Articles

Three Ways to Gauge the Quality of an Online Course

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 information to determine whether a course is meeting its objectives. Mary Hricko, library director and associate professor of library and media services at Kent State University Geauga Campus and Twinsburg Center, recommends doing this in the following three ways:

Rob Kelly July 28, 2009

Introverted Students in the Classroom: How to Bring Out Their Best

To promote learning, we encourage our students to be actively involved in class discussions by asking and answering questions. Even if we do not include

Tami Isaacs PhD. July 27, 2009

Online Design: Reaching Students Eight Different Ways

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 to suit individual students’ needs and preferences.

Rob Kelly July 24, 2009

Eight Tips for Facilitating Effective Online Discussion Forums

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,

Rebecca Owens July 23, 2009

Strategies for Preventing and Correcting Poor Faculty Evaluations

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 the course design than the instructor who’s teaching the course. That distinction is unimportant to the students.

Mary Bart July 22, 2009

Problem-solving Exercises that Promote Intellectual Development

In a Journal of Engineering Education article (referenced below), Richard Felder and Rebecca Brent propose an instructional model that promotes the intellectual development of science

Maryellen Weimer, PhD July 21, 2009

Effective Teaching Strategies: Six Keys to Classroom Excellence

What are makes an effective teacher?

This particular list of characteristics appears in an excellent book that is all but unknown in the states, Learning to Teach in Higher Education, by noted scholar Paul Ramsden.

Maryellen Weimer, PhD July 20, 2009

Good Writing Skills Matter in Every Course, Not Just English Composition

At the end of English composition, I ask students how what they’ve just learned in my class might be useful in their other classes. They’re often bemused and surprised to learn that professors in other courses care about their writing. To encourage them to take responsibility for succeeding in their future writing assignments, I hand out a list of 20 questions that they might ask to better understand “what the professor wants,” and thus continue to apply what we’ve been practicing.

E. Shelley Reid July 17, 2009

Mentoring Undergraduates in Research and Scholarship

Interested in a good example of how teaching, student scholarship, and service can be integrated into a single activity? Cecilia Shore [reference below] suggests that mentorship of undergraduates doing scholarship (be it research in labs or bibliographic searches) may just be that example.

Maryellen Weimer, PhD July 16, 2009

Web 2.0 Grows Up, Goes to College

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 class than just course content; and
It can be difficult to show your personality in an online course.

Mary Bart July 15, 2009

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