Organizational have often used various positioning strategies to determine their relative strength in their respective marketplaces. One such strategy is to measure an organizations strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. This strategy is commonly referred to in the business realm as SWOT. The SWOT schema focuses on two primary categories: internal and external. The strength and weakness aspects of this matrix are internal measures focusing on an organizations capability. The threat and opportunity measurement concern the marketplace environment in which the organization operates. I believe we can tweak and apply this measurement to our position as online faculty.

We should periodically measure what our strengths are; perhaps we are excellent at providing timely feedback to essays we receive, or we have superlative abilities within the discussion forum. Likewise, we also need to measure areas of weakness; maybe we are not as diligent as we would like to be in grading in a timely manner, or perhaps we could improve our classroom management abilities. The central feature of this process is learning the areas in which we can leverage our advantages and improving in the areas in which we are somewhat lacking.

The external measurement of the SWOT matrix focuses on the external environment. Although in business terms this would refer to the competition and the marketplace, I believe we can refashion this measurement scheme to include our students. We should focus on the opportunities our students gain in participating in the online classroom as well as the threats they face from choosing to engage in this modality of education. Some potential opportunities include personal growth, learning a priori unknown skills and information, and connecting the material they learn in the classroom to their day-to-day functionality. However, we must also be cognizant of the threats ours students face. Such threats might include isolation in the online classroom, lack of integration of the material, lack of a support network, and issues pertaining to self-confidence to tackle new challenges.

By engaging in a SWOT analysis, we can better determine where our skill sets are strong and were we need to improve. We can additionally identify the possible opportunities our students have from being in our classrooms as well as the threats to their success. Through stepping back and reexamining our existence as online instructors we can gain a more holistic understanding of our position in the classroom - our strengths and weaknesses, how our students function as online learners - the opportunities and threats they may encounter, and develop strategies to advance our skill sets to improve the online milieu in which our students function. 

What do you think your SWOT

 looks like in the classroom?