The Online Teaching Survival Guide Chapters 3 & 4

The Online Teaching Survival GuideChapters 3 Felisa Isakson, Dorinda Davie, Tiffiny Federico, Daniel Magno, and Yvonne Mannion

Chapter 3: Ten Best Practices for Teaching Online

Best Practice 1: Be Present at the Course SitePresence is most important!Default expectation is that faculty are available 24/7. Develop clear policies Provide ample notice utilizing online announcements, discussion boards, and blogs.

Presence is most important, especially since the default expectation is that faculty are available 24/7. Satisfying this means establishing a sense of presence even when, realistically, you cant be there everyday.

Best Practice 1: Be Present at the Course Site (cont)This expectation DOES NOT equate to more work!Simulate presence without being present!Three types of presence:

SocialTeachingCognitive

This expectation DOES NOT equate to more work, there are ways to simulate presence without being present!Three types of presence: social, teaching, and cognitive (to be discussed in future chapters).

Best Practice 2: Create a supportive online course community.Emphasize building a community. Design a course with a balanced set of dialogue, namely:Faculty to Learner Learner to LearnerLearner to Resource

Reserve explication of these concepts for audio.

Best Practice 3: Develop set ofEXPLICIT EXPECTATIONS for your learners and yourself

You want specify how students will communicate with you and each other in class. policies regarding your response times. virtual office hours and/or overall availability. exactly how much time they should be dedicating to specific assignments.

You want to clearly specify

Best Practice 4: Use a variety of

Large GroupSmall GroupIndividualPractices

Variability adds to the enjoyment of the course since students have more discretion as to how they can approach their assignments. This usually translates in more creativity and promotes overall collaboration.

Similar to Best Practice 4, this adds a sense of variabilityFlexibility drives engagement of the course. Exposing students to these formats can spur creativity and innovation. Best Practice 5: Use synchronous and asynchronous activities.

SynchronousAsynchronous

Similar to Best Practice 4, this adds a new sense of variability that extends beyond group activities. Since the number of available synchronous and asynchronous online tools are nearly limitless, this flexibility could be leveraged to drive engagement of the course. Again, exposing students to tools they may not be accustomed to in a face-to-face classroom setting could spur creativity and innovation.

Best Practice 6: Ask for informal feedback early in the term.Asking for informal feedback by 3rd week (of a 15 week course). Consider asking questions such as:Whats working so far?What are some ways you would improve the course?What are you most unclear about?

Asking for informal feedback by 3rd week (of a 15 week course). This gives students and instructor opportunity to diagnose design issues early on.Consider asking questions such as:Whats working so far?What are some ways you would improve the course?What are you must unclear about?.

Best Practice 7: Prepare discussion posts that invite responses, questions, discussions, and reflections.The discussion board is the most important asset with regard to getting to know your students. It allows students to write out structured, reflective responses that may not be expressed in a face-to-face setting.

Above and beyond being a tool for assignments and exercises, the courses discussion board is the most important asset with regard to getting to know your students. The asynchronous nature of discussion boards is its greatest strength since it allows students to write out structured, reflective responses that may not be expressed in a face-to-face setting.Therefore, gear your questions to be open-ended and Socratic in nature.

Best Practice 8: Search out and use content resources available in digital format if possible.Digital availability has become an expectation. Digital copies of their textbooks. Library resources.Link your lessons to current events

Times have changed. We demand more mobility when accessing content, so digital availability has almost become an expectation. Therefore, look for digital alternatives for course material.Most publishers release digital copies of their textbooks. Library resources are also good to leverage.Lastly, try to link your lessons to current events so that students relate more to the material.

Best Practice 9: Combine core concept learning with customized and personalized learning.Faculty needs to identify the core concepts to be learned in a sourceperformance goals and learning outcomes guide and mentor learners through complex and customized learning activitieshelp learners apply core concepts and develop their own knowledge structures.

This means, faculty need to identify the core concepts to be learned in a source- the performance goals and learning outcomes- and then guide and mentor learners through a set of increasingly complex, personalized, and customized learning activities to help learners apply these core concepts and develop their own knowledge structures.

Best Practice 10: Plan a good closing and wrap activity for the course.This is the final stretch, - Develop a wrap-up activity that reflects on the core concepts and fundamental principles of the class.Good opportunity to gain insight into what your students took away from the course overall.Excellent time to use synchronous collaborative tools.

This is the time in the course that students begin to feel stressed with the final stretch, so its crucial to develop a wrap-up activity that reflects on the core concepts and fundamental principles of the class.This is also a good opportunity to gain insight into what your students took away from the course overall.Therefore, this would be an excellent time to use synchronous collaborative tools.

ConclusionTraditional face-to-face courses emphasize pushing content on learner. From that perspective, these types of course are faculty-centric. Emphasis is taken away from the interaction between students and the content.

Designing an online course recalibrates focus on that interaction. Faculty members ask questions as to how and why students learn. Online course design is then focused on the needs of the learner.

Traditional face-to-face courses emphasize pushing the content on the learner. From that perspective, these types of course designs are faculty-centric as emphasis is taken away from the interaction between students and the content.Designing an online course recalibrates focus on that nteraction, forcing faculty members to ask questions as to how and why students learn. Course design is then focused on the needs of the learner instead of the facultys agenda.