The 2009 Sloan Survey of Online Learning reveals that online enrollments rose by nearly 17 percent from the previous year. The survey of more than 2,500 colleges and universities…
There are two common assumptions about teaching online that can sink even the most well-meaning neophyte. One is that “teaching is teaching” regardless of whether it’s face-to-face or online…
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For a Successful Online Teaching and Learning Experience: Communicate
February 5, 2010 Lawrence Ragan PhD.
Regardless of the size of course enrollments, the key to a successful teaching and learning experience for both the learner and instructor is communication. Clearly defining and communicating the…
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Instructor or Professor, It's Not Your Title but What You Do That's Important
January 28, 2010 Errol Craig Sull
In a recent conversation, an online teaching colleague complained that her school had wrongly listed her as “adjunct instructor,” rather than “adjunct professor,” in its faculty roster. “That term…
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Best Practices in Online Teaching: Don’t Assume
January 18, 2010 Lori Norin and Tim Wall
We want our students to learn what we have to teach them. We want them to retain it. In the best case, we want them to enjoy the work,…
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Here are a few tips to ensure your students have a positive online learning experience. Personal introductions. By using the personal introductions of students, an instructor can get to…
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Utter the words “group project” and you’re likely to hear at least a few groans from your students. The reasons for their dislike of group work are many, but…
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Should You Let Students Lead Discussion Boards?
December 11, 2009 Joan Thormann PhD.
Several years ago, a colleague suggested that having students lead discussions in the online classroom would be a good idea. I agreed and searched the literature for research on…
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Keep Your Classes on Track During the Holidays
December 1, 2009 Errol Craig Sull
This time of year is always one of the most difficult times for students to focus on their studies. In the online classroom it can be an especially challenging…
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Some students are reluctant to enroll in online courses, afraid they will miss some of the social aspects of the face-to-face classroom. For these students, it makes sense to…
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Questioning Styles for More Effective Discussion Boards
November 20, 2009 Rob Kelly
Meaningful online discussions that promote learning and build community usually do not happen spontaneously. They require planning, good use of questioning techniques, and incentives for student participation.
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In order to be part of an effective learning community, online learners need to feel the presence of the instructor and fellow learners. Jane Dwyer, a senior lecturer at…
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Taking a Learner-Centered Approach in Online Courses
November 10, 2009 Errol Craig Sull
One of the biggest changes in recent years has been the adoption of student-centered instruction. Here are a few tips for taking this approach to teaching in your online…
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'Managing Online Education' Study Sheds New Light on the Operations Side of Online Programs
November 9, 2009 Mary Bart
A survey of senior campus officials responsible for managing online and distance education programs revealed some interesting findings, including almost half of the participants not knowing whether their program…
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The following tips from Susan Ko, director of the Center for Teaching and Learning at the University of Maryland University College, will help you maintain course quality and interaction…
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One instructor’s study of student participation in online discussions in two of his asynchronous online courses over a five-year period has yielded some interesting results that have influenced how…
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How do you motivate online learners? It’s an age-old question that continues to stump online instructors as well as the managers of distance education programs trying to solve the…
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Everyone wants a blueprint for managing their distance education program, but sometimes the best thing to do may be to throw away the old business model and begin thinking…
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Understanding the Instructor’s Role in Facilitating Online Discussions
October 19, 2009 Michelle Everson PhD.
In my classroom-based courses I have always valued discussion as a powerful learning tool that provides students with opportunities to explain their reasoning and understanding, learn different perspectives and…
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In Faculty Development, Online Education
Understanding What’s Needed for Online Teaching Success
October 12, 2009 Mary Bart
Larry Ragan, director of faculty development for Penn State World Campus, may have given a new spin to the old expression “If you don’t know where you’re going, any…
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In Educational Assessment, Online Education
Using Self-Check Exercises to Assess Online Learning
October 9, 2009 Patti Shank PhD CPT
The intermediate statistics class I took quite a number of years ago had two types of learners at the outset—those who were worried about passing the course and those…
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Institutions of higher education nearly always feel a budgetary crunch, and this holds true for online programs. However, the costs of running a successful online program run far beyond…
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Reaching Online Students with Learning Disabilities
September 30, 2009 Mary Bart
Students with disabilities are drawn to online courses for many of the same reasons as everyone else, but it’s often the anonymity that makes learning online particularly attractive to…
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Using Screencasting to Engage and Build Community with Online Learners
September 23, 2009 Jacqueline Mangieri PhD.
In the online classroom, faculty work hard to engage their distance learners and build a strong sense of academic community in the electronic setting. Screencasting can be an effective…
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A Modular Course Design Benefits Online Instructor and Students
September 15, 2009 Rob Kelly
Andrea Henne, dean of online and distributed learning in the San Diego Community College District, recommends creating online courses composed of modules—discrete, self-contained learning experiences—and uses a course development…
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In Online Education, Teaching and Learning
PICM Feedback Model Helps Keep Online Students Motivated
September 9, 2009 Elwin Jones
In an online learning environment, it’s easy for students to feel isolated or unsure of themselves, particularly if they’re adult students who’ve been away from school for a long…
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Online Course Management: Overcoming the Challenges of “Anytime” Learning
September 4, 2009 Lawrence Ragan PhD.
Although the online classroom environment provides tremendous flexibility of time and place of study, establishing and communicating a course pace and pattern of work can aid both instructor and…
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The initial design of your course will have a big impact on how much time and effort will be required to update it in the future. Here are some…
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I have always enjoyed teaching in the classroom environment. There is something special about watching a student’s eyes light up as a new concept changes perceptions. When I first…
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11 Tips for Setting the Tone in Your Online Course
August 27, 2009 Errol Craig Sull
The cliché that you only get one chance to make a first impression is especially true when you teach online. Each item you post—email, discussion message, announcement, etc.—must be…
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Online instruction invariably requires more time for logistics than does face-to-face instruction due to interaction needs, extraneous cognitive load (mental effort needed to attend to non-content-related course elements), and…
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Despite numerous studies that show that students prefer instant messaging to email, initiating communication with students via IM is not necessarily the best way to go, according to the…
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Well, it’s that time again: summertime, and thus more online instructors are on the road and that means your indispensible umbilical cord to the classroom will also be coming:…
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Shortcomings of an online course are not always obvious to the person who created it or teaches it. That is why it is helpful to seek other sources of…
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The online learning environment offers great potential for individualized learning. One way to achieve this is through adaptive hypermedia—using learner use patterns to adapt course presentation, navigation, and content…
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At the heart of every online course is the discussion forum. This is where ideas, information, and new material are shared, discussed, analyzed, built upon, etc. In many ways,…
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Online instructors receive poor evaluations for any number of reasons, including lack of experience, inadequate training, and poor communication skills. Other times, the poor reviews are more reflective of…
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It’s not easy to get unanimous agreement on anything these days, but on this most educators can agree: An instructor’s personality impacts student learning; More is learned in a…
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Student participation is perhaps the biggest challenge of teaching online courses, says Deborah Raines, professor and director of the Accelerated Second-Degree BSN Program at Florida Atlantic University. Part of…
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“There is no personal interaction between student and teacher…the spontaneity of teaching is lost…the only rapport exists in exchanging bits and bytes of info.” Perhaps you’ve heard someone make…