Unit 1: Introduction to online teaching

Being a successful online teacher

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An alternative framework: The Five Stage Model of Online Teaching and Learning

Learning outcomes:
Completing this screen will contribute to your ability to recognise the complementary relationship between the CoI framework and the Five Stage Model of Online Teaching and Learning by Gilly Salmon.

The CoI framework has been highly influential in guiding online teaching practices. As noted, the CoI theoretical framework suggests that online learning results from the interaction between the three elements of the framework: social presence, cognitive presence and teaching presence. However, some online teachers, particularly in Europe and Australasia (Lisewski, & Joyce, 2003), may be more familiar with the Five Stage Model of Online Teaching and Learning, devised by Gilly Salmon (2011).

social presence

A constituent of the CoI model; referring to the degree to which participants in online environments feel affectively connected to one another.

cognitive presence

A constituent of the CoI model; referring to the extent to which learners are able to construct and confirm meaning in online courses.

teaching presence

A constituent of the CoI model; referring to the design and organisation of course materials and activities, facilitation of learning, and direct instruction in online courses.

In many respects the two models complement each other in that they both emphasise the central role of the teacher/e-moderator and the importance of socialisation, collaboration and knowledge construction in online teaching environments. Both models aim to support online learners in becoming confident practitioners who are able to manage their own learning, but they take different approaches to doing this.

The Five Stage Model

In the following activity, click on the pinpoints on the diagram as they appear to learn more about the Five Stage Model. Start at the bottom of the diagram, at the 'Access and motivation' stage.

The following paragraphs will explain the Five Stage Model in more detail. For each stage, consider the stage overview followed by the 'E-moderating' and 'Technical support' descriptions for the stage.

Useful links

Gilly Salmon's Five Stage Model: www.gillysalmon.
com/five-stage-model...

Stage 1: Access and motivation

In stage one, the online teacher makes sure that students can access and use the digital technologies that will be used for the course as well as building student motivation and confidence in the online environment.

E-moderating: Welcoming and encouraging

Be sure to send a welcome message to all the students that clearly explains the purpose and the format for the online course.

Technical support: Setting up system and accessing

Before an online course begins it is important that students are able to access and comfortably use the digital technologies in order to help them develop confidence.

Stage 2: Online socialisation

Stage two is about online socialisation and it builds on stage one. In this stage, the online teacher focuses on social processes and 'community building'.

E-moderating: Familiarising and providing bridges

The online teacher acts as a 'host', facilitating icebreaker activities that allow the students to get to know each other and to also emphasise the collaborative nature of the course.

Technical support: Sending and receiving messages

The online teacher models and helps the students create guidelines for online communication in the course (e.g. netiquette).

Stage 3: Information exchange

For stage three, the online teacher facilitates exploration through information exchange and co-operative tasks. Interaction takes place with other students and course materials.

E-moderating: Facilitating tasks

Information starts to flow and students generally become excited about the immediate access and fast information exchange. They also express concern about the volume of information suddenly becoming available and the risk of potential information overload. In this stage, online teachers can help students to develop good time management and organisational skills.

Technical support: Searching, personalising software

At this stage, many students are likely to need help from the online teacher in developing or refining their seeking, searching and selecting skills. Some students may be overwhelmed by the mass of content and may need help to focus on the essentials. You can expect many queries about where to find things online. Teachers need to provide guidance without inhibiting the free-flowing communication between students, as students derive an enormous amount of motivation and enjoyment from this personal communication.

Stage 4: Knowledge construction

During stage four, the online teacher focuses on knowledge development and discussion activities. Students recognise the value of text-based asynchronous interaction and take control of their own knowledge construction.

E-moderating: Facilitating process

As interactions unfold and expand, many (but not all) students engage in some active exploration, and in the process widen their own viewpoints and appreciate differing perspectives. By now, students should be interacting and starting to collaborate in their knowledge construction. Problem-based and practice-based tasks are appropriate at this stage. Online teachers have an important role to play in building and sustaining groups.

Technical support: Conferencing

The online teacher needs to apply 'weaving' skills. Weaving involves pulling together the students' contributions by, for example, collecting statements from a range of individual learners and relating them to concepts and theories from the course. The teacher enables development of ideas through discussion and collaboration, summarises from time to time, ensuring that diverse views are given consideration, and helps keep the discussion on track.

Stage 5: Development

Stage five is characterised by reflection and assessment, Students become responsible for their own learning and that of their peers. Ideas are applied to individual contexts.

E-moderating: Supporting, responding

Online teachers should encourage students to explore their own thinking and knowledge-building processes. It is common at this stage for students to reflect on and discuss how they are networking and to evaluate the digital technologies and the impact on their learning processes. These higher-level skills require the ability to reflect on, articulate, and evaluate one's own thinking. Students become responsible for their own learning and need little support beyond that already available.

Technical support: Providing links outside of closed conferences

Students begin to discover and share resources and experiences beyond those found in the course learning management system (LMS)/virtual learning environment (VLE).

Source: Adapted from Salmon (2011). Used with permission.

To learn more about the Five Stage Model, watch the following interview with Professor Gilly Salmon, Pro-Vice Chancellor (Learning Transformations) at Swinburne University of Technology, in which she explains how she developed the model.

To learn more about the Five Stage Model, consider the following interview with Professor Gilly Salmon, Pro-Vice Chancellor (Learning Transformations) at Swinburne University of Technology, in which she explains how she developed this framework.

Click 'Play' to watch the video.

Key terms

Learning design: The systematic learner-centred design model process...

Loading the player...

How and why did you develop the Five Stages of E-Learning Moderation?

Professor Gilly Salmon
Pro-Vice Chancellor, Learning Transformations, Swinburne University of Technology

I first worked on the model of the Five Stages of E-Learning when I was at the Open University Business School, and the model was developed around twenty years ago now. And it was at the time when we weren't structuring e-learning so I was able to do the research and base it on what learners and teachers chose to do. And that's been to the model's advantage ever since because it means it's a grounded model, it's based on what people chose to do without too much structure. So, I put that grounded model into something that I thought was productive and useful, and originally it was to help teaching staff to understand as to how learners might behave online and how teaching staff might help them. And then later, after I'd published the book on it, people started using it as a learning design model.

In what ways has the Five Stage Model been adopted in e-learning?

The Five Stage Model was for my own use to start with, so I did the research in order to understand the role of the e-moderator, because I needed to train a large number of online teachers and having looked around I couldn't work out either what competencies they needed or how to do the training. So I used the Five Stage Model to work out how to provide large-scale online training for teachers who'd previously been face-to-face tutors or lecturers. So it was very much a kind of professional staff development model to start with, but when I published a book about it lots of other people came along and said, 'We want to use this model to help us work with our learners.' So at that point, other people turned it into a learning design model.

How has the Five Stage Model evolved over the years since its first publication?

The way the Five Stage Model has been used is actually quite interesting. We realised around the year 2000, where it started to scale up and lots of people were trying it, that it wasn't something that an individual academic could really use for him or herself. So it became a tool for collaboration, from the academic leaders who had the content knowledge to learning technologists who understood how to structure the environment, and it also started to work with assessment. We started to work out how to assess the kind of learning that was going on.

So really, from the last thirteen years, fourteen years or so, it's still constantly evolving. And the last book that I published, which was the second edition of the E-tivities book, which tells you what kind of activities to use at each stage of the five stages for the model, has an extensive chapter about something I call carpe diem, which is a learning design workshop. It's how to get a collaborative group together to design using the Five Stage Model. So once you start looking at the use of design, then you start learning quite different things about what you're doing.

Similarities and differences

The CoI framework is a theoretical model: during this course we will see how this can be applied in practice. The Five Stage Model provides a staged, practical approach to teaching and learning online. It suggests how an online course could be structured not just from the perspective of the activities the students would need to engage in as the course progresses, but also from the perspective of the technical support they would need, to become more self-directed and active in an online course.

Which framework might you use and why? There are no definitive answers to these questions as they will be determined by individual contexts. The following quiz has two purposes. One is to review what we have learned so far about the CoI framework and the Five Stage Model of Online Teaching and Learning. The second is to encourage you to further explore the two models and think about how you would use them.

In the following activity, consider the statements and click on the tick or the cross according to whether you think they are true or false. In each case, pause to consider our thoughts, before using the 'Next' button to move on to the next statement.

You will now be presented with some statements about the Community of Inquiry and The Five Stage Model. For each statement, consider whether it is true, neither true nor false, or false, then continue on to reflect on our thoughts.

Portfolio activity

How might you apply Gilly Salmon's Five Stage Model to your own teaching...

Statement 1 of 5:

The CoI Framework and Five Stage Model of Online Teaching and Learning are based on different learning theories.

Our thoughts:

This statement is false. Both the CoI Framework and the Five Stage Model were developed from the authors' knowledge and understanding of teaching and learning based on many years' prior experience. Both models drew on existing research in teaching and learning with a specific focus on social constructivist approaches. This is evidenced by the emphasis that both models place on socialisation and collaborative knowledge construction.

Statement 2 of 5:

The CoI Framework and Five Stage Model of Online Teaching and Learning are both learning design models.

Our thoughts:

This statement is both true and false! In her video, Gilly Salmon explicitly refers to her framework as a learning design model. The Five Stage Model originated as a staff development model written to identify the competencies needed to be an e-moderator. With increasing use, it evolved into a learning design model. The CoI model is a theoretical framework, written to explain the online learning experience. It does not explicitly reference learning design, but the model has been used by many online course designers to support the development of educational communities of inquiry.

Statement 3 of 5:

The CoI Framework and Five Stage Model both focus on the work of the online teacher, but they each identify completely different roles and responsibilities for this work.

Our thoughts:

This statement is false. Although the two frameworks are presented differently, close examination reveals that they identify very similar roles and responsibilities for the online teacher. The CoI framework identifies these as social presence, teaching presence and cognitive presence, and examines and explains how these interact. It emphasises the role of the teacher in promoting shared responsibility between all participants for learning in an online course. The Five Stage Model outlines the e-moderator's role in relation to access and motivation, online socialisation, information exchange, knowledge construction and learner development. It has developed a set of competencies that e-moderators should aspire to.

Statement 4 of 5:

Both the CoI Framework and the Five Stage Model of Online Teaching and Learning were designed as tools for collaboration between academic leaders and learning technologists.

Our thoughts:

This statement is false. Although both models emphasise the importance of collaboration, there is less explicit emphasis on technology in the CoI framework, which focuses on the online educational experience in relation to social presence, cognitive presence and teaching presence. A community of inquiry is described as a collaborative learning environment, but with no specific reference to technology. In her video, Gilly Salmon explains how her Five Stage Model has evolved into a tool for collaboration between academic leaders, who focus on content, and learning technologists, who focus on the learning environment. The model makes specific reference to how online course participants work with technology.

Statement 5 of 5:

Both The CoI Framework and the Five Stage Model of Online Teaching and Learning provide advice on 'how' to teach an online course.

Our thoughts:

This statement is true. The CoI model provides research-based evidence on the relationship between social presence, teaching presence and cognitive presence in an online course. It is thought to be helpful to tutors new to online teaching by providing a theoretical framework in which to apply their practice. Gilly Salmon's model provides a structured approach to designing and running an online course and suggestions for specific activities at each stage. It is thought to be helpful to tutors new to online teaching by scaffolding online teaching and learning and by providing numerous examples of activities that can be used to promote online discussion.

Summary

This screen has introduced and explored the Five Stage Model of Online Teaching and Learning as an additional framework for online teaching, as well as how it relates to the Community of Inquiry framework. The remainder of this course will focus on the Community of Inquiry framework to provide practical teaching strategies, in keeping with the rest of the Teaching Online programme. However, this screen has demonstrated how both frameworks inform and enrich each other, and how both frameworks are useful in providing a solid foundation for developing your abilities as an informed and successful online teacher.

This section has introduced and explored the Five Stage Model of Online Teaching and Learning as an additional framework for online teaching, as well as how it relates to the Community of Inquiry framework. The remainder of this course will focus on the Community of Inquiry framework to provide practical teaching strategies, in keeping with the rest of the Teaching Online programme. However, this section has demonstrated how both frameworks inform and enrich each other, and how both frameworks are useful in providing a solid foundation for developing your abilities as an informed and successful online teacher.

Useful links

Key terms

Learning design: The systematic learner-centred design model process that enables 'teachers/designers to make more informed decisions in how they go about designing learning activities and interventions' (Conole, 2013).

Learning design activities: Activities used to aid the online course design and delivery process.

Portfolio

Duration: 40 minutes

How might you apply Gilly Salmon's Five Stage Model to your own teaching practice?

Complete the attached worksheet, which contains an annotated copy of the Five Stage Model, or use the template provided on the relevant page of your Teaching Online portfolio.

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