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Guidelines for Online Teaching
Students will learn from the experiences and guidelines of prior Web-based courses unless you explicitly instruct them to do otherwise.
Setting the Stage
- Faculty state a teaching/ learning philosophy for the course that includes the role of the faculty and expectations of the students. For example, see nursing.umaryland.edu/online-309.htm
- Faculty and students adhere to the rules and standards for good netiquette, such as http://www.learnthenet.com
Facilitating Communication
- Faculty respond to student e-mail and phone inquiries
- Faculty (and students) use their UMnet accounts for all e-mail communication within the course, and all e-mail communications should begin with the course and section numbers
- Faculty may maintain the online grade book and use this method to communicate grades to students
- Faculty may require students to submit assignments via the "digital dropbox"
- Faculty may develop or facilitate discussion board topics and write appropriate comments
- Faculty may establish weekly "virtual office hours"
Developing Reciprocity and Cooperation Among Students
- Faculty may have students introduce themselves at the beginning of course (i.e., discussion boards, chat rooms, homepages)
- Faculty may enable group discussion board or "virtual cafe" areas to encourage student discussion and interaction
Using Active Learning Techniques
- Faculty may have students produce a deliverable from the discussion boards, such as decisions, plans and designs, proposals, case studies, problem solution, research projects, term papers or reports, portfolios or role-playing
- Faculty may tailor discussion boards to include life experiences, interests and ambitions
- Faculty may select a variety of teaching strategies to engage students in learning:
- Structure online discussions around academic themes that serve course objectives
- Virtual Field Trips, WebQuests, Small Group Assignments and Tasks, Self-Assessment Instruments and Quizzes
Giving Prompt Feedback
- Faculty respond to student postings in the discussion board in a timely manner
- Faculty may request feedback from students at regular intervals before filling out the FEQs/CEQs
Emphasizing Time on Task
- Faculty monitor and prompt for student participation
- Faculty establish standards for regular participation in discussion areas
- Faculty allocate realistic amounts of time for effective learning and teaching
- Faculty may create announcement reminders and post due dates on electronic calendar
Respect Diverse Talents and Ways of Learning
- Faculty may provide opportunities for self-reflection and identification of effective learning style during instruction. For example, visit http://www.advisorteam.com
- Faculty may incorporate various types of multimedia and activities in course modules
- Faculty may provide "structured" and "unstructured" learning opportunities
