I have been thinking a lot recently about online course design, partly because I spoke on Friday to some folks who are getting ready to teach online for the first time, partly because I am designing new online courses myself and trying to remember everything I know.
A helpful newsletter came across my desk today that I want to recommend. I subscribe to eLearn Magazine and find useful articles there on a regular basis. This week’s was about designing a course site in order to provide fair and effective feedback in asynchronous courses. Author Elizabeth Greenbaum suggested three best practices for online teachers—and they are easy to implement while you are conceptualizing and designing the actual course.
What are they? First, create a place for announcements so that everyone will have access to the same information at the same time. Include things there like your late policy. What happens when life intervenes? –this is a frequent occurrence when grown-ups with complex lives are going back to school.
Second—include a conference area where students can ask and answer questions. You want it to be open to everyone, because they will have experience and knowledge that can help one another. I always open my first discussion with a question and answer thread, but I think having a separate area that is always open to students is a great idea. And it cuts down on emails asking what I really meant.
Third—post a rubric for how they will be graded in their online discussions. I was never a fan of rubrics until I started teaching online. I am amazed at how helpful a good illustration of how students will be graded can be to their willingness to participate and the cheerfulness with which they do so! I used a hybrid format this semester in my Women and the Law class and I began their discussion groups by giving them a rubric and an example of a 5 point (maximum) post. The quality of the discussions has been excellent.
Greenbaum gives a very good rubric on this website that you can copy and paste into a document of your own.
And while you are there, sign up for the newsletter!
