Challenges and Solutions in Teaching Braille in an Online-Education Model

During my graduate school years, I was fortunate to take a class with a professor who started each class session by describing a rhetorical problem and requiring us to form small groups and devise six creative ways in which to resolve the challenge. This early work in solving problems has served me well, since those of us who work in the area of teacher preparation are not strangers to challenges. A crisis exists in the United States because of the shortage of competent teachers of students who are blind or visually impaired. One solution to the lack of access to teacher-training programs has been online education. After gaining much experience as a classroom teacher for several teacher-preparation programs throughout the country, I became an online braille instructor in 2001. I had never taken an online course prior to teaching one, and I quickly learned that online environments require the acquisition of a different set of teaching skills, as well as acceptance of a unique teaching environment. CREATE AN ONLINE CLASSROOM Not knowing what else to do, I tried to replicate my on-campus course by furiously creating documents with the content I would have presented to my students during lectures. I laboriously uploaded these documents to Blackboard, the online-education web site to which the college subscribed. I don't think my students enjoyed this learning experience very much. I know I didn't. In search of solutions, I enrolled in Teaching Teachers to Teach Online, an online course taught by Nate Lowell and offered by Phaedrus Academy of the University of Northern Colorado. My participation in this course was my introduction to the wonderful world of "online." I learned about the importance of building community, social presence, and providing timely round-the-clock feedback to students, l learned not to present only content, but to present learning opportunities. I experienced the freedom one gains when one realizes that the world is the true classroom, and that learning is not bound by four walls and one instructor. As a result, I expanded my personal and professional network of expertise and support and learned how to create an online world for my students. Although I am armed with the tools to create an online classroom, challenges in the online-education model persist. COMMUNICATE COURSE REQUIREMENTS A benefit of the online model is that it allows educators to reach students in diverse geographic areas without the requirement of travel. One drawback to opening a course to a broad range of students is that some may have no clue as to the amount of work and hours of study that are required for successful participation. Some students registered for my course because they were already working for a school or program for blind people and their continued employment depended on their achievement of professional certification. If recruitment is the key to the survival of the field of visual impairment and blindness, teacher-training programs need to clearly communicate the vigorous academic requirements of such programs before future teachers of students with visual impairments enroll. Build knowledge and networks An advantage of online learning is providing access to quality higher education programs to students in diverse geographic regions. However, some students who live in rural communities may lack access to the kind of high-speed Internet access required to function in the online learning environment. For a student taking his or her first online course, learning to navigate the Blackboard (or WebCt, or Moodle, or ecampus) environment while also trying to learn the course content can be a source of frustration or stress. University support, including technical support, would be helpful in allowing such students to gain the skills required for online navigation, as well as accessing the university's servers prior to actual course enrollment. Another, nontechnical, aspect of networking is important for students learning online. …