As I  progress through my Principles & Processes of eLearning course, I am becoming more intrigued by the textbook, The Online Teaching Survival Guide: Simple and Practical Pedagogical Tips, by Judith V. Boettcher and Rita-Marie Conrad.

Here are 10 great practices from the book, along with my own examples:

1. Be present at the course site. It is important for students to know their instructor is around in an online class. Some effective ways to maintain a presence is by participating (even leading) discussion forums, making short videos, and holding live office hours.

2. Create a supportive online course community. Encouraging interaction between learners is an important step in making students feel engaged in the class. I like to try to start with introductions and keep the “group work” going through discussion boards and regular collaboration on assignments.

3. Develop a set of explicit expectations for yourself and your learners. It is important for us to create a set of expectations for ourselves and our learners from the onset. We should clearly communicate what is expected of the learner (and our own obligations such as office hours) through course schedules, grading rubrics, and regular feedback.

4. Use a variety of large group, small group, and individual work experiences. This is not only important for keeping students of different backgrounds engaged, but also for helping develop “soft” skills students need in the workplace, in addition to technical knowledge. I like to have students try a homework assignment on their own, and then collaborate to produce solutions for the class. As a last resort, I make corrections on the board.

5. Use synchronous and asynchronous activities. Some good examples of synchronous activities are live office hours, exams/quizzes held online at the same time, and videoconferencing with group members. Meanwhile, good asynchronous activities are discussion boards, homework assignments, and weekly course material which the student can access at his/her convenience.

6. Prepare discussion posts that invite responses, questions, discussions, and reflections. It can be tricky to engage students in an online course, but we should try to keep things as interesting as possible. A list of “fun” questions such as favourite food or drink serves as a great low-pressure introductory activity. I also like to share, and invite, personal experiences/opinions which tie in to the course material.

7. Plan a good closing and wrap activity for the course. A traditional closing activity for a college course is a final exam. However, there are now other ways to wrap up courses. I like to give group work, such as comprehensive case study, which allows for a more collaborative reflection. A chat about what students learned from the course, as well as their likes and dislikes, serves as a strong reflection and feedback tool.

8. Assess as you go by gathering evidences of learning. Formative assessment is very important for both the teacher and the students. It is a chance for us to gauge how the students are doing individually and as a group. If things are not going well for a chunk of the class, we must consider going in a different direction. For the students, it is a chance to get feedback early and often, as opposed to later on and infrequently. Small homework assignments, short quizzes, and even questions during the lesson help the learning process.

9. Rigorously connect content to core concepts and learning outcomes. It is a good idea to ask students if they can “align” the course objectives to the lessons in the course. If they can do that, you have done a good job of creating clear objectives and maintaining consistency throughout your course. My goal in introductory accounting classes is always to prepare students well for an entry-level accounting position. Hence, there is a focus on the basics, but more specifically, there is an emphasis on doing accounting, as opposed to just learning about it.

10. Design experiences to help learners progress from novice to expert. In introductory accounting classes, I like to test students on the basics in the first half of the course. The midterm exam is quite predictable- the students are given a prep package where they make journal entries, post to T-accounts, and produce a basic income statement and balance sheet. By the end of the course, the students are working in groups to address complex case studies in a comprehensive report.

Reference
Boettcher, J. V. & Conrad, R. M. (2010). The online teaching survival guide:
Simple and practical pedagogical tips. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.