This course is more about teaching and learning than about technology. It just happens that the teaching and learning process in this course occurs online. Think about these 20 questions as you proceed through the course. They are the "big questions" that you will need to consider as you plan to teach online: How are you going to: sequence learning events? organize the elements in your course? design your web pages? orient your students to online learning (and provide tech support)? introduce students to your online course? accommodate students with special needs? create a community of learners? formulate learning objectives and outcomes? develop interactive learning activities? select relevant teaching strategies? set the pace for learning? set up discussions in your discipline? moderate and facilitate discussions? establish participation rubrics? assess learning outcomes? specify criteria and procedures for grading? motivate those who lag? keep the momentum going throughout the semester? manage your own time? Click here! evaluate how the course worked (formative and summative)? At the end of the course you will be asked to use these questions to summarize what you learned in this course. People who have little or no experience with online learning or teaching tend to harbor some misconceptions (which are quickly cleared up after actual participation in online classes). The most common misconception is that online classes will be fairly sterile and impersonal. But once a person starts to interact with other group members, they quickly discover that an online learning environment can be very rich and very personal. Participants often establish online friendships which outlast the particular class. Furthermore, people typically find that they are drawn into the subject matter of the class much more deeply than in a traditional course because of the discussions they get involved in. A second misconception is that online education is only for "techies", i.e., people who have a lot of experience with computers. It is true that you have to have some minimal computer skills to participate in CMC (computer mediated courses), but you certainly do not need to know (or care) very much about computers. With modern software, participating in an online course shouldn't require much more technical know-how than what you need to operate any other piece of office equipment (e.g., fax machine, copier). On the other hand, you do have to have convenient access to a properly equipped computer system in order to participate regularly in an online class; this means having a machine at work and at home (preferably both -- and a laptop if you travel a lot). Another common misconception is that online classes will be easy -- easier than conventional classes. But almost all participants report that they find online classes much more work -- and much more rewarding -- than traditional courses they have taken. Again, this has to do with the amount of thought about the subject matter that results from online discussions. Such classes also require the self-discipline to do the preparation required for online participation and activities -- homework is homework, whether online or offline! Finally it should be mentioned that almost any form of assessment or evaluation is possible with online classes. You can do traditional quizzes or tests with multiple choice questions or problems to be solved if you want; they can even be done with time limits. However, it seems that assignments and projects that involve critical thinking, creativity, problem-solving and group discussion/interaction are more appropriate for online education. Portfolio methods that involve journals or work samples are also ideal for CMC (especially when the web is used since they can include multimedia components). The question of cheating always comes up with any form of online education since online activity is normally done in an unsupervised setting. To the extent that assessment involves assignments or projects unique to a given individual (or done in a team or group context), this is not likely to be a problem. Tests can also be made unique for each person -- or they can be conducted in a supervised environment (like a library or learning center) if really necessary. Basically, if people are going to cheat, they will find a way, online or not. Assessing group performance in an online setting is a little more difficult than evaluating individual efforts -- particularly when people do team projects with a single outcome representing the collective work of the group. [Note that this is just as true in traditional classroom settings.] However, it is possible to have the contribution of each team member identified and perhaps background work shown in Appendices or attached files/web page links. Greg Kearsley, A Guide to Online Instruction Read: Success in Online Learning

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