Online Teaching Practices
Online Course design and quality has a significant impact on student success in either an online course or an LMS-enhanced course. The following eight indicators are recommend guidelines when designing or reviewing a course.
1. Design
The course’s design should include the following:
- Specific and measurable learning objectives
- Alignment to assessments and learning activities
- Authentic real-world experiences
2. Organization
- Easy to navigate
- Logical and consistent format
- Alignment between topics and subtopics
- Manageable sections
Organization Examples
- Course is organized with sequential modules.
- Lecture items are appropriately chunked
- Activity items are included in module
- Students do not have to navigate to menus in order to complete activities
- Capstone/Group project items are included in “weekly” modules
3. Clarity/Context
- Manage student expectations
- Provide orientation to the course
- Illustrate alignment of objectives, assessments, and activities
- Clear instructions and directions
- Description of grading and assessment plan
Clarity/Context Examples
- Instructions are written in sequential order using numbered list format rather than paragraph format.
- Rubrics are included when applicable.
- Headings are properly used.
- Instructions appear on OR are linked in activity’s description.
4. Accessibility
- Reduce barriers to students by following accessibility guidelines for video captions, image alt-text, and screen-reader friendliness in materials
Accessibility Examples
- Videos are properly captioned with high accuracy, capitalization, punctuation.
- No accessibility Errors appear using Folio’s accessibility checker.
- No objective accessibility Warnings appear when using Foio’s accessibility checker. (contrast, list items).
- Few subjective accessibility Warnings appear when using Folio’s accessibility checker.
5. Instructor-Interaction
- Express interest in student learning
- Actively participate in online discussions
- Facilitate learning and peer interaction
- Expand students’ thoughts and knowledge provide new prompts and additional content
- Provide timely and detailed feedback on assessments and student inquiries
Instructor-Interaction Examples
- Weekly overview videos
- Instructor-created lectured videos
- Facilitates discussion posts with replies
- Completes grading within a timeframe to allow students to reflect on feedback prior to next major assessment.
6. Peer-Interaction
- Facilitate active learning through frequent and online peer involvement and meaningful collaborative work
- Provide opportunities and technologies available for students to learn from each other
Peer-Interaction Examples
- Provides discussion assignments
- Encourages peer responses in Q&A areas.
- Uses Peer-to-peer tools such as Perusall
- Creates group or team projects that utilize collaborative tools such as Google Docs, Jamboard or Padlet.
7. Content Interaction
- Strategically enhance the student interaction with accessible and interactive content
- Support dialogue, critical reflection and analysis, and real-world applications of the content
- Provide materials that are current, rich, and sufficient in breadth and depth
- Identify important topics and provide context
8. Richness
Provide richness in learning materials and activities, support and instructions, instructor interactions, and tools and media.
Richness Examples
- Content Videos
- Relevant images
- Interactive tools such as Perusall, YuJa, Nearpod, Padlet, or Thinglink.
Adapted from the National Research Center for Distance Education and Technological Advancements (DETA) at the University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee, https://detaresearch.org/research-support/teaching-resources/
Last updated: 9/21/2023