Instructional Design & Technology

How do I teach online effectively?

Teaching online can be more challenging than some people anticipate. In most cases, online courses are completely developed and ready to run before the semester begins. This means that all content—including lectures, assessments, rubrics and discussion questions—are conceptualized, created, and scheduled prior to the first day of class. Grading and communication can be more time consuming in an online course, because of the need for frequent and timely feedback. Consider the following, as stated by Andrea Zellner in “Dealing with your online teaching challenges“:

In face-to-face classes, looking around the room and generally noting who is engaged in a discussion or not is a quick moment of observation. In an online course, each of those interactions is rendered in black and white, and each of them should be attended to—after all, the students are spending time creating these work products.