One of the biggest challenges in making the transition from traditional to online teaching is learning new skills that are necessary for facilitating learning in a text-based environment. Those of us here at Teachers.net have an advantage in that we are skilled in computer-mediated communication through our use of the chatboards, chatrooms, and various meetings and conferences. I would strongly suggest that anyone considering online teaching make use of the wonderful resources here to hone CMC skills in moderating both synchronous and asynchronous learning environments. Having the opportunity to moderate and conduct online meetings here at Teachers.net gave me some valuable skills that I have continued to improve upon with each online class I teach. The final responsibility that belongs to the online teacher is one that we use in traditional classrooms as well.
Online teachers are responsible for the social interactions among students in an online class.
Just as we do in a f2f classroom, we need to make the online learning environment friendly and inviting. Online teachers need to encourage interaction, group cohesiveness, and communication among students and between student and teacher. There are so many kinds of interaction in an online class, between student and student, student and group, student and teacher and all of this communication takes place in a text-based medium. This will be new for many students and a teacher skilled in facilitating online communication and interaction is invaluable in the online classroom. All of these responsibilities merge to make up the role of the online teacher.