Quality Online Instruction

Top tips

GROUP PROJECT 1
Jos Aguirre, Agustn Vizcano, Mnica de la Fuente

#1 Follow the right path

#2 Who are you?

Challenge: Getting to know students in a distance learning environment.
Tip from Designing for Learning: Learners can be encouraged to post something
that will help you individualize them by asking the students something that will
likely result in a memorable posting.

#3 Technical Skills Needed

A Skill description provided by the NEA Teaching Online Teacher Skills that can be
considered a challenge:
Online teachers should be able to answer student questions on certain technical
issues, including posting to discussions, submitting assignments, using the Internet,
and viewing online grades.
Tip: Get to know how to help your students with the basic skills you know your
students are going to need to be able to succeed in your class. In the very least know
some sites or places where they can get their answers.

#4 Being Present
Challenge: Although online classes have the advantage of allowing both teacher and student
schedule their work to their own schedule, sometimes students are unable of resolving their
concerns asking the instructor immediately or they just need to know that there is someone
following them.
Tip: According with Aaron Johnsons Online Teaching Tips: You have the opportunity to
establish your presence in the online classroom. From the first day you can set your tone and
your availability. Email is a great resource for students, however, it can consume unnecessary a
lot of time and personal resources. Scheduling a time window for responding or an horary for
receiving emails is a good idea. Students must recognize time periods for consultation to
organize their work accordingly with the course.

#5 Dealing with unanticipated absences

Challenge: Asynchronous assignments are scheduled well in advance taking in count
the number and presence of participants. But life and technology are capricious.
Internet connection may fail or an unforeseen can arise in our life. This can damage
the dynamics in some group activities, especially in groups highly consolidated.
Tips: Designing for Learning provides three alternative advices. The first is
converting the assignment, if possible, in an individual task. The second is assigning a
role which allows students to intervene on a work in progress, as a reviewer or
editor. The third tip is allowing the group to negotiate the student's role.

#6 Customized Learning
Fom the Designing for Learning both the challenge and the tip and we added a small fraction
of the idea of customized learning:
Have you ever asked yourself, How do I get my students excited about the course content
and what we will be doing? In addition to being excited, enthusiastic and energized about
the course yourself, one of the best ways to engage learners quickly in a course is to have
them customize their learning goals. And to do it very early, as in a discussion forum the
first week of the course.

#7 Never check email first!

#8 Plan a good closing and wrapping

activity
Challenge: Students (and teachers!) get usually stressed when the semester and the
course is coming to an end. We can help alleviate that!
Tip from Boettcher - 10 best practices: Think of a good planning for the last couple
of weeks and create a wrap activity for the course to reflect on the things students
learn and value the experience of taking the course.
Some suggestions here.

#9 Time to practice and master skills

Challenge: Sometimes the use of technology can be tricky, and it takes some time
for us and for our students to learn how to use it and take the most advantage of it.

Tip from Checklist of Competencies for Effective Online Teaching: Provide time and
opportunity for your students to practice and master the skills that are necessary in
the online course. This will save us time (and emails) when they need to use the
technology.

#10 Promoting Discussions

Challenge: Using forums in a language class to promote autonomous discussions
can be very useful, especially if the topic of discussion is enough attractive to
capture students attention. Ideally, the conversation should be flowing without
recurring excessively to instructor, but in many cases this doesnt happen.
Tip: To ensure a good and active discussion, Aaron Johnsons Online Teaching Tips
recommends, at the early stages, asking for more. Later, providing resources, such as
links or interesting information, is a great way to engage all the group in the
discussion. Finally, the best way to keep alive a post is challenge them directly with a
very good question.