Learning to Teach Online Steps and Missteps

Wow! What an amazing day. The first presentation I attended was "Learning the Dance of Teaching Online: Steps and Missteps" was an introduction to putting a course online and some of the best practices involved in getting a successful online course off the ground. The number one suggestion is GET SUPPORT. Know where your technology resources are. Start slow and small. You don't have to pull out all of the bells and whistles right away. Ask yourself, what is it like for a student to take an online course? They may be feeling like it's too much technology, so have some routine to it. Keep in mind student needs. Have an orientation. Introduce the technology you're using and the course expectations. Explain how to navigate through the course system. Make sure that students have the right computer connection. They may be distance learning from a library, a public school. If you're using Elluminate, for example, they may get kicked offline.

There are many free tools out there; wikis, blogs, rss feeds, quizzes, etc. Google "online teaching tools." Teach students "netiquette." Let them know what you're expectations are. Seek and tap into resources. Here are some resources for teaching online:

Illinois Online Network (ION)
Offers a series of 8-week courses to assist faculty to learn to teach online:
http://www.ion.illinois.edu/

Elluminate (synchronous online learning tool)
http://www.elluminate.com/

Multimedia Educational Resource for Learning and Online Teaching (MERLOT)
http://www.merlot.org/merlot/index.htm

Journal of Online Learning (this is a free email journal)
http://jolt.merlot.org/

National Education Association - Online Teaching and Learning Resources
http://www2.nea.org/he/abouthe/techip.html

Daily blog highlighting e-learning tools and information
http://janeknight.typepad.com/

Minnesota State Colleges and Universities Center for Teaching and Learning Tools for Teachers of Online Courses (This is an excellent site that lists many links to additional online teaching resources)
http://www.ctl.mnscu.edu/iteach/online/ni_itotor.php

The Core Rules of Netiquette (excerpted from Virginia Shea's book Netiquette)
http://www.albion.com/netiquette/corerules.html