1. Be present at the course
For example, learners want to know if the instructor is there for them. They want to see or hear through audio or video messages. Try group discussions in a forum; time-released announcements such as reminders on due dates, suggestions or inspiration; audio/video mini-lectures made on our smartphones, virtual office hours, and use social media such as Twitter (to send tweets out)
2. Create a supportive online course community.
Three types of resources:
- Module introductions and mini-lectures in text, video, or podcasts
- Announcements that remind, coach, suggest, inspire
- Explanations and interactions with learners by email, forums, and live classroom events
For example, I may do a mini introduction on the course or concepts, send out an email or tweet to remind the due date of the next assignment and then interact with the students and discuss their marked submissions by email.
3. Develop a set of explicit workload and communication expectations for your learners and yourself
With regards to expectations of the course, according to the book, as a rule of thumb:
- 15-week online course, 6 hours per week of productive learning time is a minimum
- 8-week course, 12 hours per week of productive learning time is a minimum
For example, let your learners know what your expectations are and when you are available. I let all my learners know that I tend to sleep in the wee hours of the morning (Like 3 or 4am). Therefore, I will respond to emails within 24 hours once receiving it. I could also set up a dedicated time and day for a virtual office where I can be available by email, Skype, chat or live classrooms, text messaging, by phone (ie. Elizabeth C. at Royal Roads was really good at that, every Thursday from 9am – 11am)
4. Use a variety of large group, small group, and individual work experiences.
For example,
- Individual work:
working on journals, reflections, blogs - Small group:
working on problem-solving scenarios such as the eLearning Tools - Large group:
planning large group activities such as a virtual conference (a TedTalk conference), real-time brainstorming, presenting and project planning
5. Use synchronous and asynchronous activities.
Asynchronous: This refers to activities or interactions that are done at different times. Learners do not have to be present at a particular given time to be a part of these activities. For example, our online discussions.
Synchronous: These activities and interactions require the learners to be present at the same time online. For example, Chats and Skype meetings are two examples of this type of online interaction.
6. Ask for informal feedback early in the term.
For example, early feedback online (Google Forms works like a charm) surveys or informal discussions from learners to provide any indications on what is working well for the course, what needs to be changed. This is good to be done earlier in the course (I have done this by the second or third class) so that I have time to change this for the current session.
Each course may have a different set of students, so, one thing may work well, and others it may not. In the past, I have used this form halfway through a course (Google Form) but realized I need to know the feedback sooner than later. I would need to consolidate this form for future use.
7. Prepare discussion posts that invite responses, questions, discussions, and reflections.
A good example was for the VCC Media Enhanced course of BC PID:
- where it was a required that we log-in into the discussions forum every week, to answer or ask a question that relates to the course
- support classmates in their reflections and inquires
- social interaction and community building
- encourage critical or creative thinking
- ask questions if something needs clarification
8. Think digital for all course content
For example, this is an online course, so all course material must be digital, I should consider the use of:
- videos
- podcasts
- PDFs
- graphics (content maps, tables, images, workflows)
- ebooks
- online discussions
- blogs
- forums
- use of social media such as Twitter, Facebook
- use of Google suite (aka Forms, Docs, Drive)
- wikis
9. Combine core concept learning with customized and personalized learning.
Briefly, this practice requires faculty, as part of their course design process prior to the course, to identify the core concepts, questions, and performance goals for a course. Then during the course, a faculty’s responsibility is to mentor learners through a set of increasingly complex and customized questions problems, and projects to help learners apply these core concepts and develop their own knowledge structures.
10. Plan a good closing and wrap activity for the course.
It’s crunch time for the learners and instructors. A mad rush to finish the required submissions for the learners and for the instructor, to mark and provide constructive feedback on those final submissions.
As instructors, we need to remember the core concepts and fundamental principles within their final presentations, synopsis, essays and summaries. Bring this back into the projects (for example, designing a style guide, talk about the use of colour theory, typography, layout such as negative space)
For more tips, pages 277-304 of The Online Teaching Survival Guide (self-note to myself!)
Tips on course wraps:
Meaningful Projects and Presentations:
- Using what-if scenarios: Flexing our minds with possibilities
- Stage three of a learning community: Stimulating and comfortable camaraderie
- Learners as Leaders
- Course wrappings with concept mapping: Capturing course content meaningfully
- Using case studies in online courses: Making content real
Preparing for the Course Wrap:
- Pausing, reflecting, and pruning strategies
- Closing experiences: Wrapping up a course with style
- Real-time closing gatherings: Stories and suggestions
Debriefing techniques: What one change would students recommend?
Distribute assessment throughout the course such as the value and importance of assignments, project milestones and other course contribution and participation. Other suggestions would be to have small teams collaborating on projects and have them do a peer review on one another; give different options to demonstrate knowledge too (since in my field it isn’t papers, I could get students to create a poster, website, wiki, blog, animation, video, style guide, presentations)
A best practice in the first week of the course is to assign your students a task to read the section, review the learning outcomes, and identify the ones that make the most sense to them; then, to customize the personalize some of the learning outcomes.
13. Develop and use a content frame for the course
A Content Frame is a visual representation (an outline) of the content of a reading selection. This tool helps students uncover the organization of a text document, to divide the document into its component sections, and to perceive the relationships between these sections (how the sections combine to form the single narrative of the document).
This strategy works best with documents that are highly structured and that provide clear indicators of this structure in the text. It teaches students to look for obvious visual clues to a reading organization: headings, subheadings, introductions, summaries, and topic sentences. Students learn to “extract” the outline (content frame) of the document by piecing together these visual clues.
Steps to Content Frames:
- Read a selected text aloud with the class. Ask students to interrupt the process whenever they confront an organizational clue.
- Write the suggested clues to the side of the chalkboard. Continue this process until the reading is complete.
- Have students discuss the suggested organizational clues, eliminating the unnecessary and refining the rest to better reflect the author’s intention and structure.
- Complete the exercise by migrating the refined list of structural clues into a “content frame” or document outline. Write this final outline in the center of the chalkboard.
(Beacon Educator, 2005-2018, para. 1-6)
14. Design experiences to help learners make progress on their novice-to-expert journey
Best practice views students as learners working their way along a path from novice to expert. For example, I need to introduce and identify the core concepts and foundations of design such as colour theory, typography and layout.
Set competency goals that link the learning outcomes to the development of expertise such as using wireframes (analog and digital), mockups, prototypes, style guides. More or less, my goal is to prepare the students to have no skills to be at least intermediate or advanced in the course, to feel confident and ready for the new career in web development.
References
Boettcher, Judith V., Conrad, Rita-Marie (2016) The Online Teaching Survival Guide (2nd ed.). San Francisco: Jossey-BassBeacon Educator (2005-2018). Content Frame. Retrieved March 09, 2018, from http://www.readingeducator.com/strategies/frame.htm