ONLINE TEACHING

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ONLINE TEACHING
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ROLE OF INSTRUCTOR

• The instructor functions as a facilitator in a
  student-centered environment.
• It is essential that you create a supportive,
  caring environment.
• Believe in the online environment and communicate
  that belief to your students.
• You need to be flexible, encouraging and
  positive.
• You need to organize and sequence the content.
• You need to modify the content for your students.
• Pace the material in a fashion that students will
  not be overwhelmed.

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• Your participation in the course will impact your
  students.
• You will set the tone for the quality of work
  submitted, the amount of interaction and the
  kinds of interactions you students experience,
  their attitude to the online experience, and, to
  a great degree, their success.

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Pace

• Initially, it will take students longer to
  complete tasks than in the traditional
  environment. Learning new skills, working
  independently, working in isolation, adding an
  additional class to a full schedule are all
  factors that will impact on your students.
• Adjust your content accordingly. You may find
  that you need to reduce the content, the number
  of assignments, or the manner in which material
  is presented.

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ESTABLISHING A ROUTINE

• Students need to know that they must log on each
  day.
• Students need to know that they must read all the
  announcements each day.
• Students need to know that they must read their
  emails and respond to instructor inquiries.
• Students need to know that if they have any
  questions, they should contact the instructor or

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• ask other students for help. Stress that
  students can sometimes work the problem out
  themselves if they take the time.
• Students need to know that technological problems
  will arise, but that work can still be completed.
  How can this be achieved? If possible, work
  with another student, have the instructor or
  another student send the information, omit the
  lesson, work on a following lesson, get
  instructor permission to substitute the lesson.
• You may want to have a hard copy lesson ready for
  such an occasion.

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• If students do encounter problems, they need to
  inform the instructor.
• Students need to know that if they cannot contact
  the instructor by email (technological problems)
  there are alternative methods. They could phone
  or fax the instructor. This is not an excuse for
  inactivity.
• Office hours must be established. When will you
  be available? Online?

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PREPARING YOUR STUDENTS

• Email students and provide them with their logon
  and password.
• Ensure that they are aware of the technical
  requirements.
• Provide mini lessons on the platform being used
  to deliver the course i.e. blackboard.
• Students demonstrate knowledge of email,
  discussion board, digital drop box (could be fun
  if you made it into a game).
• Students review Course Information, particularly,
  length, materials required, technology required,
  classroom procedures.

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• As part of your preparation, you may want to
  discuss with your students the kinds of skills
  they will need to succeed in an online
  environment.
• Some topics might include attitude,
  self-motivation, time commitment, technological
  experience, written communication skills, etc.
• It is also a good idea to discuss the role of the
  instructor. What are their expectations? Are
  they reasonable?

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PREPARING YOUR PLATFORM

• The instructor needs to be familiar with the
  teaching platform which is currently blackboard.
• The instructor must preplan which areas of the
  platform will be used.
• For beginning instructors and online learners,
  the fewer areas used, the better.

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• A beginning assignment should focus on the
  platform being used. Keep the tasks short.
• The instructor should provide students with a
  summary of each of the platform areas. What can
  your students expect to find in Course Documents,
  Assignments, Discussion Board, etc. It is
  critical that the students know how to maneuver
  through the platform.
• Have each student navigate through the content
  areas.
• Have each student navigate through the
  communication areas. They could post a
  discussion

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• board entry, check their email address, etc.
• It is important to begin with an easier
  assignment, both content wise and technology
  wise. Students need to learn new skills and need
  to experience success, not frustration and
  failure.
• Often first assignment is a biography. If
  discussion board is used to submit bios then all
  the students can read the bios and respond to
  them. If desired, students can attach photos.

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• Bio assignment has been a successful group
  interaction assignment. Be sure to model by
  submitting your own bio.
• It will generally take students two to three
  weeks to become familiar with the online
  environment.

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INTRODUCTORY ACTIVITIES

• Online Bio
• Map of Sk
• Student Interviews Another Member of the Class
  and Introduces Them
• What other activities could be used?

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Content

• Divide the content into modules.
• Provide clear deadlines.
• Assignments should be simple and clear.
• Lectures should be brief.
• Dialogue should be fostered.
• Limit the amount of content visible to your
  students, while still allowing for those students
  who would benefit from working ahead, an
  advantage of the online environment.

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• Stagger assignment dates.
• Vary the activities. Intersperse lectures with
  discussions and assignments.
• Provide outlets for a wide range of views and
  interests.

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CLASSROOM GUIDELINES

• You may want to establish your classroom
  guidelines (rules/procedures) with your students
  however, some important aspects to cover are
• The difference between emails and discussion
  board postings. When should each be used?
• Netiquette Usage, content, sentence structure,
  tone, etc. What is appropriate?
• If you encounter unacceptable behavior, you must
  address this immediately. Use private email or a
  phone call.

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• Set deadlines for assignments, post in the
  calendar, and remind students through the
  announcements.
• Emphasize time management and the necessity of
  logging on each day.

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CONTACT PERSON

• Maintain frequent contact with the school contact
  people.
• Allow contact people a TA status.
• Dont forget that cyber students have parents!
• You may want to send an informational letter to
  parents.

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KEYS TO SUCCESS

• Create a supportive and caring environment.
• Frequent communication with the students is the
  key. Use email, announcements, the contact
  teacher, the phone. Students need to feel that
  you are there, that you are checking up on them,
  that you care, that you are aware.
• It can be tempting for some students to ignore
  the invisible instructor. If you have not heard
  from a student in some time, call them.
• Students need to be aware of their progress and
  the evaluation process used. Evaluations should
  be

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• posted frequently.
• Provide students with a list of assignments
  received and those still outstanding.
• Provide students with your grading policies.
• If student participation is expected, clearly
  outline the regulations. How will you grade
  student participation? How often do students
  have to submit contributions? Respond to
  contributions?
• Publicly praise quality work. Refer students to
  such work. Doing so will provide students with a
  reference point for the quality of work that you
  expect.

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• Provide feedback that will continue the learning
  process.
• Light touches of humor are always appreciated.
  newsony_1.pps
• Periodically have students evaluate the learning
  environment organization of material, interest
  level, clarity, diversity, content, relevance of
  material, instructor accessiblity, instructor
  feedback, etc.
• Learn from your mistakes.

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Teaching Strategies

• Lectures
• Discussion Board
• Group Projects
• Virtual Classroom Instructor led, student led
• White Board
• Learning Contracts
• Assignments
• Internet Searches
• Web Articles
• Videos, Newspaper, Books, Texts

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• Demonstrations
• Debates
• Interviews
• Weekly summaries
• Audio
• Guest Speakers
• CD-ROMs

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CREATING INTERACTION

• Discussion Boards and Virtual Classrooms are
  excellent tools for generating discussion and
  interaction in the online classroom.
• Discussion Boards are an asynchronous tool.
• The Virtual Classroom or Chat is a synchronous
  tool.
• Both can be implemented successfully as a
  response to teacher generated discussion
  questions/topics, student generated
  questions/topics, tutorial sessions, etc.

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Discussion Board Tips

• Identify netiquette
• Identify the number of entries required
• Require students to read all entries
• Require students to respond to a set number of
  entries
• Focus on a specific topic
• Facilitate the discussion
• Participate in the discussion
• Provide feedback
• Encourage

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• It is not necessary to respond to every student
  posting.
• Instructor and students should not use the
  discussion board for confidential postings.
• Be specific in how you would like students to
  identify postings. This can save you time when
  looking for specific entries.
• If you feel that certain students are dominating
  the discussion, ask specific students for their
  responses.

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CHAT TIPS

• Be sure that students have Java enabled browsers.
• Notify students about the session to ensure
  attendance.
• Offer more than one scheduled time slot.
• Limit the number of participants. Small groups
  keeps the conversation manageable.
• Identify netiquette.
• Facilitate the chat.
• Focus on a specific topic.
• Keep the posts short one to three sentences.
• Address participants by name.

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• If students are unable to participate in a chat
  session, require them to view the transcripts.
• Guest speakers can be invited to join a chat.
  Students may prepare questions before hand.
• Chat may used by the instructor and an individual
  student to conference, to review, to clarify, to
  quiz, etc.

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ACRONYMS

• btw by the way
• imho in my humble opinion
• lol laughing out loud
• brb be right back
• kotc kiss on the check
• rotfl rolling on the floor, laughing
• ttfn ta ta for now
• ttyl talk to you later

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EMOTICONS

• ?
• ?

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STUDENT RESPONSES

• For course content, I thought it was very
  informative, however, there could be less of it.
• Directions were usually clear, sometimes, it was
  a little tough to understand exactly what to do,
  but you can fix that by just giving more student
  examples.
• One of the bad things about it is that sometimes
  when reading I get distracted easily.
• I think the course is set up well, but I dont
  think that Ill ever take another course like it.
  I just dont like this way of learning. Id
  much rather discuss in a class than over the
  computer.

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• I find it difficult to stay on task because I get
  bored quickly.
• The only thing I dont like is that you cant get
  the answer to a question immediately, instead you
  have to wait until the next day.
• The content was very informative, but repetitive.
• The feedback was adequate, but sometimes needed
  to be repeated after a better understanding of
  what was going on.
• I would have liked more calendar postings with
  definite deadlines to work through the material
  quicker.

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• I thought you were a very good instructor because
  you answered our questions thoroughly and were
  very helpful.
• I liked the interactive activities in the course.
  It was interesting to see other peoples
  opinions about topics posted in the bulletin
  board. I didnt feel isolated at all because I
  could talk to anybody in the room if I wanted to.
  However, if I were to do the course online at
  home by myself, then I would probably like more
  interactive activities. I think it would be cool
  to have a chat room.

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• You were very interested in our progress, and how
  we were doing, and that was good. Most of the
  time you were accessible, and would usually reply
  to our questions in at least a day, either
  privately or on the bulletin board. It was hard
  to continue with an assignment when we needed you
  right away, but we knew that would happen when we
  got involved in the course.
• It was very informative, pretty interesting, and
  there was just enough information given to us.
  The look of the course was kind of drab and
  boring, but that didnt really have an impact on
  the learning, I dont think.

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• There were some things I missed from the
  classroom, but also a lot of new things that were
  fun too. It was an excellent learning
  experience, and I am definitely glad I did this.
• I would take another distance ed course if it
  were offered in the right subject.
• I think that what I like best about this class is
  that I can go at my own pace and its more
  independent.
• I would like to speed up the course by working
  further. I dislike being bogged down, waiting
  for the next opportunity to work.

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• I like being able to work at my own pace and not
  have to listen to lectures, but rather go over
  material on my own.
• Its a lot different teaching yourself something,
  but it gets easier as you get used to it.

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Time Saving Tips

• Provide the following information to your
  students attendance policies, course goals,
  required materials, posting requirements,
  procedures, frequently asked questions,
  submission of assignments, summary of platform
  areas, etc.
• http//elara.sasked.gov.sk.ca8080/bin/common/cour
  se.pl?course_id_11_1frametop
• Post student questions about procedure, content
  clarification, etc., so that other members of the
  class will be aware, thus saving you the time to
  repeat the message to many individual students.
  Add questions and explanations to your FAQ page.

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• Edit instructions, materials, etc. when you
  recognize that students are not understanding.
• Ask students to inform you of any dead links or
  interactions that do not work.
• Gather student data immediately, including
  school, contact, home phone, email address, etc.

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QUESTIONS

• What about cheating online?
• How much time does take it take to instruct
  online?
• Who handles inappropriate behavior?
• Am I allowed to expel students?
• How do I evaluate in the online environment?

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INTERNET SITES

• www.odyssey.on.ca/elaine.coxon/rubrics.htm
• lhttp//www.sasked.gov.sk.ca/curr_content/math30/N
  avigate/Navigate1.htm
• http//www.sasked.gov.sk.ca/curr_content/native30/
  introc.html
• http//www.sasked.gov.sk.ca/curr_content/science10
  /intro/intrcont.html

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• http//wblrd.sk.ca/inst_methods.html
• http//wblrd.sk.ca/cels_check.html
• http//www.sasked.gov.sk.ca/curr_content/saskatoon
  pd/wq3/index.htm