Tracia Forman and Jessica Sanchez, UTRGV
Presentation given at the Texas Digital Learning Annual Association Conference 2022, Galveston, TX
Increased online enrollment has results in the use of supplementary instructional support to enhance effective course delivery. Use of an instructional team approach plays an invaluable role in student success.
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Our Academic Coaching Model adds a human touch to your distance learning environment, encouraging students to learn and persist with the demands of online and distance coursework. Students view their Virtual Teaching Assistants as a peer and respect the fact that their Coach has experience in the same field they desire to join.
The first thing our virtual teaching assistant model always includes is learning about our university partners’ needs. We understand that what each college or university needs is relative to their specific instructional support level, courses, and goals. We strive to understand all missions that each school desires through initial in-depth meetings, and we continue that communication throughout our relationship.
Each faculty member of record that teaches an online course provides clear expectations to their approved and assigned Virtual TA. Every area of support from a Teaching Assistant can be decided by the faculty and may vary from course to course depending on the faculty’s expectations.
This level of flexibility allows faculty to be in complete control of online program management. Many faculty members love the support they receive from their Virtual Teaching Assistants, and most faculty continually think of new and better methods to help educate students in distance learning programs.
We recruit, screen, pre-qualify and present Academic Coach candidates to our university partners. Rest assured that each potential candidate has been vetted and is available in our pool for approval by university partners.
Each institution identifies the academic credentials or experience required for its program and courses. Based on this information, Instructional Connections employs a variety of recruitment strategies, reviewing each applicant thoroughly for a match to the qualifications for each program. We then invite every Virtual TA potential match applicant to participate in our pre-employment screening process.
During our pre-employment screening process, the Academic Coach applicant commits to a 4-6 hour online pre-employment screening session. This covers topics like the roles and expectations of a virtual teaching assistant, basic principles, and best practices of effective distance learning, and working with a variety of Learning Management Systems.
After our advanced screening process, we perform a standard criminal background check on all potential candidates. Once a candidate successfully passes these steps, they are contracted and added to our pool of Virtual TAs ready and available for an assignment at one of our partner universities.
Next, we work with programs and faculty to assign approved Virtual Teaching Assistant, or Academic Coaches to your courses and programs. We understand and listen to university, college, and even course-specific needs for distance learning. We understand the hurdles and benefits of online programs and distance learning.
Your Virtual TA is meant to aid the faculty member of record, or professor, that is teaching the online course. A Virtual Teaching Assistant can grade assignments, monitor and facilitate discussion boards, reply to emails, post announcements, and assist in additional day-to-day needs.
This gives your faculty the time to focus on student success, engagement, and course delivery. Plus, our Virtual TAs are flexible – your faculty member simply needs to provide them with instructions on their needs and expectations for the course, and our Teaching Assistants will deliver.
After the approval of a candidate and the assignment to a course, your Virtual TA will then need to meet with the faculty of record for the course prior to the course going live and throughout the course cycle in order to maintain communication and understand expectations. We independently contract, manage, and pay our Virtual TAs, handling all organization of staff matters. This eliminates the need for universities to add additional human resources and payroll overhead or hassles.
Additionally, Instructional Connections provides continual support to each distance learning course where our Virtual TAs are requested and used. We are there throughout the course term for our university partners – from start to finish.
Teaching during a pandemic presents many challenges, not the least of which is the sudden and mostly unprepared-for shift to online learning. However, not only teachers were affected by this change. Teacher’s aides, or teaching assistants, used to working face-to-face with students were left wondering what their role now was in the virtual classroom.
TAs are having to find new ways to help students achieve their academic goals and provide support to course instructors virtually. Taking the challenge of distance learning head-on requires TAs to take on new responsibilities that take into account the online classroom environment.
Our TAs take an active supportive role in your virtual classes. They assist with forum discussions and instructions, communicating class criteria to the students, even organizing activities and projects for the class.
Virtual teaching assistants can monitor discussion threads and emails for questions from students, and address minor technical concerns to minimize interruptions. They are also able to answer student questions themselves or bring student concerns to the attention of the instructor if needed.
Virtual TAs collect unanswered questions from all avenues, such as threads, message boards, forums, emails, and calls, and respond to them via email or messaging boards. Additionally, they can moderate chat boards and forums on the virtual learning platforms they use too.
For example, many TAs at Vanderbilt University assist with monitoring and responding to student posts on discussion boards and external tools like Perusall and virtual learning platforms like Brightspace.
In a face-to-face classroom setting, a teacher or a TA can find many clues on how students are progressing with their learning and whether or not they’re engaged. Taking notes, confused looks, and affirmatory nods are just a few examples. In virtual classrooms, however, it’s more difficult to get a sense of where students are at learning-wise.
Together with the instructor, a virtual TA can design and implement short, informal assessments such as quizzes, online polls, and virtual activities that provide more insight on students’ progress, challenges, comprehension, and areas for improvement. Instructors can use information gleaned from these assessments to make changes to the course for better outcomes.
Educational videos and interactive online learning materials can help keep students engaged outside of the virtual classroom. TAs can support instructors by creating content that is engaging, challenging, and aligned with the objectives of the course.
This responsibility requires knowledge of video editing software and other tools. TAs who have familiarity with these and other content creation software can develop videos, presentations, slideshows, and other visual aids for students. They can also assist instructors with editing content and converting it into different formats if needed.
In addition, TAs can curate existing educational content and modify them as needed, depending on the needs of the instructor and the students.
TAs provide much-needed instructional support to teachers of online learning programs and distance learning courses. Virtual TAs perform day-to-day and supplemental tasks so that faculties can focus on education delivery and student outcomes. At the same time, they help students with their educational and social development.
Even as the world transitions back to in-person classes, virtual TAs remain a key source of support for universities and other institutes of learning that want to provide better instruction. Plus, virtual TAs can help schools save on instructional delivery costs.
Online education seems here to stay, at least in some capacity, especially for higher education as schedules are busy and culture changes. And though there are large benefits to online education and distance learning, it can be a difficult transition for many teachers.
Often administration thinks that in-person classes take more planning than online ones, but this isn’t true. Typically, in a virtual classroom, class time is short, and students expect to learn as much as they can in that given period, and as activities may be quicker and less frequent – that time needs to be filled and utilized to the fullest.
This is an important reason why it’s essential to plan your lessons beforehand and in a detailed manner to make sure you are providing a high level of learning and value to students.
This is the second biggest tip, just barely behind planning: make sure you understand the technology you will be using. And this doesn’t just mean Zoom or the University’s platform, this means all of the media and technology you plan to use in class. From quizzes to breakout rooms, videos to interactive setups, or even games, this is paramount.
If you do not where begin, here are some things to familiarize yourself with:
Regardless of being in a virtual classroom, your environment still sets the stage for your course. Make sure you are setting a good example by having an academic virtual background or a tidy physical backdrop. Also, be consistent if your background is not virtual – or do not have the room change between your office and kitchen, living room, or outdoors.
If possible, your classroom area should be intended for work only – not a kitchen counter or couch. You want the space to be tidy, educational, and engaging while still looking productive.
Teaching online is different, but some principles are the same, like facilitating discussion and communicating with your students.
Discussion is how many students learn best, either by teaching their peers or asking questions of them, even having breakout groups where each section may discuss a different topic before coming together and sharing with the group in their own words and with their own understanding. It’s important to start these discussions so they can be comfortable and acquainted with you and the class, but then allow the group to speak more than you while you still guide the timelines and subjects.
Communication is needed in all classroom styles, virtual or in-person, in order to ensure that the students know what is needed, expected, and due. Additionally, a teacher (online or not) who answers emails in a timely manner will be seen as more helpful and friendly, which in turn aids in discussion and makes the students feel more comfortable.
Luckily, our online academic coaches are highly qualified, experienced professionals in the appropriate academic discipline and have earned at least a Master’s degree from an accredited university. In fact, on average, our online academic coaches have 14 years of industry experience in their field!
Our coaches’ goals are fully customizable to your classroom and its needs. Because under the leadership and direction of your faculty, our online academic coaches can assist you with grading assignments, managing discussion threads, posting approved announcements, and managing day-to-day tasks and course issues in distance learning – such as timely and consistent communication.
We have been working in online education and distance learning since long before COVID-19, and the push for online learning began in 2020, which means we have our process and systems perfectly in place already.
Responsibilities may include any course issues as defined by your faculty and any needs related to online and distance learning. When you are a Virtual Teaching Assistant, you get to be flexible – meaning that your professor may ask for different tasks for different courses or projects. A benefit is that no two classes are the same, and you get to work with many other professors and students throughout the year!
*Please note, the minimum requirements for specific programs and courses are established by our partner Universities and are not flexible. General minimum education requirements vary depending on the discipline or University’s request.
Submit our Online Application to be considered for a Virtual Teaching Assistant position. Remember, these positions are entirely virtual and do not require residence in a particular city or state.
If you are selected as a potential candidate, you will complete a Virtual Teaching Assistant Pre-Employment Screening course. This usually takes 4 to 6 hours, as it is a self-paced screening accomplished over the course of one week.
This screening will include details of a Virtual Teaching Assistant’s role and expectations, an introduction to the learning management systems (LMS) we use, and the best practices for online education, FERPA, etc.
For employment with Instructional Connections, all applicants must have work authorization that does not require sponsorship of a visa for employment in the United States and Instructional Connections.
Due to the volume of applications received, please be advised that if you have not heard from us within 4-6 weeks of your application submission, we cannot give your application further consideration at present.
Your application will be kept on file for future reference should an opening arise or our University partner’s requirements change.
Instructional Connections’ online education model stems from research and experience. Our process follows the successful steps we have created over years of work by listening to the needs of our university partners and growing in our data-driven tactics.
First, we work to fully and deeply understand what each college or university needs relative to instructional support. We strive to understand all missions that each school desires through in-depth meetings before we get started.
Second, we recruit, screen, pre-qualify and present Academic Coach candidates (AKA Virtual Teaching Assistants or Virtual TAs) to our university and college clients.
Next, we assign your Academic Coaches and other necessary support staff to the correct online courses and programs. We understand and listen to each university, college, and course-specific request to create the most successful distance learning environment.
We fully train each candidate per your learning management systems in order to orient your Virtual TA to courses, your distance learning programs, and your expectations. Additionally, we are happy to work closely with faculty on the best practices and uses of their Virtual Teaching Assistants.
We independently contract, manage, and pay the Virtual TAs, handling all organization of staffing provided in order to fulfill the service needs on behalf of you, our university partners. This eliminates you from needing additional human resources and payroll programming or training hours.
We do this to ensure accountability by having in-house supportive leadership staff who work directly with both your administration and faculty and your Virtual TAs. By meeting with faculty, we can meet and exceed expectations, rubric, and course goals.
Each faculty member of record that teaches an online course is able to provide clear expectations to their approved and assigned Academic Coach, and they can update these needs throughout the course. In fact, most faculty members continually think of new and better methods to help educate students through distance learning.
This means that every area of support from an Academic Coach can be decided by the faculty, so you stay in complete control. The needs in different courses may vary depending on the faculty’s needs, expectations, class size, assignments, level, and more.
Programmatic and institutional accreditation, program guidelines, and policies are sacrosanct. Instructional Connections’ quality assurance program cares about fully meeting and matching our partners’ needs with our services. Our commitment is consistent with that of our university partners’ in providing the highest levels of education to each and every student.
At the end of every online or distance learning course, we solicit feedback regarding the Academic Coaches’ work to improve the course experience. And in the rare event that a problem arises with an Academic Coach, Instructional Connections immediately investigates and takes action. We do all things in accordance with faculty and university concerns.
The situation with the Coronavirus (COVID-19) is a fluid situation that we are constantly monitoring. Businesses and institutions everywhere – both large and small – are feeling the impact.
Thankfully, our business was built in such a way that all our staff, employees, and contractors work remotely – so we are all able to continue providing support to our partner institution with their instructional support needs – assisting with maintaining the quality and scaling of the online courses. There should not be any delays or interruptions on our end, but if you do have any questions please feel free to reach out.
We are thankful for you and your business and we are here to help in any way that we can!
Below are links to great resources for institutions, administrator,s and faculty regarding the transition to online/remote teaching and instructional continuity:
Online Learning Consortium – https://onlinelearningconsortium.org/about/continuity-planning-emergency-preparedness-resources/
Quality Matters – https://www.qualitymatters.org/qa-resources/resource-center/article-resource/51
UPCEA – https://sites.google.com/view/covid19he/home
WCET – https://wcet.wiche.edu/covid-19-resources
SACSCOC – https://sacscoc.org/coronavirus-and-the-commission/
HLC – https://www.hlcommission.org/General/coronavirus-updates.html
Council of Regional Accrediting Commissions – https://www.c-rac.org/
American Council on Education – https://www.acenet.edu/
CDC’s Interim Guidance for Administrators of US Institutions of Higher Education – https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/
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