Teaching Strategies and Techniques

How Do I Teach a Compressed Online Course?

An overwhelming sense of fear can overcome us when we are suddenly asked to teach not only an online course but a compressed one on top of that. By compressed, I mean teaching in eight weeks (or sometimes even less!) a course that is usually

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Tips From the Pros: Promoting Self-Regulation in Online Courses

Not all students taking online courses are good self-regulated learners. Authors Rowe and Rafferty believe there are interventions online teachers can use that develop these very necessary skills. Based on an extensive review of research on interventions in postsecondary courses, they suggest four interventions.

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Wikis: A Flexible Medium for Online Class Discussions

Teachers of traditionally discussion-intensive courses can have a hard time translating their classes into an online format. Most courseware has only a forum module, and those may not structurally encourage the students to interact with each other much, for example with “reply” links and threaded

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Using Apps to Improve Communication with Students

One of the challenges of the online classroom is finding ways to connect with students, to build relationships as you might in a face-to-face environment. To achieve this, you might want to look beyond your LMS to some tools that can engage, connect, and inform.

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Enhancing Online Course Discussions through Conference Roles and Blogs

The discussion forum plays a central role in our online graduate-level advanced research methods course, providing opportunities for students to demonstrate knowledge and connect and learn with each other and the instructor. It is often the closest approximation of the kinds of conversations that occur

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Online Learning 2.0: The Teaching Toolbox

Online instructors focus most of their teaching on curricular issues—what they will teach, how they will teach it, etc. But studies have found that differences in curriculum have little, if any, effect on student outcomes. John Hattie compared more than 100 factors related to student

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Encouraging Active Participation in Discussion Boards

Flawed pedagogy, lack of learner preparation, and reliance on extrinsic motivation can detract from the learning potential of discussion boards. In an interview with Online Classroom, Naomi Jeffery Petersen, associate professor of education at Central Washington University, discussed these problems and offered advice on getting students

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Meet Students Where They Are

Valerie Powell, assistant professor of art at Sam Houston State University, decided to supplement her face-to-face courses to extend the classroom and provide opportunities for students who are not comfortable speaking up in the face-to-face environment. Rather than demanding that students interact using a specific

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Tips From the Pros: Selfie as Motivator, Community Builder

Students are often more comfortable doing course-related research online than in a library. Online research is convenient, and they’re used to it. But it’s not always the most reliable. One way to motivate students to do at least some of their work in physical libraries

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An overwhelming sense of fear can overcome us when we are suddenly asked to teach not only an online course but a compressed one on top of that. By compressed, I mean teaching in eight weeks (or sometimes even less!) a course that is usually taught in a 15- to- 16-week semester. How in the world can I actually teach a course in such a short period of time? Having taught online for more than a dozen years, I have often had to make this exact scenario work. I have been asked to teach a 16-week course in eight weeks, six weeks, and even a few times in four weeks. I will leave it up to the educational researchers to determine whether or not a compressed time frame yields the same efficacy as a traditional 16-week course, but I have discovered some keys I believe can make these shorter courses more effective. Steve Dwinnells is associate director of the e-Campus Instructional Development Center at Eastern Kentucky University.