Virtual Vs Real World Personas: Online Class Courses (Reader Response)

Throughout my high school experience I was faced with many challenges of being a teen mom, and less fortunate at the time. So with being a teen mother, and in high school I had to take a different route of schooling once I had my oldest daughter. Anxious, and nervous about how I would go to school, and raise a child I had to make a decision, and make it fast. In the long run, I had to go to school online in order to finish my sophomore year. Knowing the fact that I couldn’t have face to face conversations, and ask questions directly to the instructor dimmed my pride just a little. As high school went on I noticed a lot of differences between actually being in class, than taking a class online. When I had a question, or when I would become very confused, because I didn’t have the hands on help, I would have to resort to my email, asking my instructor specific questions. However, with my instructor having other students to attend to she didn’t respond back right away, and sometimes she never responded back at all. So that then became discouraging for me, and I began to paint my own picture of her. Though my instructors persona wasn’t all that great, and very inconsistent I still had to get the work done, because at the end of it all, it was up to me to pass the class, and to show how determined I was. With that being said, I pushed myself to get the work done, while still being faced with many challenges and obstacles of being a teen mom, as well as juggling work, and school. Regardless of my instructor’s lazy ways, I did pass my sophomore year. The fancy homepage, and welcoming statement on the page meant nothing at all. My instructor set up a virtual persona at the beginning presenting her as a caring, involved instructor but in all reality it was all just for show. My opinion of my instructor soon changed over time, and soon enough I stopped emailing her all together. I resorted to google, classmates, and other sources for help since I didn’t have that hands on, or via online help that the teacher was supposed to provide. Though, One’s motivation has little to do with how the instructor presents their selves online, how they setup the homepage, or how they interact with you as a student. However, Ones motivation has a lot to do with what they desire, if anything at all, and what motivates them, or how determined one is. It is the student on the other side of the keyboard who is In charge of their overall grades. Throughout this essay I will first analyze, and consider the multiple arguments referring to my topic. Following this I will briefly discuss my experience as an online student, and how it counteracts against three of the articles being analyzed. Then, I will State my opinion, and evidence against the counter arguments. Finally, I will conclude this essay by explain what can be added to this conversation as a whole. After reading this argumentative essay it should snag your attention to the real problem when it comes down to the grade, and motivation of the student when referring to the student and, instructor interaction, and the persona of both the student and instructor.

In an article by Deimann and Bastianes they explain how no matter what techniques one uses or boundaries placed, either way online learning is a disadvantage all in one. Deimann, and Bastianes explained that they understand how convenient it is to stay at home, and take care of family while trying to achieve your goals rather than you having to choose between either or by stating: “It is a flexible way of studying as it allows learners to purse goals from different areas simultaneously” (1). Then again, they explain that no matter how the instructor presents themselves, it all depends on the motivation of the student themselves. Deimann , and Bastianes explains how many life situations, and obstacles can get in the way that can distract the student can their motivation can start to diminish by stating : “ Fact that much can happen during the learning process, so motivation and persistence are subject to fluctuations” (2). The main argument in this article is, that once a student become discouraged or unmotivated that student may not be strong enough to overcome or tackle these problems that comes along with online classes.

I feel that the face-to-face interaction is very important because it gives you the feeling that someone is actually listening to what you have to say and gives you immediate feedback, rather than emailing your instructor and having to wait hours or even days for a response. According to results of a new national research study, 78% of more than 1,000 students surveyed still believe it is easier to learn in a classroom (Karambelas). With my experience, the online learning environment allows you to do your work on your time, which can be very convenient for some but not all. Some students need that push to make them work to their full potential. Those pep talks and mentoring you receive from your instructor can be very vital to some students. You never know what one student may be going through outside of school. Therefore, the classroom learning environment can become an escape from the at-home stress for many. For instance, with me being a pregnant teen mother my senior year , I had a 6 month old daughter and now pregnant aging while in school, my instructors would tell me anything can be achieved only if your determined to do so. So my daughters then became my motivation, as well as other outside sources. I had struggles of being homeless as well as having a second baby on the way. Eventually I had to resort to online classes, with stress, postpartum depression, and anxiety along with that. However the pep talks and conversations I had with my instructor’s when I was in the class room setting really motivated me just a little more to do better. Nevertheless, some students don’t have at-home struggles, and battles to deal with. Some students just choose not to do anything at all. Even with the instructor presenting themselves with a positive persona, some students just don’t put forth their full potential. I’ve dealt with instructors who were not willing to interact at all and my overall grade didn’t reflect that.

Building a relationship with an instructor can also be a reason why that interaction isn’t there since building a relationship can become overwhelming and soon enough the interaction stops completely with some students. Trying to build a relationship online is very time consuming and therefore building relationships with your instructor and classmates requires more effort in an online environment. Online classes require a lot of self-discipline it forces students to take matters into their own hands, and manage their time accordingly to their schedule in order to complete their required course work. Not many students are able to do that because of the lack of self-discipline. At a high school or even college level not many individuals are mature enough to sit their self’s down and focus their attention on a computer screen hours of the day to complete their work, but in a classroom setting it gives you no choice. I become sidetracked in the classroom setting, so imagine how easy it is to become off track at home over a computer screen. It is much easier to walk away from a computer screen, than to just walk out of class.

While my research has shown that the concept of virtual personas incorporated in an online class setting isn’t dependable on the persona of the instructor, how the instructor shows their sincerity for the students via email, or via the course home page, and regardless of the multiple ways that one can improve the instructor and student interactions that occur via email, will never really work if the student on the other end doesn’t want it to work or they are not able to make that interaction work due to obstacles in life outside of the online course such as, taking care of their family or being employed. I personally believe that the course outcome becomes very dependent on the persona of the student rather than the instructor, when it comes to the amount of motivation one has. Some people believe that the outcome of each online course is dependable on the persona of the instructor, and will show how negatively or positively the boundaries instructors place between their professional persona, and at-home persona affect the students motivation overall.

Throughout my research, many sources support the argument that the overall motivation students have is measured by the boundaries place in between private and public personas of the instructor. The first supporting author, Joyce P. Johnston wrote the article “Power and Persona: Constructing an Online Voice for Professionals”, in that article Johnston states, “To construct his or her virtual identity, the teacher needs to consciously manipulate basic graphic design, define his or her level of institutional affiliation, model a desirable level of formality, determine the amount and type of virtual interaction with students, establish norms for civil behavior online and, finally, exhibit behaviors typical of a caring involved instructor” (89). Johnston believes that the instructor’s persona is vital to an online course, and she provides the evidence of when she had a run-in with one of her students due to the lack of responsiveness the student wanted at that moment. Johnston’s evidence shown in this article, proved why the persona is vital in an online course.

Another supporting article called “Professional Personae- How Organizational Identification Shapes Online Identity in the Workplace” by, Christian Fieseler, Miriam Meckel, and Giulia Ranzini states, “Blurring of multiple social group boundaries leads to tension and discomfort” (156). Fieseler, Meckel, and Ranzini stresses the fact that these specific, public and private persona boundaries are needed in order to communicate without the tension, and the discomfort of the students. The evidence used in this article was a hypothesis test used to measure the effects of a persona overlap, and in the conclusion Fieseler, Mackel, and Ranzini states, “Organizational identification has a positive effect on persona overlap” (165). Proving that the persona and the boundaries placed in between those persona’s, could ultimately have a positive outcome.

The last supporting article, “Presence and Positioning as Components of Online Instructor Persona”, by Vanessa Paz Dennen supports the overall argument by saying, “Participants develop impressions of each other based on their word choices, both in the moment and in the overall course context. How students perceive their instructor influences the overall learning experience, affecting motivation, communication, and perhaps effort” (95). Dennen believes that the overall course content is based off of the positioning, and word choice of the instructor. By proving that Dennen also conducted an experiment that in conclusion, stated that instructor self-positioning speech acts seemed to be gladly accepted by students, and students further reinforced this acceptance by not positioning their instructors differently from how they had seen the instructor’s position themselves.

In reply to these counterargument articles, I feel that the authors have a point when they comment on the persona of the instructor, and specific boundaries that obviously need place in between the private and public persona. However, I don’t feel that all of these aspects of the instructor boils down to the motivation of the student. These authors are ignoring the fact that behind every online course is a student as well as a teacher, but that students has the decision to either choose to work hard or choose to not work at all.

In the future, this argument can develop many questions. Such as, what difference would it make if the instructor did or didn’t make a virtual persona? Would it make a difference at all? Is there really anything that the overall accomplishments can be based on or is it a mind over matter situation? There are still many unanswered questions, and further research that needs to be done on this argument overall. One can further the research by simply taking an instructor and making them do everything by the code. By setting up an organized homepage, picking influential colors, and building a very caring, involved persona. Then to take a wide variety of students and measure their overall grades on the persona of the instructor to see if those specific factors made a difference.

In spite of this, my overall reason is that you don’t have to necessarily have that instructor, student interaction to determine your ultimate grade and motivation. You see I had every reason to not have passed the class, but did I use any excuses? No, I used every reason to get the work done. My motivation to pass the class outweighed the lack of effort my instructor gave. I did have that self-discipline, and with being a teen mom I had no other choice. Not to say I’m blaming every aspect of the outcome on the student and not too little on the instructor; yet the students’ persona outweighs the instructor’s persona and that is still unanswered as in how much does it outweigh the instructor’s persona. After a while I realized that it boils down to what you want out of life, and to what extent you want to accomplish.

Works Cited

Baran, Evrim, Ann Thompson, and Denise Lindstrom. "The Emerging Persona of Online Teachers." Journal of Digital Learning in Teacher Education (International Society for Technology in Education) 27.4 (2011): 127. Education Research Complete. Web. 27 Jul 2015.

"Cyber-Bullied Clients Invent Online Persona With No Disabilities." Learning Disability Practice 17.3 (2014): 6. CINAHL Plus with Full Text. Web. 27 Jul 2015.

Deimann, Markus, and Theo Bastiaens. "The Role of Volition in Distance Education: An Exploration of Its Capacities." International Review Of Research In Open And Distance Learning 11.1 (2010): 1-16. ERIC. Web. 31 Jul 2015.

Dennen, Vanessa Paz. "Presence and Positioning As Components of Online Instructor Persona." Journal of Research on Technology in Education (International Society for Technology in Education) 40.1 (2007): 95-108. Computer Source. Web. 23 Jul 2015.

Fieseler, Christian, Miriam Meckel, and Giulia Ranzini. "Professional Personae - How Organizational Identification Shapes Online Identity in the Workplace." Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication 20.2 (2015): 153-170. Communication & Mass Media Complete. Web. 23 Jul 2015.

Johnston, Joyce P. "Power and Persona: Constructing an Online Voice for Professionals." International Journal of

Technology, Knowledge & Society 7.2 (2011): 89-100. Academic Search Complete. Web. 23 Jul 2015.

Karambelas, Devin. "Study: Students Prefer Real Classrooms over Virtual." USA Today. 11 Jun 2013. Web.

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