Reviews: Best Practices
Submitted by Lois Stanciak
I enjoyed reading the ways you will incorporate the best practices into your course. Good ideas. I liked the idea of Skype Chats, but I have not had much luck whit this. These, of course, are important because the attrition rate in Online courses is so very high, which is a major concern for instructors, professors, and trainers. Over the years, I have attempted to address all the best practices in my online teaching. I will share some comments with you.
Be Present at the Site –Posting in the syllabus or in the initial announcement that you will be available at specific times or get back to students within a 24 hour time period is a good way to do provide communication timelines. I had a student one time who emailed me at 2:00 am and then emailed me again at 8:00 am and was wondering why I did not get back to her. Because communication can be instantaneous, we need to set clear guidelines and expectation. When I first began teaching online, I made Sunday evenings the deadline for assignments, thinking that would give students more time to complete their assignments. Not a good idea, since most students are very busy (that is one of the reasons that they are taking online courses) and would begin their assignment on the weekend. Students would be upset because I was unavailable for guidance. Setting deadlines during the week is better so that if students wait until the last minute and do need assistance, you, as the teacher, will have access to the computer and Internet to provide assistance. If it is the weekend and you do not have access and students do need help, he/she will be both frustrated and disappointed.
Create a Supportive Online Course – Each teacher will have his/her own interpretation of what supportive does or does not mean. Providing reminders to students, responding to students need for assistance, commenting and providing immediate feedback to students, assisting when asked, and being fair and available are all positive ways to be supportive.
Share a set of very clear expectations – The clearer an instructor can be the better. Directions and explanations need to be very clear. Teachers or trainers need to set very specific guidelines and use your syllabus as a very specific contract. If you as a teacher want to emphasize meeting deadlines, then state clearly that “Late assignments are not eligible for credit;” if length is important to your discussion board posting, then identify the length that is acceptable. Rubrics are a good way to set clear expectations and guidelines.
Use a variety of group and individual experiences – Variety of instructional formats allows all students to find a comfort level. Learning management systems today allow so much more flexibility than previous ones. If and when using group work, it is important to design the assignment so that one student is doing all the work and the others are sharing in the credit. There needs to be both individual and group accountability. Group members need to be interdependent.
Use both synchronous and asynchronous activities and provide real time and flex time learning. – In theory this would be the best of all possible worlds. It offers the opportunity for real time interaction. Trying to arrange the time is a major issue because most of the online students are working full time or have other commitments that interfere with their ability to meet at specific times.
Early in term about week three ask for informal feedback – This week I will be asking all of you to provide feedback for the course. We are now midway through the semester and I would like to have feedback on how things are going. I do this all the time in my regular course and ask students what is and is not going well for them in the course. I am always amazed at how brutally honest students are in their feedback, which is a good thing. In other online courses, I do the same. Prepare discussion posts that invite questions, discussions, reflections, and responses.- The idea is to get students to think critically. Researchers have done a great deal of research on wait time in the classroom and have found that if a teacher asks a question and increases the wait time for the student response , the student will answer more completely and critically at a higher level of thinking. Some students just need more time to process the information.
Prepare discussion posts that invite questions, discussions, reflections, and responses. It is always smart to have any and all course material be relevant to students so they can see the importance of what you are covering and how it relates to them.
Combine core concepts learning with customized and personalized learning. Personalizing a course takes an inordinate amount of time. For those of us who teach, a student can answer a question in class or at the end of class and the teacher can answer the question with a meaningful, well developed response in seconds. Online when you give a response, you think through it carefully, write out the response, read the response for clarity and errors, reread it because you always catch a mistake, spell check your response, and finally send it ( save it as well). I always cc myself when responding to a student to make sure it was sent and the student received it. Many more steps are taken and it takes a lot more time.
Plan a good closing and wrap activity for the course. - Every course needs culminating activities.
I enjoyed reading the ways you will incorporate the best practices into your course. Good ideas. I liked the idea of Skype Chats, but I have not had much luck whit this. These, of course, are important because the attrition rate in Online courses is so very high, which is a major concern for instructors, professors, and trainers. Over the years, I have attempted to address all the best practices in my online teaching. I will share some comments with you.
Be Present at the Site –Posting in the syllabus or in the initial announcement that you will be available at specific times or get back to students within a 24 hour time period is a good way to do provide communication timelines. I had a student one time who emailed me at 2:00 am and then emailed me again at 8:00 am and was wondering why I did not get back to her. Because communication can be instantaneous, we need to set clear guidelines and expectation. When I first began teaching online, I made Sunday evenings the deadline for assignments, thinking that would give students more time to complete their assignments. Not a good idea, since most students are very busy (that is one of the reasons that they are taking online courses) and would begin their assignment on the weekend. Students would be upset because I was unavailable for guidance. Setting deadlines during the week is better so that if students wait until the last minute and do need assistance, you, as the teacher, will have access to the computer and Internet to provide assistance. If it is the weekend and you do not have access and students do need help, he/she will be both frustrated and disappointed.
Create a Supportive Online Course – Each teacher will have his/her own interpretation of what supportive does or does not mean. Providing reminders to students, responding to students need for assistance, commenting and providing immediate feedback to students, assisting when asked, and being fair and available are all positive ways to be supportive.
Share a set of very clear expectations – The clearer an instructor can be the better. Directions and explanations need to be very clear. Teachers or trainers need to set very specific guidelines and use your syllabus as a very specific contract. If you as a teacher want to emphasize meeting deadlines, then state clearly that “Late assignments are not eligible for credit;” if length is important to your discussion board posting, then identify the length that is acceptable. Rubrics are a good way to set clear expectations and guidelines.
Use a variety of group and individual experiences – Variety of instructional formats allows all students to find a comfort level. Learning management systems today allow so much more flexibility than previous ones. If and when using group work, it is important to design the assignment so that one student is doing all the work and the others are sharing in the credit. There needs to be both individual and group accountability. Group members need to be interdependent.
Use both synchronous and asynchronous activities and provide real time and flex time learning. – In theory this would be the best of all possible worlds. It offers the opportunity for real time interaction. Trying to arrange the time is a major issue because most of the online students are working full time or have other commitments that interfere with their ability to meet at specific times.
Early in term about week three ask for informal feedback – This week I will be asking all of you to provide feedback for the course. We are now midway through the semester and I would like to have feedback on how things are going. I do this all the time in my regular course and ask students what is and is not going well for them in the course. I am always amazed at how brutally honest students are in their feedback, which is a good thing. In other online courses, I do the same. Prepare discussion posts that invite questions, discussions, reflections, and responses.- The idea is to get students to think critically. Researchers have done a great deal of research on wait time in the classroom and have found that if a teacher asks a question and increases the wait time for the student response , the student will answer more completely and critically at a higher level of thinking. Some students just need more time to process the information.
Prepare discussion posts that invite questions, discussions, reflections, and responses. It is always smart to have any and all course material be relevant to students so they can see the importance of what you are covering and how it relates to them.
Combine core concepts learning with customized and personalized learning. Personalizing a course takes an inordinate amount of time. For those of us who teach, a student can answer a question in class or at the end of class and the teacher can answer the question with a meaningful, well developed response in seconds. Online when you give a response, you think through it carefully, write out the response, read the response for clarity and errors, reread it because you always catch a mistake, spell check your response, and finally send it ( save it as well). I always cc myself when responding to a student to make sure it was sent and the student received it. Many more steps are taken and it takes a lot more time.
Plan a good closing and wrap activity for the course. - Every course needs culminating activities.