STRATEGIES AND TIPS FOR

TEACHING ONLINE

Presented by:Pat GalitzSoutheast Community College

WEBINAR DESCRIPTION

A one-hour webinar with Pat Galitz as she shares strategies and tips for teaching online discussion–based courses.

You’ll see examples of activities and assignments that really work in the online environment as well as innovative techniques for getting students engaged in your online course.

Pat will show you various resources and tools that you can use including examples from 4LTR Press, a Cengage Learning course solution.

OBJECTIVES:

Present strategies and tips for teaching online discussion–based courses.

Provide innovative techniques for getting students engaged in your online course.

Give examples of activities and assignments.

Give examples of resources and tools that include 4LTR Press resources.

STRATEGIES AND TIPS

To begin, let’s share -

3 ideas that creates a good online class.

3 ideas that creates a poor online class.

TIPS T0 CREATE A POSITIVE ONLINE ENVIRONMENT

Start with a good "welcome to the course" announcement and have a students introduce themselves activity.

Respond to all student queries within 24 hours.

Be detailed and positive in your comments on their work.

MORE TIPS…

Vary the media used in discussions.

Use documents, PDF files, movies, music, sound files, Powerpoints, Web site links, and images to promote the standards and concepts.

Respond to all—or nearly all—student discussion postings.

Create a Frequently Asked Questions link.

INNOVATIVE TECHNIQUES

TO ENGAGE STUDENTS

Maintain an "extra resources" section in your course for YouTube clips, articles and essays, photos, online crossword puzzles that highlight and reinforce content in your course.

Encourage students to submit resources and links that cover subject matter.

Ask students to comment on topics as it relates to their majors and professional goals to help them connect with course material.

You can -

Give clear directions about your expectations for length, in both completing of activities and responses to other students.

In your directions, include the following criteria:

Use proper English grammar and spelling and complete sentences.

Cite references by name with a link to the source.

Encourage conversation to stay on topic. No outside or sidebar conversations.

Encourage respect and understanding for the diversity of other participants.

Give a specific date and time when both the activity and responses are due.

Use discussions and activities that will help you meet the course competencies.

  Use discussion to check both individual and group

understanding.

Use a rubric if providing a discussion for understanding. Make sure your students use the rubric when making any comments or replies.

Provide a summary post. At the end of the discussion week, pull together examples of great student posts, identify themes in the discussion, and highlight truly exemplary ideas and well-reasoned points of view. Post the summary, and require students to respond to at least one point as part of their next discussion board.

Some more ideas…

EXAMPLES OF

ACTIVITIES AND

ASSIGNMENTS

3-2-1 READING RESPONSE

Students are required to participate in weekly discussion as a component of online classes. These weekly discussions take the place of the in-class interaction they would experience in a face-to-face class.

The 3-2-1 Reading Response can be used in these weekly discussions, just as it can be used to spark discussions in a face-to-face class.

Students are asked to post in the Discussion Forum their responses to the 3-2-1 Reading points:

Identify and discuss three (3) new ideas or pieces of information you learned from the reading.

Identify and discuss two (2) ideas or concepts that you were already aware of, but that were reinforced by the reading.

Ask one (1) question based on the reading. (Students are encouraged to use higher-order thinking questions).

WHAT TO INCLUDE IN 3-2-1

Students are also instructed to respond to a minimum of two peers.

Peer responses could be related to the new concepts the students encountered in the reading or the questions posed.

Ways to use this method:• Article analysis

• Case analysis

• Chapter analysis

HOW TO USE 3-2-1

You can use a grading rubric that assesses original messages in terms of:

• Basic Understanding of Content,

• Application of Content

• References & Support

• Clarity & Mechanics

Peer responses are assessed based on:

• Content

• References & Support

• Clarity & Mechanics

• Frequency

HOW TO GRADE 3-2-1

RESOURCES AND

TOOLS

CENGAGE COURSEMATE 4LTR PRESS TOOLS

Graded quizzes – students complete quizzes prior to chapter material. I recommend students achieving a 100% to receive a grade.

KnowNOW – current articles resource where you can post the link for students to read and comment. Use the 3-2-1 reading response method.

Games – beat the clock and crossword puzzles completed for extra credit. I recommend students achieving a 100% to receive a grade.

Media quizzing – videos broken into segments with questions after each segment for students to watch and complete questions.

Flashcards - to help reinforce chapter material.

WEBSITES

Jing - http://jing.en.softonic.com

This is an online service for screen capture and screencasting. The free version is quite robust and allows teachers (or students) to make videos of computer screen activity. That activity can even be narrated to create a tutorial or lesson (also called a screencast).

Prezi - http://prezi.com/windows

An online application for creating and showing presentations. What sets this apart from other presentation software is that it in non-linear. Thus, you can create a presentation in any order and jump from one area to another very easily. Allows for the use of the mindmapping concept. Presentations can be stored and viewed online.

Flickr - https://www.flickr.com

Share photos online. They can be shared publicly or privately to a select group of people.

MORE WEBSITES…

SKYPE - http://www.skype.com

Allows users to communicate with peers by voice using a microphone, video by using a webcam, and instant messaging over the Internet. The software is free.

Ted Talks - https://www.ted.com/talks/browse

There are some amazing videos if you are working on the skill of collaboration. Or check out the hundreds of other categories.

YouTube - http://www.youtube.com

A video-sharing website which users can upload, view and share videos.

AND MORE SITES…

GotoMeetings – www.gotomeeting.comSoftware that enables the user to meet with other computer users, customers, clients or colleagues via the internet in real time.

WebEx – www.webex.comProvides on-demand collaboration, online meeting, web conferencing and videoconferencing applications.

Narrated Powerpoints – Select “slide show” the “Record Narration” from the pull-down menu at the top. Convert Powerpoints to Flash so that students can open the file even if they do not have Powerpoint.

TIPS FOR USING AUDIO

Audio files should not exceed 10 minutes in length, which equals about a 50MB file size.

The optimum length for an audio file should be 3-5 minutes.

Simple lecture and term pronunciation could be delivered as audio files which takes less server space then video.

TIPS FOR USING VIDEO

Videos should not exceed ten minutes in length, which equals about a 100MB file size. This guideline reflects the policies implemented by companies such as YouTube.

Large videos can be difficult to upload and download and also take a lot of server space to store.

Use video effectively. Video is a great way to capture demonstrations, for instance.

www.cengage.com