A reader recently wrote in:
I've got a question for you...My question is about online teaching. I'm wondering if you know of any resources for teaching online--how to structure interactions, how to evaluate students, and how to structure the course in general.
Good question. I don't have any experience teaching online courses, so unfortunately I don't know of any resources myself. But I'm curious to hear from readers who do have experience! Do you have any good online-teaching tips or links to helpful resources?
I'm currently taking a semester-long online course dedicated to preparing faculty at my college to teach online. If there are similar resources available to you, whether long courses or workshops at your institution, that would be best. I'm fortunate to be at a place that takes professional development in teaching very seriously and provides lots of opportunities for faculty. I'm preparing to take one of my courses online and already I'm realizing it's a lot of work if you want to do it well and you have to rethink almost everything you do. Our course text is "Essentials of Online Course Design" by Vai and Sosulski; I've only just started it, but it seems quite useful so far. There'a also a vast-seeming literature in pedagogy journals about online teaching.
Posted by: O. | 09/16/2017 at 04:16 PM
One resource to consider is the Online Learning Consortium (https://onlinelearningconsortium.org). They have conferences and paid online training workshops on a large number of topics, ranging from beginner to advanced level of experience. This could be a good option if you have some kind of funding available.
Posted by: Chris Rice | 09/17/2017 at 08:08 AM