Teaching online involves more than knowing the university LMS. It involves knowing how best to deliver content, keep students engaged, employ group work or peer reviews, and even how to construct your course so that every student can learn successfully. The resources provided below are by no means exhaustive, but they are a great place to start building your teaching online skills.
“We can enter into deep engagement with people online — we just need to bring some of those practices into the classroom.”
Flower Darby, Small Teaching Online, 2019
Teaching Online Toolkit
How will my course work remotely? While not all teaching methods are represented here, it is our goal to give you ideas and tools on how to make the best transition to good teaching online. We are also here to help.
Best Practices in Online Teaching
Teaching Online is more than just knowing your LMS. It is creating presence, community, teaching, and transferring your already good classroom practices into the virtual classroom. Here are some tips on how to do just that.
Grading
Grading for the virtual classroom can be daunting. Best practices suggest that grading virtually and grading hard-copy assignments will contain the same important qualities. What are those qualities, and how do you use technology in ways that produce those qualities?
Group Work Online
Do you use groups in your face-to-face classroom? Options such as Team-Based Learning, person-to-person collaborations, Reading Graphic Organizer small groups, and Jigsaw can all be re-created for the online environment. Here’s how…
Organizing a Course
By providing students with clear and organized structure in your online course, you help to mitigate logistical questions your students may have concerning where an assignment is located, when a due date is, where they can find your course readings, etc. Here are some ways to get started or to check that you are doing a great job already.
Peer Review
Students need feedback on their work in order to improve. While instructor feedback is valuable, asking students to respond to each other’s work, including writing, video projects and other assignments, provides opportunities for before-the-deadline feedback without increasing the instructor’s workload.
Teachers Noticing Teachers (TNT) Online – Videos
Teachers Noticing Teachers is a program of peer mentoring designed to allow professors to observe the teaching of a particularly accomplished colleague. Although many of the TNT participants are themselves extremely accomplished teachers, they become enthusiastic, inquisitive and probing students observing other teachers. During the Spring 2020 term, PLNU’s need to move to online courses spurred the idea to have TNT Online, with faculty sharing what they have been doing that is fresh, innovative, engaging, and just plain good teaching in the online classroom.
Teach Through Video Series with Dr. Jacob Goodin
Kinesiology Professor, Dr. Jacob Goodin, is CTL’s 2021-22 Hadley Fellow, and he has been creating his own video lecture content for a while. Goodin has refined his video pedagogy in a way that truly enhances student learning for both face-to-face and online classes. Students like having this content available 24/7 for study and review. Through this Teach Through Video Series, Goodin will demonstrate how to create engaging teaching videos.
Team-Based Learning
Team-Based Learning is an evidence based collaborative learning teaching strategy designed around units of instruction, known as “modules,” that are taught in a three-step cycle: preparation, in-class readiness assurance testing, and application-focused exercise. A class typically includes one module. Find out how some professors are transitioning their Team-Based Learning to an online format.
Techniques for Teaching Online – Training Videos
The following videos were recorded from webinars and training sessions with PLNU faculty and instructional designers. They contain a variety of topics. For further details about the Host or Presenters, for a larger view, or closed captioning, please view in YouTube.
Tips for Accommodations Online
While building our classes online, let’s keep in mind how to allow for academic accommodations and the provision of accessible content for students with disabilities. Thankfully, we live in an age where these accommodations are largely available to us. Here are some ideas for how you can incorporate these accommodations into your online course:
Video and Audio Resources
I want to record lectures or instructional videos for my students. How do I get started? What are the best equipment options for me while creating this virtual classroom? What are some best practices for making lecture videos for my class? What resources are accessible to me?