1) Our online students can't see or hear us. Many is the time that I have been glad that this is the case! When reading a ridiculous question that could be easily answered if the student had actually read the text, be thankful that they cannot hear you shout "Holy &%^#, I can't believe anyone could be this stupid!" True story -- I was tutoring a student via an Elluminate shared whiteboard (a wonderful free tool, by the way) in my General Chemistry class and she was trying to solve an equation that was literally something like this: 27 = 1/x
Her response, after several minutes of silence: "I know I should know how to find the value of x, but I just can't remember how to do it." I threw up my hands and stomped out of the room -- I couldn't believe that a college chemistry student wasn't able to solve such a trivial problem! I was very glad that she only "heard" me say something kind and encouraging when I came back to my keyboard after composing myself.
2) We have time to compose an intelligent and insightful answer. Unlike when we are in a classroom environment, we are never faced with the problem of coming up with a wise and informed response on the spur of the moment. This is as true for questions about special treatment and accommodations as it is for questions about content. For example, one of my students recently wrote: "Hi Dr. Dan! I'm writing because I have just gotten the flight information to go to Alaska for a fight this weekend. I'm filling in for another woman. I train with the woman who is the main even on this fight card, XXXXXX XXXXXXXXXXX, and when the promoter asked her if she knew anybody who could fight at 140 lbs she suggested my name. I had a hunch I might get to do this on Monday but it wasn't until a few hours ago that I got the flight info, I leave tomorrow at 9 and I haven't even seen the return flight info now that I think about it.... Anyway, I thought I would ask if there is any kind of deadline extending you could do for me this week. I understand if not, it is the midterm after all, but I would really benefit if you could... because it is the midterm, after all! Sorry for making this so wordy, I am probably over explaining myself." My first inclination, since this arrived a couple of days before the deadline, was to say, "Good luck with your fight, but you have time to get the test done." However, upon reflection, I decided that this was an exceptional enough reason to give her a few more days to complete the exam.
3) We always have the choice to engage or not engage. Related to advantage number 2 is that we don't always have to respond to things our students say "in class." If they make a discussion posting that advances an incorrect idea, we don't necessarily have to say anything about it. It may make our blood-pressure increase to stay quiet, but we have the option of letting a day or so go by and seeing what happens. In my experience, most of the time another student will chime in with a correcting post and straighten their classmate out. This gives students an opportunity to do some teaching, which will enhance their own learning, and saves us from having to formulate a corrective reply, which might not have been as effective as what the classmate said. Anyway, there's simply nothing wrong with reading through the discussion posts and taking a day to think about them before you even consider replying.
So, next time you feel that tension when you think about logging into your course, think about all the positive things in our favor as online instructors. Take a deep breath, relax, and jump into the course -- it's almost never as bad as the anticipation!
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