complete group projects throughout the course, and in the Mattermost social chat room, where students discuss readings and videos, and ask and answer questions among one another. We are also expected to read and respond to blog posts from other students, allowing us to support and learn from others in the class.
Networked Pedagogy
In my experience over the years, local educational practice has evolved to better appreciate the unique knowledge and life experiences brought to a learning community by each student. This is especially true in an online context. In The Manifesto for Teaching Online, Bayne et al. (2020) point out the vastly different lives that may be being lived by students who might come from all over the world. Not only does a teacher need to consider the geographic distances students traverse by accessing a course online, but also the different political, educational, and cultural backgrounds they bring to the community (Bayne et al., 2020). Networked pedagogy mines the richness of this diversity by emphasizing the connections between people and the resources and ideas they bring using technology (Hotchin, 2025).
Networked Pedagogy – An approach to teaching that conceptualizes learners, resources, and ideas as nodes in a digital network and emphasizes the connections between them. (Hotchin, 2025)
One example of this approach is in EDCI 339, in which we use blogs to write about our learning and its connections with our personal knowledge and experiences, and then read and respond to one another’s blog posts. This allows us to connect to other ideas and see from other perspectives. We are expected to meet with people in groups to discuss readings and work on projects using whatever digital spaces work for us.
In our group, because we all have good digital literacy skills, we are able to interact effectively, making and changing plans, contributing ideas, and responding to one another. We quickly chose a social media platform for communication and a different one for collaboration. Had we had trouble, we knew we could reach out to our instructor for help.
Digitally Literate
Finally, all of an instructor’s teaching skills and understanding of student perspectives will not help in running an online course if the teacher is not digitally literate. Not only must the instructor be familiar with relevant technology – LMS’s, social media, collaboration software, etc. – but they must have a good understanding of the social space in a digital environment. They must understand privacy and security issues when asking students to put information online, and indeed, when posting their own information online. And, they need to have enough experience to be able to guide students when they have trouble.
Read more thoughts about digital literacy and digital identity in my Blog Post #1!
Conclusion
The role of the instructor in an online space is not different than their role in a physical space. An effective instructor still attempts to leverage all of the tools at their disposal to maximize learning. They bring expertise, organization, and leadership to the community, and they bring people together to allow students to benefit socially and educationally from one another. The difference in an online space is the strategies we must use to achieve these goals. Because the digital world is relatively new and evolving quickly, teachers today cannot bring to bear the benefit of thousands of years of human experience in communicating with groups and building community. Instead, online teachers today must thoughtfully consider how to organize materials usefully, connect effectively, and read students’ needs. Additionally, we must consider how much broader is the world encompassed by “the classroom” when teaching online. When we understand this, we find ways to embrace and celebrate diversity, be sensitive to differing environments, and encourage students to learn from one another.
References
- Bandura, A. (1971). Social Learning Theory. https://www.asecib.ase.ro/mps/Bandura_SocialLearningTheory.pdf
- Barnes, C. (2016, November 14). Chapter 2: Where’s the teacher? defining the role of instructor presence in social presence and cognition in online education. Humanizing Online Teaching and Learning.
- Bates, T. (2014, July 29). Learning theories and online learning. Online Distance Education and Resources. https://www.tonybates.ca/2014/07/29/learning-theories-and-online-learning/
- Bayne, Sian, et al. (2020). 17-18. In The Manifesto for Teaching Online (pp. 90-97). MIT Press. ProQuest Ebook Central, https://doi.org/10.7551/mitpress/11840.001.0001
- Ertmer, P. A., & Newby, T. (2018). Chapter 11 Behaviorism, Cognitivism, Constructivism. In Foundations of Learning and Instructional Design Technology West, R. E. (Ed.). EdTech Books.
- GreggU. (2019, July 18). Social Learning Theory [Video]. YouTube. https://youtu.be/5z1Ka5aL09U?si=N7Jip83ldnKAUCzd
- Hotchin, J. (2025, January 5). Edci 339 (A01) module 1 – University of Victoria – EdTech. University of Victoria – EdTech. https://connectedlearningpathways.ca/category/edci-339-a01-module-1/
Hello, thank you for sharing your thoughts! Your blog post offers a thorough and insightful reflection on the role of instructors in online courses. I appreciated the depth of analysis you provided, particularly when you connected different learning theories to practical teaching strategies (Bates, 2014). Your discussion of the Community of Inquiry framework and the importance of teacher presence also provide a meaningful perspective regarding effective online teaching strategies (Barnes, 2016).
One aspect of your post that stood out to me was the way you incorporated real-world examples, including your personal experiences, to contribute to the discussion. These concrete examples help illustrate the significant impact an instructor’s organization, communication, and ability to create an engaging learning environment can have on the course (Bayne et al., 2020). Mentioning digital literacy and the evolving nature of online teaching was also particularly meaningful, as it emphasized the necessity for instructors to continuously adapt to new technological tools and online learning dynamics (Bates, 2014; Ertmer & Newby, 2018).
Additionally, I really enjoyed your use of images and various colours throughout the post. These visual elements made the content more engaging and helped break up the text, making it easier to comprehend. It’s clear that you have put a lot of thought into the presentation of your post, making it both informative and visually appealing.
Your emphasis on relationships in online learning was also a meaningful addition. The importance of building connections between students and fostering a sense of belonging in a digital classroom is important to increase engagement (Bandura, 1971). Your analysis of Social Learning Theory and connectivism also reinforce the idea that students learn best when they are part of a supportive and interactive community (GreggU, 2019).
Overall, your blog post effectively highlights the important role of an instructor in an online course and methods to improve engagement. Your perspective is well-researched, well-organized, and engaging. Thank you for sharing your thoughts!
References
Bandura, A. (1971). Social Learning Theory. https://www.asecib.ase.ro/mps/Bandura_SocialLearningTheory.pdf Barnes, C. (2016, November 14). Chapter 2: Where’s the teacher? defining the role of instructor presence in social presence and cognition in online education. Humanizing Online Teaching and Learning.
Bates, T. (2014, July 29). Learning theories and online learning. Online Distance Education and Resources. https://www.tonybates.ca/2014/07/29/learning-theories-and-online-learning/
Bayne, Sian, et al. (2020). 17-18. In The Manifesto for Teaching Online (pp. 90-97). MIT Press. ProQuest Ebook Central, https://doi.org/10.7551/mitpress/11840.001.0001
Ertmer, P. A., & Newby, T. (2018). Chapter 11 Behaviorism, Cognitivism, Constructivism. In Foundations of Learning and Instructional Design Technology West, R. E. (Ed.). EdTech Books.
GreggU. (2019, July 18). Social Learning Theory [Video]. YouTube. https://youtu.be/5z1Ka5aL09U?si=N7Jip83ldnKAUCzd Hotchin, J. (2025, January 5). Edci 339 (A01) module 1 – University of Victoria – EdTech. University of Victoria – EdTech. https://connectedlearningpathways.ca/category/edci-339-a01-module-1/