Jody Ralph, College of Nursing, University of North Dakota
Heather Terrell, Department of Psychology, University of North Dakota
Bret Weber, Department of Social Work, University of North Dakota
The following 25 points came out of a recent Office of Instructional Develop, On Teaching Lunch Seminar entitled “What I wish I had Known Before Teaching my First Online Class” (pdf). The focus of the seminar was online teaching and this fantastic list emerged from the discussion.
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Bret Weber offered this brief introduction to his points (#20-25), but it also serves as a nice introduction to the entire list.
In many ways, good pedagogy is quite similar in both the ‘live’ classroom and more technologically dependent classes. At the same time, it is undoubtedly true that pedagogy and ‘learning delivery’ will change across the spectrum from graduate to undergraduate, small colloquiums to large lecture halls, professional programs to more academic courses, and even across disciplines, individual teaching styles, and unique class groups. Nonetheless, the following are ideas that need to be addressed in both online and face-to-face class settings, even if there are technical differences.
1. State the importance of self-directed learning from the beginning to reduce the expectation of “hand-holding.”
2. The educational background of online students tends to vary more than traditional classes and tends to be harder to assess. Consider posting an optional blog for Introductions to obtain some sense of their backgrounds.
3. For asynchronous courses, can post pre-recorded lectures and mp3 of audio portion.
4. Students may not have the computer programs that you think they do (Powerpoint, Adobe reader, etc.)
5. Students, especially rural, may have really poor internet connection (think about file size, synchronous meetings, etc).
6. Students generally complete proctored exams last-minute so you do not need to keep them open for weeks.
7. Some people will register for a class but are not ready to be a student. They assume that, because the course is online, they can simply cram it into their 60-hour work week.
8. Provide individual and group feedback (group feedback may save time and nobody feels picked on.)
9. Provide resources (online library resources, online tech support, smart thinking, etc.)
10. Ask for anonymous formative feedback either at the midpoint or several times throughout the semester… surveymonkey is one option. SGID can also be done online.
11. Don’t waste their time… many online students are busy adults…. very low tolerance level for anything perceived to be a waste of time.
12. Do NOT assume that an online course will be less work for you as an instructor. In my experience, it is more.
13. Making an online course “equivalent” to in-person instruction does not mean that the course can or should be “the same.” Making a course equivalent means that it meets the same goals and objectives. Think about your course objectives and choose the best tools to accomplish those objectives.
14. It may not be possible to replicate discussion in an online format in a way that mimics in-person discussion. Perhaps it is not necessary either. If the goal of discussion is internalization of concepts, this can be accomplished with other tools.
15. There are SO MANY resources available through CILT–take advantage of them.
16. On the other hand, keep it simple. Don’t feel like you have to use a lot of fancy tools just because you can. Use the tools that best accomplish your goals.
17. Publisher resources can be a godsend and a curse. There are many resources that can help students learn, but if you run into technical problems, CILT can’t help you.
18. Try to avoid teaching a new course for the first time online. In other words, if you have taught the course before, or have taught online before, this is a good thing. But if you have done neither, it’s really hard to have an overall sense of how the course should be structured.
19. Assume the course will be taught again with many more students, so that you don’t have to design it all over again.
20. Be accessible!
21. Include lots of ‘synchronous’ components (even if the class is asynchronous).
22. Consider lots of smaller ‘deadlines,’ even though you will need to be flexible.
23. Don’t be afraid to engage complex group projects.
24. Keep the course up-to-date (links, documents, deadlines)—and help yourself by avoiding redundancies.
25. Consider your online presence.
26. A final note: many of the programs commonly used in online courses only run on Windows. If you are a Mac user, plan accordingly.
Teaching Thursdays 
These are all good points! Thank you for these. I would also include the idea of ‘being real’. For online students, too often you can be simply a username, with no attendant humanity – and thus easy to unload on, be rude to, or otherwise mistreat… behavioral issues can be a problem in an online class, but if they at least recognize you (and the other students) as ‘real people’, you get fewer instances of it. In my online classes, I’d use Jing to record a little ‘about me’ video, to try to bridge that gap. Some other items I’d share with new faculty to online learning live here – http://electricarchaeologist.wordpress.com/2009/09/15/some-top-ten-tips-for-online-instructors/