Best+Practices+in+Teaching+Online+Courses

We will start to build our wiki with looking at current research on best practices in teaching online courses. Each student should find three to five articles from peer reviewed journals which examine best practices in teaching online courses for the age group you are most interested in (pre-K through adults). After you have read the articles, prepare an approximately 150 word description of each article. Include an evaluation of how the information would work (or not) in your professional area.

For each article, post the following information to the wiki:


 * Cite the article in APA format as you would on a reference page
 * The description and evaluation paragraph should follow directly under the citation.

The information on this wiki page should be alphabetized as if on a reference page. Be sure to insert your articles appropriately.

**Cole, J. E. & Kritzer, J. B. (2009). Strategies for success: Teaching an online course. //Rural Special Education Quarterly//, //28//(4), 36-40.** In this paper the authors describe the framework for online education stating that “students still need daily guidance and leadership that they get from instructors in face-to-face classes, and this has placed the burden on new and veteran higher educators to gain the skills necessary to serve students in this ‘new’ environment” (p. 36). The article describes the attributes that students favor in an online class such as “considerable student-faculty contact, student presentation of projects, prompt feedback, and firm deadlines” (p. 37). The authors further explain the necessity of pedagogical strategies such as electronic discussion boards by encouraging “both large and small group conversations [that] allows students to both better understand concepts through in-depth discussion as well as have a small circle of peers in which stronger connections can be attained” (p. 38), scaffolding technique has the students turn in portions of a final project throughout the semester to build up to a larger final project, inverted classroom technique “facilitates a hybrid-teaching situation involving both occasional face-to-face meetings and online learning technologies. . . viewed as a way to reduce lecture time, increase focus on understanding and application, and provide students control over their own learning” (p. 38), and module strategy splits the semester up into chunks that are more manageable for the students with each module having assigned readings, slide presentations, questions to provoke critical thinking and interactive activities (p. 39). The article concludes with community building exercises that consist of email communication with the students, “getting to know you discussion boards” (p. 40), weekly video messages from the instructor and synchronous office hours for student questions (p. 40).

**Edwards, M., Perry, B., & Janzen, K. (2011). The making of an exemplary online educator. //Distance Education//, //32//(1), 101-118. doi:10.1080/01587919.2011.565499.** The authors of this article conducted a study of graduate students in three degree programs at a Canadian distance education university. Participants were given a questionnaire one month after graduation to evaluate interactions they had with educators that met the definition of exemplary. The students of the study were encouraged to write stories about their experiences with the exemplary educator. There were a total of 23 participants in the study (p. 106). The study showed that exemplary educators fell into three categories: challengers, affirmers, and influencers. Challengers were “teachers who had high expectations for [the students], who challenged [the students] to perform at levels that were beyond their own prospects for themselves” (p. 107). Affirmers were instructors that “affirmed students by recognizing their potential, treating them with respect, and recognizing potential problems and taking actions to assist with these. By doing so, the exemplary teachers demonstrated to the learners that they valued them as individuals” (p. 108). The theme of influencers were identified in this study because “participants noted that the expertise of the teacher in a particular subject area combined with the strong online presence of the instructor were specific ways in which online instructors become persons of influence” (p. 111).

**Kelly, R. (ed.). (n.d.). 11 strategies for managing your online courses. Retrieved from: http://www.facultyfocus.com/free-reports/11-strategies-for-managing-your-online-courses/** This conglomeration of mini articles from various authors focuses on strategies for managing online courses. Some of the eleven tips were previously described in other articles for this assignment, so this summary will only deal with five. First, the article authors outline an online syllabus for the online class. The syllabus has six major sections: structures, communication, policies, assignments/evaluation, technology requirement and resources (p. 5-6). The next article in the series discusses splitting the class up into “virtual sections”. These virtual sections are not only reserved for group work but to allow classes with more than 25 students to get to know each other better. “When splitting online classes into groups for the purpose of more manageable interaction, only the chat and discussion components are affected’ (p. 7). Another article in the series discusses computer health, accessories for your laptop and security issues when accessing public wi-fi hotspots (p. 9). The article that was particularly intriguing was the idea of teaching across the generations. In the community college setting the age range varies greatly, from 16 to 65+. This article discusses the differing needs of older vs. younger students and opportunities for the different generations to learn from each other. “There are many benefits to getting students from different generations to interact with each other regarding course content” (p. 16). Lastly, the article titled //10 ways to get reluctant and downright scared students enthusiastic about taking online courses// addressed easy and quick solutions to breaking the ice and making students feel good about their online experience. Some of them are a welcoming email, addressing concerns before they come up, anticipate fears about computers, never make yourself a “computer god”, write in terms they understand, never accept computer awkwardness as an excuse for late assignments, have resources and help desk information handy (p. 17).

**Ragan, L. (n.d.). 10 principles of effective online teaching: Best practices in distance education. Retrieved from: http://www.facultyfocus.com/free-reports/principles-of-effective-online-teaching-best-practices-in-distance-education/** This articles provides 10 essential principles of effective online teaching, they are:


 * 1) __Show up and teach__ – “students in an online course rely on the instructor to follow the established online course schedule and to deliver the course within the scheduled time frame. The online instructor is expected to make schedule adjustments as needed to manage special circumstance” (p. 6). The idea that the instructor is just a guide is not the case, the instructor must be actively engaged in the online experience along with the students.
 * 2) __Practice proactive course management strategies__ – this principle addresses the need for active course management and not leaving the course to manage itself. “The challenge for the online instructor is to find the degree of interaction and intervention that works with the dynamic of their online classroom” (p. 7).
 * 3) __Establish patterns of course activities__ – this principle defines the need to establish a set pace and sequence of learning events throughout the course. “Although the online classroom environment provides tremendous flexibility of time and place of study, establishing and communicating a course pace and pattern of work can aid both instructor and student and alleviate confusion of course operation” (p. 9).
 * 4) __Plan for the unplanned__ – this principle encourages instructors to communicate with the students the plan for planned or unplanned absences from the course shell. “Having thought through communication strategies for both short and long term scenarios enables all class participants to manage those times when schedules change, course adjustments need to be made and ‘life happens’” (p. 12).
 * 5) __Response requested and expected__ – this principle describes the need to communicate the proper protocol for timely feedback and responses to email. “A reasonable response timeframe may vary from 24 to 72 hours” (p. 13).
 * 6) __Think before you write__ – the importance of this principle is the opportunity to refine instruction and enhance the learning process. “Establishing and adhering to a set of rules for communications behavior can reduce the occurrence of misunderstanding or confusion” (p. 17).
 * 7) __Help maintain forward progress__ – this principle discloses the need for timely return of assignments and assessments to progress through the course. “The instructor is asked to facilitate this process by submitting grades of all digitally formatted assignments and exams to students within two business days of receipt” (p. 17).
 * 8) __Safe and secures__ – this principle addresses the safety and security of the online environment for both the student and the instructor. “Using the institutionally supported learning management system provides increased degrees of security and confidentiality and keeps ‘institutional business’ within the appropriate confines” (p. 20).
 * 9) <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 140%;">__Quality counts__ – this is one of the most important principles in my opinion. The quality of the content posted on the LMS (Learning Management System) reflects the quality of instructor. “Instructors should monitor and address dimensions of the course that impact course integrity, including inaccurate course content, editing errors, confusing information and instructions, broken links and other course design issues” (p. 21).
 * 10) <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 140%;">__Click a mile on my connection__ – the final principle of effective online teaching has to do with internet access and availability. “The online instructor is also expected to experience each functional dimension of the online course in order to assess systems functionality and performance” (p. 23).

<span style="color: #800080; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 140%;">**Zsohar, H. & Smith, J. A. (2008). Transition from the classroom to the web: successful strategies for teaching online. //Nursing Education Perspective//, //29//(1), 23-28.** <span style="color: #800080; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 140%;">In this article the authors discuss some helpful tips for managing an online nursing course. The first tip offered by the authors is frontloading. “Frontloading involves a clear description of skills, hardware and software that are necessary to ensure student success” (p. 24). The second tip discussed by the authors is communication when managing more than one course at a time. The key to success in this case is the use of the course email tool to match the student with the course they are taking, in addition to this, the use of the calendar tool helps to organize both the instructor and the student. The next tip is the use of a modular system to the course outline, “a modular approach, where content is divided into units of instruction, has been demonstrated to be an effective vehicle delivering online courses. It is important that modules contain properly worded directions so that assignments can be completed accurately” (p. 24). The authors also give a great example of each unit, “each unit contains a unit overview, objectives, student directions, readings, discussion questions (on the Discussion Board) and activities” (p. 24). Another tip offered by the authors is personalizing online interactions or building community. They suggest adding “a technique to add a face for each class member is to have learners create their own PowerPoint slides featuring either a still picture or video and a brief, two- to three- sentence description about themselves as a person, not necessarily as a student” (p. 25). The next two tips involve deadlines and feedback. The article outlines the need for prompt and consistent deadlines with feedback for assignments that include rubrics and corrections. The last three tips are crucial, they are constructing critical thinking discussion questions, reflective journaling and peer evaluation. “Questions should be posed at the analysis, synthesis and evaluation levels of thinking” (p. 26), these types of questions are important to engage the student in higher level cognitive exercises that promote deep, long-term learning. Reflective journaling assists the students in relating content to real-life past experiences and also enhances long term learning.