Teaching Online/Faculty Support
Where Do I Begin?
Why Teach Online
Teaching online presents many challenges and in return, many rewards. The benefits of utilizing online discussions, quizzes, grades and the many other online tools available can facilitate a robust and rewarding educational environment for you and your students.
The benefits of teaching with an online component include:
- Provides a Web presence for your course and 24/7 availability for students
- Improves communication with and among your students
- Provides a secure place to post student grades.
- Post your course Syllabus and Schedule with public access
- Post course related materials and Web links
- Provides a mechanism for students to submit assignments
- Provides a mechanism to track student participation
- Provides an environment that is conducive to interaction and community building
- A variety of different learning styles may be accommodated
- Instructor access may be improved in the online environment
Basic Skills and Prerequisites to Teaching Online
Faculty who wish to teach with a basic online component (Hybrid or E course) should possess the following skills:
- E-mail skills: mastery of send, receive, attachments, and storage/filing
- Intermediate computer proficiency: file management, copy/paste, navigation
- Intermediate Internet proficiency: use of web browser, search, navigation, downloading, use of favorites, browser tune up
- Intermediate software skills: Word, Excel, PowerPoint
- File and folder management and organization
- Basic html knowledge
- Solid typing skills
- Patience with technology
I Have My Account, Now What?
Pedagogy
Things to think About – Best Practices
Online content delivery differs from face-to-face delivery. Now that you have an online account, how do you plan to present the content
- Learner-Centered Instruction
- Learning Contracts
- Interaction
- Learner Choice
- Advance Organizer
- Organization
- Model/Concepts
- Problem Solving
- Computer Mediated Communication
- The Web As A Content Provider
- Tutorials
- Case Studies
- Self-Assessment
- Multimedia
Instructional Design of an Online Course
Using a specific system of design can be beneficial when creating online courses.
- Analyze
- Design
- Develop
- Implement
- Evaluate
Skills for Success
This area is full of tips and tricks that you may use to teach your online course and to help you and your students succeed.
When teaching online there are certain skills that you must master in order to overcome the learning curve for WebCT. It is also important to make sure that your Internet Browser is configured to work with WebCT.
Student Support
As the instructor, you will often be the students' first line of defense. It will probably be up to you to direct them to support services when they approach you with problems. There are numerous resources to help students with questions. Your job is not to solve all of the problems, but to know where to direct them for answers.
How can you help avoid problems from your students?
- Provide Protocols – since communication is so important in the online environment, you will need to provide protocols or guidelines for the students. Protocols should address e-mail, discussions, chats, collaboration (group work), etc.
- Hold a face-to-face orientation for your course. During this orientation, you should review the syllabus, discuss grading and assignments, orient your students to the course interface, and answer any questions. These orientation sessions are most helpful, particularly if the student is a first-timer to online learning. Some professors require attendance.
- Provide the students with contacts for Technical Help – there are many resources available for the students to obtain help with the technical problems. Make sure you provide your students with the following list of contact information.
CIT Help Desk
24/7 Help Desk
Phone: 1-877-355-3238
Office of Instruction Technology
WebCT WebCT
 Faculty Manual Faculty Orientation & Training
Respondus and StudyMate are companion tools used in WebCT for making the publication of quizzes, exams and learning games easier. Users may download the software from the Respondus link. More info....
Ask Dr. C is a question and answer service moderated by an expert group of trainers, instructional designers, administrators, project managers, support specialist and developers.
Turnitin.com is an excellent web-based software designed to check student papers for plagiarism. More info....
|
