What is Your Brand as an Online Instructor?

Primary Presenter: Jackie Dobrovolny

Co-Presenter: Patrick Lowenthal

Organization: Triple Play

Role: Owner

Track: Other

Topic: Online instructor presence

Level: For Mere Mortals

Abstract: Faculty identity or more specifically, an instructor’s persona, is a neglected topic in higher education. Every instructor, whether intentionally or not, projects a persona or “brand”. When created intentionally, this persona helps students understand your instructional strategies and builds a lasting impression of you and your online course. When ignored, students can be left confused and misinterpret your tone and instructional decisions. In this session you will work on carefully crafting and communicating your online instructor brand.

Bio: Jackie Dobrovolny has taught online college classes since 1998, first for Capella University and then for the Information and Learning Technologies (ILT) program at the University of Colorado Denver (UCD). At UCD, Jackie co-taught the first two courses, both of which were 6-credit hours, in the elearning graduate program from 2007 through 2012. These courses enabled Jackie to investigate different strategies for engaging students in an online community of learners. Recently, several of Jackie’s former students encouraged her to document her experiences and strategies. In considering this request, Jackie began researching social presence, instructor presence, and transactional distance. Patrick Lowenthal is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Educational Technology at Boise State University. Before moving to Boise, Patrick worked at CU Online at the University of Colorado Denver where he supported faculty who taught online. Patrick's research interests generally focus on instructional communication and the broad concept of presence–specifically, social presence, instructor social presence, and teaching presence.

Description: Teaching online can strip away some of our individuality, leaving us feeling like not much more than black text on a white screen. A lot has been written about the importance of social presence (establishing oneself as “real” and “there”) in online courses. Much of the social presence literature focuses on students’ social presence, rather than the instructor’s, and very little of it focuses on the advantages of students and instructors actually getting to know each other. It is one thing to get a sense that another is “there” and “real” in an online course and quite a different thing to share our persona.

We contend that instructors--especially online instructors--need to think more about their persona and what they share or don’t share about themselves. We think of this as one’s brand, which can support or undermine instructional effectiveness.

In this session, participants will use a checklist of online course characteristics to understand their brand. They will also discuss their brand with other participants and identify ideas for changing, strengthening or improving their brand. The two presenters will describe their brand and how they think it helps them with student expectations, as well as their own effectiveness and efficiency.

Presenter Presentation Materials URL (Web Address):

http://tinyurl.com/lpntrpz