Based on work with online teachers from four countries, the presenters identify critical challenges that teachers must address throughout a semester. This interactive presentation: 1) defines standards of best practice; 2) proposes a model for continual improvement; and 3) applies the standards and model to real-world examples from online classrooms.
With so much focus on online course design, the day-to-day responsibilities of teaching online are often sidelined. The result is a dangerous assumption that online courses are disseminated rather than taught. This interactive presentation refocuses the conversation on active online teaching by:
- Exploring instructional challenges that teachers must address throughout an online semester;
- Offering standards of best practice that serve as a checklist to guide teaching decisions in different phases;
- Proposing a data-driven model of continual improvement; and
- Illustrating the application of the standards and the model with real world-examples.
Participants are encouraged to share their experience, questions and concerns about online teaching and apply the proposed standards and model to solve problems.
Part 1: Making effective instructional decisions throughout a course
Online courses are dynamic events influenced by teachers’ decisions. Drawing from research published in our new book, Essential of Online Teaching: A Standards-Based Guide (Routledge, 2017), we identify four distinct phases in a semester with specific teaching priorities, and discuss questions and problems that arise in each of them:
- Before the course begins: What do teachers need to do before the semester begins to ready themselves and the course for the students?
- The beginning weeks: How do you launch a successful online course? How do you get students to feel comfortable in the environment and confident in their understanding of the course expectations and procedures? How do you get to know your students online and understand their particular needs? How do you create and sustain a social context that encourages students to become personally invested in the course?
- The middle weeks: How do you help students to keep pace with the curriculum? How do you improve the quality of students’ work? How do you improve the dynamics of group interactions?
- The end weeks: How do you help students to reach the finish line and conclude a course successfully? How do you evaluate the course and implement the instructional lessons learned?
Our work with hundreds of teachers from around the United States, United Kingdom and Mexico provides insight into the realities of online instruction (i.e. diverse student populations, unfamiliar technical environment, geographical and psychological distance). We also recognize the unique advantages of the online context to create a dynamic, flexible and responsive learning environment for students.
After analyzing online courses that range in subject matter from sciences to liberal arts and represent diverse instructional approaches and revising other standards for online courses, we propose a list of teaching standards of best practice that are grounded in distance education theory and practice, and serve as guidelines for a teachers’ decision-making in each phase.
We acknowledge that there are many possible to describe teaching and that teaching decisions are influenced by philosophical, institutional, technological, disciplinary, and learner-related factors. The standards cover general teaching issues that are essential in the online environment and are applicable in most asynchronous online courses.
Part 2: Applying a data-driven model to improve your course in progress
When an online course is underway, students are working on many different kinds of activities. How can you tell if they are engaged and if your course plan is on target? This part of the presentation outlines five steps of a data-driven model for continual improvement that will help you gather information about students’ progress, understand factors that may contribute to problems that arise and come up with strategies to improve students’ learning. We will describe a five-step process:
Step 1. Track student progress
One of the great advantages of online teaching is that much of the course participation is stored online. Learning management systems offer a number of tools to track and report students’ online activity. This makes it relatively easy to get a birds’-eye view of the online course in progress.
The digital footprint created by the teacher and students as they participate in the online course provides a rich source of data to mine. However, anyone who has ever participated in an online course will tell you that the online interaction is experienced differently by the participants than it is represented by statistics or read later as a transcript. So it is important to gather information about the subjective experience as well as data about the quantity and quality of students’ participation and work.
Gathering information about the progress of your online course doesn’t need to be an extensive or formal process. It just requires deliberate attention to:
- your own impressions and interpretation of the course in progress;
- the online activity;
- students’ learning outcomes.
We will share data gathering techniques for each of these areas to target your attention where it matters most – on students’ learning.
2. Interpret the data
Once you have gathered information about the students’ progress through your online course, you are likely to notice that there are aspects that are working well and some that could use improvement. We suggest making a list identifying both sides of the spectrum. Understanding success is just as important as understanding problems; many times you can capitalize on successful strategies to improve other areas.
We will share examples of teachers' interpretation of students' online activity and progress such as the one below:
Things that are working well:
- Most students have completed all the required learning activities.
- Students’ work shows high degree of comprehension of content.
- Students’ who are active on the discussion forum seem highly motivated and engaged.
Things that need improvement:
- 12% of students are missing assignments.
- Students’ work doesn’t demonstrate critical analysis of the content or application of ideas beyond examples given in learning resources.
- Online discussion is unbalanced. Some students dominate and others contribute brief, repetitive responses.
3. Analyze contributing factors
When interpreting the cause of a problem, it is important to analyze how the issue is related to:
- The course design: are there aspects of the design (including learning resources) that are causing this problem?
- Your teaching: what could you do differently to reach students more effectively or provide greater support?
- The students: consider characteristics and performances of your students and try to understand what special conditions or circumstances are involved.
We will walk through several examples of common problems that arise during online courses and show how teachers have determined connection to the factors above. We will also invite participants to describe problems they have encountered and analyze the issues together. Most of the time, solutions can be found once the data is viewed in connection with these three areas.
4. Make changes
Once you have figured out the larger context of a problem, you can make appropriate adjustments to the course. A list of “Troubleshooting Strategies” will be provided to participants, outlining common problems that occur in online classrooms, possible contributing factors and solutions that teachers have implemented and found to be effective. It is hoped that this guide will provide enough examples to illustrate how to apply the proposed course improvement model.
A note of caution: An online course functions as a system with all the parts working together to produce desired outcomes. Changing one part of the system can have a ripple effect that alters the whole learning situation. When you make a positive change, it can improve students’ motivation, participation, and the quality of their work. But change must be handled carefully so as not to unintentionally disrupt the parts of the system that are working well. The presentation will offer guidelines to consider as you define strategies to improve your students’ learning and implement the changes.
5. Monitor the Effects of Course Revision
Teaching is a process of continual improvement. As you make changes in your online course, it is important to monitor the effects of the revisions. This presentation outlines several ways to get feedback from students and track their progress after a change has been implemented.
The course improvement cycle loops back on itself as teachers gather and analyze data to guide their instructional decisions.
Wrap-Up: Summary and Additional Resources
Course design is brought to life when teachers and students engage in the learning activities. This presentation will provide teachers with a structure to anticipate the shifting priorities and instructional challenges they are likely to face as their online courses progress. The proposed model for course improvement promotes an “active research” perspective, recognizing teachers as informed decision-makers with the responsibility to adapt and revise a course plan as needs arise. The standards of best practice offered will help them to weigh instructional options and make appropriate decisions for their specific students and situations.
The presentation will conclude with a discussion of resources available to support teachers as they work with students online and improve their courses in action.