Teaching Online:
FAQs.
Disclaimer Haiku
This is what I’ve done
It won’t work for everyone
The students like it.
Online courses generate too much email from students. How can I flatten the curve of course email?
Reducing email in a course is possible. Here are some of my strategies:
create a Course Q&A forum for housekeeping questions - other students often answer the questions and you don’t have to.
anything that has to be submitted has the same deadline - 11:59pm on the day of the deadline.
for assignments, I have a No-Excuses-Needed Extension Policy: every assignment has a Regular Deadline and an Extended Deadline, usually a week apart. Students don't need to ask for an extension, they can just take it. However, there are no extensions beyond the extended deadline. (This policy has done the most to "flatten the curve" of emails.)
for learning tasks (the course discussions), there are no extensions (that would defeat the purpose of the discussion). That’s made clear from the beginning.
In a course based on readings and other content not created by the instructor, how do instructors add their views and commentary?
There are lots of ways to do this:
written summaries or commentaries can be added to content items.
content items can be summarized in a blog-like format where the instructor basically writes a review or post about an article, quoting it here and there and adding commentary.
audio/visual summaries or commentaries are also possible. I often add a video commentary at the beginning of a module to introduce the topic, and one at the end where I answer questions sent in by students or discuss some of the interesting points raised in the discussions.
by participating in the discussions, instructors can let students know their views.
instructors can write up content items as well - sort of a written replacement for an in-class lecture.
You don’t have any exams in your courses. Am I allowed to use this approach, but still have exams?
You are allowed to do anything you want with the ideas I’ve presented here. I’m not prescribing how to teach online; I’m describing how I teach online. If you think an idea will work in your course, go for it. If you don’t, that’s okay, too. There are all sorts of models for assessing student learning. Use the ones that make the most sense for your course.
Remember: I’m just trying to demonstrate that online teaching doesn’t have to be scary or intimidating or thought of as impossibly difficult or intricate.
You don’t produce any videos of your lectures? There’s no video at all in your courses?
Not exactly. I produce what I call ProfMoments - short videos in which I might introduce a module, clarify an idea, answer questions that have come up in the module, or provide a summary of key ideas. The ProfMoments are intended to be just that, very short videos focusing on one idea. I don’t think that student learning would be impaired if there were no ProfMoments, but it adds variety and helps personalize the course. What I don’t do is use video to lecture.
Here’s an example:
This approach looks like more work than a regular classroom course. Is it?
The short answer is no. But like anything worth doing, it’s worth doing well, so it can feel like a lot of work. But so can face-to-face teaching. Here are some things to remember:
unlike a typical online course, where you’re working with online course developers and having a bunch of design meetings, this solo approach is less time-intensive prior to the course.
and unlike typical online courses where all the content is ready on Day One, it is possible to build this course as you teach it, week by week, without impinging on the students’ ability to learn.
the time you would normally spend in a face-to-face course preparing lectures and showing up for class can be devoted discussion facilitation and providing feedback on assignments.
the modular structure of the course makes it easy to update the course by swapping different modules and content items. Once you have your structure in place, it is flexible enough to last you a long time.