Teacher Training: The ‘Virtual’ Classroom: Cold and impersonal or a teaching
environment worth embracing?

There appears to a great divide among English Language Teaching professionals about the efficacy and practicality of online teaching and learning. Some have embraced cyberspace wholeheartedly, integrating activities using email and the worldwide web into their "live" classes or creating courses taught entirely online. Others see it as a cold, impersonal medium alien to any meaningful human interaction-practically the antithesis of what the student-teacher/student-student relationship, that is essential to real learning, should be.

Can courses taught entirely online be as good as "live" courses? How would these courses work? Can teachers, specifically ESL/EFL teachers, be trained effectively through online? What are the advantages and disadvantages of on-line courses? What can be done on line that can't be done in an on-site class? What can be done more efficiently and effectively?
When we began planning the development of an online version of The New School's English Language Teaching Certificate our priority was to ensure that we preserved both its practicality and effectiveness in the new medium. Fortunately we were able to build the online program using The New School's award winning DIAL (Distance Instruction for Adult Learning) program.

All DIAL courses are fully interactive. Students and instructors "meet" asynchronously, in virtual classrooms and project areas where they share information, ask and answer questions and complete assignments. Classes begin and end on specific days and students are required to log on a certain number of times a week. There are deadlines for assignments and projects, but both the work and the students' participation can take place at any time of the day or night, 24 hours a day from anywhere in the world.

Student Orientation
Students who have enrolled in a class receive a password to gain access to it. They begin their class with a one-week online orientation in which they learn to maneuver in the DIAL environment, upload and download information, use a limited selection of HTML codes, and get help. There is a 24-hour telephone help line as well as an online technical support system. Perhaps most importantly, students also learn etiquette for interacting with others online. They also have time to look at the course syllabus and requirements, order their textbooks online download handouts and visit other areas of the New School online campus. One place they might visit, Bar Six, is named for a popular cafe in the New School's Greenwich Village neighborhood. There they meet other students taking courses online and start to feel part of a community of learners.

Faculty Development and Support
All faculty wishing to teach online must take a 10-week online training program the semester before their course is offered. This program provides the training needed to work within the DIAL environment. Online teachers learn how to create items, use basic HTML, integrate pictures, audio and video segments into their courses, monitor their students and use the environment to customize their courses. Even more important, they get help with online pedagogy and insight into what it takes to build a community of learners. Besides working with DIAL trainers, instructors can observe ongoing classes and "talk" to experienced instructors learning from their past mistakes and successes.

DIAL also offers instructors a whole network of support. It provides a 24-hour help line and an online technical support system. It also obtains permissions for copyright material and puts handouts online so students can download them. DIAL helps instructors make videos and either puts them online in digital form or makes copies and sends them anywhere in the world. The system monitors student involvement and calls students who are not participating.

What is a DIAL course like?
When the course begins, students log on, enter their course and meet their teacher. The first class or item is always a wel come area where students introduce themselves, find out about their classmates and express their expectations for the class. This is very important as it starts the process of building community. In the next item, instructors will probably give students information, start a discussion and/or give them an assignment. When the first student logs on, he or she will read what the instructor said and either responds immediately or does some reading, composes an answer and comes back online to respond.

The next student coming in will respond not only to what the teacher said, but to his or her classmate's contribution as well - just as in a live class. The item then continues to develop over a period of days until the teacher determines when it is time to start a new item. Throughout the discussion in each item the instructor logs in regularly to talk to the class, answer questions, clarify, encourage, stimulate and add more information. All items remain online for the duration of the course. Many students print out items or even the whole course at the end.

Items can also serve as workspaces and be assigned to individual students, pairs or groups. The instructor might give each student his or her own item and ask that assignments be posted there. This makes it possible for all the students in the course to see and comment on each other's work.

Instructors can also create items for pairs or groups to work on projects together. This avoids having to work through email and gives students a place where they can conference online. It also permits the instructor to visit students as they work on projects, give them feedback and redirect them if necessary. The instructor can also ask other students to visit work groups to see what they are doing, comment, question and learn.

Characteristics and Challenges of Online Learning
In order to match the efficacy of the class-based ELT Certificate we had to alter our perspective and do a good deal of problem solving. One challenge particularly linked to teacher training online is demonstrating teaching techniques. Instructors have been very creative in finding ways to explain techniques in print, but there always comes a point when trainees need to be shown. With help from DIAL we have been able to create a series of teacher training videotapes which are copied and mailed to students in certain courses. Eventually, these videos will be digitized and delivered online.

Evaluating student work is another challenge. How do we know students are doing their own work? We've found that we can be more certain about the authenticity of a student's work if they do projects rather than tests. They write syllabi, lesson plans and activitiesand, in some courses, they are then required to use these with an ESL class.

A popular criticism of online learning, the lack of human contact, seems to be the least problematic. Students actually get to know each other very well and show a willingness to help each other and work together that is not always seen in live classes.

The necessity of communicating through writing in online courses is one of its most distinctive characteristics. Instructors have found that since responses are written (usually after some time for reflection) that they are generally well thought out and more profound than comments in live classes. Even better, nothing is ever lost. At any time in the course, the instructor can refer students back to previous discussions or activities. If a student gets off the subject in one item, the teacher can cut and paste what was said into the appropriate discussion thereby avoiding confusion or a lot of shuffling back and forth between items

A huge advantage of online learning is the ease with which students can see each other's work and give feedback and help. Instructors can follow students as they work together on projects on line and understand their thought process as well as give timely feedback.

Instructors can invite guest lecturers to class since anyone with access to the Internet can participate in a class. This added to the fact that the instructors themselves can teach from anywhere in the world makes it possible for people in the most isolated circumstances to get the best instruction available.

All of this does not mean that online learning is better than attending a live class. As Sherry Preiss, one of The New School's ELT/DIAL instructors aptly put it, "Lets not compare online education to live education. Rather than seeing distance learning as an impediment to what we can do live, we should look at it as an whole new medium that opens up teaching and learning opportunities that don't exist in live classrooms and that presents new possibilities for teachers and learners."