I have been conducting training workshops, providing support and guidance in collaborative online instruction for novice EFL instructors in Saudi Arabia since the year 2000. The presentation will show the following: (1) How we support faculty in EFL online instruction; (2) How novice EFL instructors can overcome feelings of being overwhelmed; (3) How EFL instructors can keep up-to-date with latest development in educational technology. In order for novice college faculty to be able to use online instruction effectively, they need some pre-training; they need technical support with internet connectivity and access problems, help with content selection & design. They need online course management support and help with time management. To overcome feelings of being overwhelmed, novice online instructors may practice using the online course tools one at a time and add a new tool every week or so. They may post few announcements and external links at a time, post one discussion thread per week, set a time to follow-up students’ posts, discussion and interaction and give feedback and encouragement. To keep up with the latest developments in technology applications in EFL instruction, I attend local and international conferences, present papers and give conference presentations, join mailing lists, electronic newsletters, newsgroups, online discussion forums, online journals and others and invite my colleagues to join too.
Prof. Reima Al-jarf
King Saud University
Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
http://faculty.ksu.edu.sa/aljarf
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