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Considering teaching online?

Here are some tips:

  • Try to foster a connection between teacher and student for the student to be successful. This can be accomplished with a face-to-face orientation, e-mails or Skype.
  • Take an online course, if you’ve never done so, and incorporate engaging elements into your own lessons. (Online driving school doesn’t count!)
  • Maximize the use of discussion boards, so all students have a voice.
  • Customize curriculum that engages all types of learning styles.
  • Be flexible and make allowances for “technical difficulties” due to students working from home.
  • For K-12 students, involve parents so they are supportive and help keep their child on track.
  • Don’t bombard learners with materials; break down courses into manageable modules.
  • Provide constant feedback, so students don’t feel as though they are working in a vacuum.
  • Manage learners’ expectations, so they know what is expected from them. Sometimes a 5-10 minute webcast can be created and shown at the beginning of a new class or module.
  • Keep a separation between your work and your home, even if there is no physical separation. Students may e-mail you at midnight, but you don’t need to respond instantly.
  • Facilitate online discussions by being the “guide on the side” rather than the “sage on the stage.” Don’t respond to every student post; instead, encourage student-to-student interaction.
  • At the end of each course module, use a survey tool to get student feedback and update the next course by implementing suggestions as needed.

(Sources: Kelly McAllister, Anne Guptill and other CTA members interviewed for this feature, and Renee Robbins of www.learningputty.com.)



Volume 16 Issue 5 February 2012

Print

When teaching is a virtual challenge

By Sherry Posnick-Goodwin

image

Andrew Wong in his CSU East Bay office.

Andrew Wong had no formal training in online teaching, but that didn’t stop him from teaching online anthropology courses at CSU East Bay and creating his own curriculum from scratch. Wong embraced the new form of teaching and now prefers it to traditional classroom instruction.

“Online teaching encouraged me to become more creative,” says Wong, a California Faculty Association member. “Creativity means developing activities that encourage learning with different technological tools. You can encourage students to interact with each other with discussion boards and have them respond to each other’s posts; you can blog and engage students with material; you can have students create websites and podcasts depending upon how comfortable they are with technology.”

A good online class, says Wong, is more than just “converting” materials from face-to-face courses into an online format.

“You have to think about different ways and activities that help develop higher-order thinking skills, so that you are not just imparting information, you are allowing students to creatively use the information you give them.”

Wong took a few online teaching workshops and talked to other online teachers before trying it himself. Now, after years of online teaching, he is receiving formal training. Wong is enrolled in the Online Teaching and Learning Certificate program at UC San Diego taught by CFA member Anne Guptill, who also teaches at CSU East Bay — but Wong found it cheaper to enroll through the San Diego campus.

Online learning certificate programs are offered at about a dozen colleges in California. CSU East Bay is the only public university with a master’s program, says Guptill. After taking four virtual classes to receive an online certificate, students can take six additional classes to earn a master’s degree.

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Related Tags: Volume 16 Issue 5, Educator, Inside Educator, Educator Feature, Curriculum, Online, Higher Education, Networking, Teaching, Technology,

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