Online Teaching: Strategies and Effectiveness

Online teaching strategies
Certain teaching strategies are associated with effective online courses:

• student-centered activities
• facilitation and moderating
• problem-based learning
• collaborative learning
• peer evaluation.

Some may be familiar with, and use these methods in their classroom teaching already. Facilitation (i.e., getting students to interact with each other and the content) is probably the most important strategy that online teachers need to employ (Collison et al, 2000; Salmon, 2000).

Online teaching effectiveness
The following behaviors are associated with effective online teaching:

• providing timely and meaningful feedback
• creating learning activities that engage students
• keeping students interested and motivated
• ensuring students interact with each other
• encouraging students to be critical and reflective.

These behaviors constitute criteria for evaluation of online teaching. For each behavior there needs to be a definition of minimal acceptable performance as well as exemplary performance.

Resources
Collison, G. et al., (2000). Facilitating Online Learning: Effective Strategies for Moderators. Madison, WI: Atwood Publishing Co.
Kearsley, G. and Blomeyer, R. (2004) Preparing K-12 Teachers to Teach Online Educational Technology magazine, Jan/Feb.
Salmon, G. (2000). E-moderating: The Key to Teaching and Learning Online. London: Kogan Page.

For more information, see: A Practical Guide To Developing Effective Web-based Learning
David A Cook, MD and Denise M Dupras, MD, PhD
http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=1492389

Mapping Out Your Blackboard Course

Mind mapping tools can be very helpful for organizing your Blackboard course. Mindomo is one example of these type tools:

You can check out Mindomo here. A basic account is free, but you can also subscribe for a small price and get some additional options. In addition, there are several other free mind mapping tools listed here. Have fun exploring the different styles, and see if there is one that works for you.

Low Threshold Applications

One of my favorite websites for technologies in education is the TLT (Technology, Learning and Education) Group. One valuable section of the website is the LTA (Low Threshold Applications) area: http://www.tltgroup.org/ltas.htm What are LTA? “A Low Threshold Application (LTA) is a teaching/learning application of information technology that is reliable, accessible, easy to learn, non-intimidating and (incrementally) inexpensive.” These technologies are based on the Seven Principles of Good Practice for Undergraduate Education by Chickering and Gamson http://honolulu.hawaii.edu/intranet/committees/FacDevCom/guidebk/teachtip/7princip.htm which can be applied to Distance Education. LTA are posted regularly on the LTA blog http://zircon.mcli.dist.maricopa.edu/lta/all.php It is worthwhile to explore these LTA and see what you can use for your Distance Education courses.

Principle 5: Good Practice Emphasizes Time on Task

Chickering and Gamson are the authors of an article describing the Seven Principles of Good Practice in Undergraduate Education (1986) http://honolulu.hawaii.edu/intranet/committees/FacDevCom/guidebk/teachtip/7princip.htm

The fifth principle is increasing 'time on task.' Chickering and Gamson say,"Time plus energy equals learning."

Distance educators can plan their courses by estimating learner time on task for course activities. Sharing this information in the course syllabus assists learners in organizing their available time for participation. One method is to use visual explanations that stand out onscreen and show development over time with a minimal amount of text and no onscreen “scrolling.”









Directions for assignments can include a suggested time for completion in hours, weeks or days. Multimedia means fixed time limits, time for multiple viewings could be included.

Announcements provide critical updates and reminders as learners enter the course, intercepting them before they can do anything else. Announcements can be used to synchronize students to the course timeline weekly.

Course calendar identifies important course dates and events. The Blackboard calendar allows students to plug in their own important dates and activities.

Two important time on task points:

• If course material helps students learn better, it can save time.
• Engaging assignments can attract students to spend more time in the course.

Portions of this information adapted from an article by Chris Fahey, Technology Coordinator at the Center for Career Development, Gettysburg College, Pennsylvania; posted on The Ohio Learning Network.

Learning as art or science?

The rhythm of loss of integration with environment and recovery of union not only persists in man, but becomes conscious with him; its conditions are material out of which he forms purposes. Emotion is the conscious sign of a break, actual or impending. The discord is the occasion that induces reflection. Desire for restoration of the union converts mere emotion into interest in objects as conditions of realization of harmony. With the realization, material of reflection is incorporated into objects as their meaning. Since the artist cares in a peculiar way for the phase of experience in which union is achieved, he does not shun moments of resistance and tension. He rather cultivates them, not for their own sake but because of their potentialities, bringing to living consciousness an experience that is unified and total. In contrast with the person whose purpose is esthetic, the scientific man is interested in problems, in situations wherein tension between the matter of observation and of thought is marked. Of course he cares for their resolution. But he does not rest in it; he passes on to another problem using an attained solution only as a stepping stone on which to set on foot further inquires.
(Dewey 1934 p. 15-16)

Questions

How are you doing in the course? What do we need to do to make this a better experience for you? Do we need to make adjustments on the number of assignments?

What questions do you have?

Another video for you

Check this out

Tutorials for Bb are everywhere. Usually you can google Blackboard tutorials and find what you need.

http://www.utexas.edu/academic/blackboard/tutorials/ is the link to tutorials from UT-Austin. This is a fairly comprehensive collection of tutorials that I thought you might find helpful at some point.

http://www.clt.odu.edu/bb/index.php?src=tutorials is from Old Dominion University. This is one that has a large amount of Flash tutorials if you like animation.

http://facit.cmich.edu/workshops-training/blackboard/tutorials.html is from Central Michigan University and features Flash tutorials. Some have PDF versions for printing.

Thoughts on Teaching and Learning Online

I have been doing some thinking about different approaches to teaching and learning online. Right now, I am very interested in experiential learning (I know, sometimes I am interested in lots of things) and how we can begin to move some of this theory into distance courses.

Although I like Kolb's model, I am drawn to Lewin's experiential model for simplicity. Lewin believed that concrete experiences form the basis to understand abstract concepts. Lived experiences, unique to each individual, inform learning by providing a groundwork or baseline for new information and knowledge. It is this lived experience that gives texture and personal meaning to new experiences.

When presented with new information, the learner draws upon lived experiences and searches for similar events or concepts. Reflection leads to tentative hypotheses about how the new information fits with existing knowledge. The learner is then ready to test these hypotheses in a new context. This test leads to more concrete experience and the ability to accept, reject, or modify the original application of previous knowledge to new information.

Although this is a simplification of the theory, I can't help but think that we already have tools in the online environment that might allow us to more fully connect with students. If blogs or discussion boards were used to share experiences that learners believe are connected to the new information - what would happen? If learners were able to read about how other classmates are trying to connect the new knowledge to previous information - what is the worst that could happen?

Metacognition (the thinking about how we think) activities requiring students to intentionally search for previous experiences and knowledge to make understanding of new information may yield some results. We often present and teach from a viewpoint that if we provide information, it is the responsibility of the student to make meaning and connections.

I wonder if the old adage about "You can't teach them until you know what they know" doesn't apply.

Education blogs

I thought you might be interested in a few of the educational blogs out there. This list is mostly former EduBlog award winners.

http://www.weblogg-ed.com/
http://davidwarlick.com/2cents/
http://elgg.net/csessums/weblog/
http://www.teachandlearn.ca/blog/
http://heyjude.wordpress.com/

Why I Work in Distance Education

One of the concepts that I push for distance educators is personal disclosure so students get to know instructors at a different level. So here goes...

First, I love to teach. I have a lot of experience with F2F instruction and I really enjoy it. I love the smell of chalk dust and still relish a chalk mark on my pants. I still know how to splice a 16mm film with tape and thread the projector in less than 5 minutes. I still know how to take attendance while starting a class with some sponge activity to maximize time.

I am discovering, however, that distance education allows me additional opportunities to connect and make connection with and for students. I am not restricted by posted office hours or brief bits of time after class. I have time to formulate my response to the student and to emphasize points for consideration. It gives me another way to help students think differently about a topic.

I am discovering that I spend more and more time thinking about how to make a topic meaningful and then how to deliver that via distance. I still have much to learn but I will always be a teacher at heart. Distance education allows me to think about different ways to teach and communicate.

Teaching, to me, is about making meaning. As online tools emerge, I want to use them to help students make meaning.

Promising Practices in Online Teaching and Learning

Hi,

I thought it might be fun to try out blogging while you are in the course. You have the ability to subscribe to the blog and have messages sent to you via email or through a RSS feed. My thinking is that this might be another way to connect the course participants and to give you another experience in the course (I know, I know - you are having enough experiences right now).

This isn't to add to your workload at all. It is just another way to communicate and connect. Feel free to ask questions about the course or about anything you are thinking about regarding distance education at TWU.

Welcome!

This blog is to share Promising Practices in Online Teaching and Learning from Texas Woman's University. Thanks for taking a look!

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