Best+Practices

=Best Practices in Teaching Online=

//Technology alone does not enhance instruction – never has and never will. Pedagogy is what matters – always has and always will.”// //-Robert M. Diamond, 2008//

Diamond’s quote in essence captures for us the primary reason that the information below is important. While technology provides a vehicle for delivery of education, at the end of the day the learning experience is enhanced by solid pedagogical practices. We have tried to illustrate many best practices as supported by research and provide examples of learning activities in an online environment of teaching and learning.

[] Lewis and Abdul-Hamid (2006) interviewed what they term exemplary faculty who teach online. The purpose of the interviews was to gain a concrete understanding of how effective practices were actually implemented in the online classroom, or in other words, the actual learning activities and strategies utilized while teaching online. The authors provided examples of strategies in the context of four broad categories: Fostering Interaction, Providing Feedback, Facilitating Learning, and Maintaining Enthusiasm and Organization. For “Fostering Interaction” faculty used such strategies as introduction exercises, assignments that required students to make substantive contributions such as the posting of an issue or question to be responded to. Many included an online space where students could hang out together, referred to by one instructor as “The Café”. Other strategies also included group projects or study groups. For the category of “Providing Feedback” faculty noted that feedback is given for a variety of reasons and situations such as feedback on students’ contributions to discussion forums or follow-up to submitted assignments. Almost all the faculty interviewed reported that a large part of providing feedback was to clearly express grading expectations or requirements prior to student submissions of assignments and many used rubrics for this purpose. For “Facilitating Learning”, most of the faculty stated that they directed students to the course syllabus. Some faculty included goals and objectives in each of the weekly learning modules, another reinforced them through class announcements, another strategy was the administration of a simple quiz based on the syllabus to ensure that the course goals are reiterated from the very beginning of the course. Other strategies include asking student to post the areas they are having the most difficulty with, report on what they have learned, or pose questions to their peers. Depending on the course level, students are also encouraged to share their own examples or situations reflective of the subject matter. Another strategy was to invite guest speakers to visit the online class in real time chats or conferences to facilitate student learning about the subject matter. In the category of “Maintaining Enthusiasm and Organization” many of the strategies given were in the context of online asynchronous learning. Faculty stressed the need to be very organized and energetic and to have a visible persona through one’s written communication. The authors conclude that the faculty resoundingly spoke of strategies that, while reminiscent of the traditional face-to-face environment, must receive greater emphasis to establish and maintain the virtual communities of learning. They all agreed that one of the expectations for effective online instruction is for structured pedagogical approaches which evolve around interactivity and the deliberate actions of faculty willing to provide careful attention to student needs.
 * Lewis CC, Abdul-Hamid H. Implementing effective online teaching practices: Voices of exemplary faculty. Innovative Higher Education 2006; 31(2): 83-98.**

[] In this study Shea et al., review issues surrounding pedagogy and faculty development, and their relationship to student satisfaction and reported learning. In essence they developed a conceptual framework that integrates research on how people learn (Bransford), with principles of good practice in higher education (Chickering and Gamson), along with research on learning in asynchronous learning networks in higher education (Anderson, Rourke, Garrison and Archer). They posit this as a conceptual framework for high quality, online higher education learning environments and that attention to the principles espoused by the above authors may improve the experiences of both students and faculty. This conceptual framework developed by Shea and colleagues is graphically displayed below and illustrates the interconnectedness of the various streams of research cited above.
 * Shea P, Pickett A, Pelz W. A follow-up investigation of “teaching presence” in the SUNY Learning Network. Journal of Asynchronous Learning Networks (JALN) 2003; 7(2): 61-80.**



[] These seven principles are based on over fifty years of research on the way teachers teach and students learn, how student work and play with one another, and how students and faculty talk to each other. We would contend that even though this paper was written with undergraduate students in mind, the same principles hold true for graduate and doctoral students. Below we list those principles along with examples provided by the authors – learning activities.
 * Chickering A, Gamson A. Seven Principles for Good Practice in Undergraduate Education. Racine, WI: The Johnson Foundation, Inc/Wingspread, 1987.**

1. Encourages contact between students and faculty. Learning activities: Freshman seminars on important topics, taught by senior faculty members, establish an early connection between students and faculty in many colleges and universities.

2. Develops reciprocity and cooperation among students. Learning activities: Learning groups are a common practice, in which five to seven students meet regularly during class throughout the term to solve problems set by the instructor.

3. Encourages active learning. Learning activities: Structured exercises, challenging discussions, team projects and peer critiques all encourage active learning. Internships, independent study and cooperative job programs are additional strategies for encouraging active learning.

4. Gives prompt feedback. Learning activities: In writing courses students learn through detailed feedback from instructors and peers, to revise and rewrite drafts – so formative assessment prior to a summative assessment.

5. Emphasizes time on task. Learning activities: Mastery learning, contract learning, and computer-assisted instruction require that students spend adequate amounts of time on learning. Workshops, intensive residential programs, learning centers are all used as ways to emphasize time on task.

6. Communicates high expectations. Learning activities: Some universities have communicated high expectations for underprepared high school students by bringing them to the university for workshops in academic subjects, study skills, test taking, and time management. In order to reinforce high expectations, parents and high school counselors are included.

7. Respects diverse talents and ways of learning. Learning activities: Individualized degree programs can be that recognize different interests. Contract learning where students define their own objectives, determine their own learning activites, and define the criteria and methods of evaluation.

[] This paper was a follow up from the 1987 publication of the seven principles with the intent of incorporating how technology has the potential to impact implementation of the principles. Below are the authors’ examples of learning activities and strategies in a technology environment. Online learning activities: Invite guest speakers (senior faculty) to develop a podcast and then participate in a discussion forum around a topic of interest.
 * Chickering and Ehrmann (1996), “Implementing the Seven Principles: Technology as Level, AAHE Bulletin, October, pp 3-6.**
 * 1) Encourages contact between students and faculty.

2 .Develops reciprocity and cooperation among students. Online learning activities: Web 2.0 technologies make learning groups even easier using tools such as wikis and blogs to develop projects and work together solving problems.

3. Encourages active learning. Online learning activities: Online teaching and learning is the ultimate experience in active learning as it is impossible to be passive in this environment when exercises include posting to discussion boards, and providing peer assessment.

4. Give prompt feedback. Onlne learning activities: The online teaching environment naturally adapts itself to peer assessment in that students can post drafts of assignments on discussion boards and faculty can assign peer assessors. It is extremely easy to “edit” a paper that a student posts using editing tools and track changes – where the student can easily accept suggested changes, or the faculty member can “add comments” that the student can respond to and then delete the comments from the paper.

5. Emphasizes time on task. Online learning activities: It is interesting to note that one of the examples given by the Chickering and Gamson in 1987 was computer-assisted instruction! Technology also can make studying more efficient. The ability to access materials 24/7, access to library databases, etc.

6. Communicates high expectations. Online learning activities: Again the example of peer assessment is a very powerful motivator for students. Knowing that their work is going to be posted on the web for peers to see, provides a strong incentive to produce quality work.

7. Respects diverse talents and ways of learning. Online learning activities: Technologies can help students learn in ways they find most effective and broaden their repertoires for learning. Web 2.0 technologies provide opportunities for students to be producers of content in a way that is much more robust than the past. A student who may not be able to articulate their thoughts well in a discussion format may be able to produce a video that demonstrates understanding and excitement for course content.

[] Following are three findings from the work of Bransford et all, that have a solid research base. We encourage readers to click on the hyperlink above as there are some excellent learning activities and strategies identified for the three findings. For example, for the first finding about how students come to the classroom with preconceptions, the authors encourage teachers to actively inquire into students’ thinking, creating classroom tasks and conditions under which student thinking can be revealed. In that way initial conceptions can provide the foundation on which the more formal understanding of the subject matter is built. Or conversely, misconceptions can be cleared up! This cannot be done in a passive environment of lecture with one way communication.
 * Bransford J, Brown A, Cocking R, Donovan M, Pellegrino J. //How People Learn//, National Academic Press, 2000.**
 * Students come to the classroom with preconceptions about how the world works
 * If their initial understanding is not engaged, they may fail to grasp new concepts and information presented in the classroom, or they may learn them for the “test” but revert to their preconceptions outside the classroom
 * To develop competence in an area of learning, students must have both a deep foundation of factual knowledge and a strong conceptual framework
 * Conceptual framework allows for organizing information into meaningful patterns and store it hierarchically in memory to facilitate retrieval for problem solving
 * Mastery of concepts facilitates transfer of learning to new problems
 * Strategies can be taught that allow students to monitor their understanding and progress in problem solving (metacognition)
 * Students can be taught to recognize when additional information is required to solve a problem, whether new information is consistent with what is already known, and what analogies can be drawn that would advance their understanding (a culture of inquiry)
 * In problem solving they consider alternatives
 * This has all been termed “learning with understanding”


 * Woodward-Leners, D. & Sitzman, K. (2006). Graduate student perceptions: Feeling the passion**
 * of caring online. //Nursing Education Perspectives, 27//(6), 315-319.**


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This qualitative study which was a replication of a study conducted by the same researchers involving undergraduate nursing students, examined master’s and doctoral nursing students’ perceptions as to how they experienced the essence of caring from a teacher-student relationship in an online learning environment. All 49 participants were students taking courses at the same university with the doctoral students being enrolled in an online program and the master’s students being enrolled in hybrid courses with classes held on site with supplemental online instruction. The majority of students from both groups completed at least four totally on-line courses. Participants completed an online survey which included six open-ended questions specific to the subject of caring from a teacher-student relationship perspective.

The following six themes emerged in association with faculty caring: 1) Empathy; 2) Timeliness of communication involving faculty’s constructive feedback; 3) Tone of appreciation which was exemplified by the choice of words selected by the faculty during feedback; 4) //Being the best that I can be// attitude reflected faculty support of student achievement; 5) Finding a cord of harmony reflected “the students’ need for faculty to get to know them on a personal level” (Woodard-Leners & Sitzman, 2006, p. 317); and 6) Feeling the passion of caring online through the faculty’s use of affective behaviors that exemplify caring (Woodard-Leners & Sitzman, 2006).

Creating a learning environment that exemplifies the concept of caring is essential for the success and retention of online learners. Thus, this study at the very least provided an insight as to what online learners deem is necessary in creating such an environment though this author contends that caring in any learning environment needs to include a reciprocal caring relationship between teacher to student and student to teacher.

[] This article focuses specifically on how to generate and foster an engaging online discussion environment. This is particularly important in helping students feel connected to the class and the teacher. According the authors, it is important to “carefully integrate electronic discussions” into course objectives and expectations, and not just make them an add-on or optional assignment. It is important to set clear expectations and specific directions. These directions should encourage students to provide examples to support their point of view and encourage them to question others and suggest alternate viewpoints. The instructor can also encourage students to “integrate internet research” in their posts and use links, videos, and images where relevant. You can also encourage (or require) students to quote from the textbook or other course materials to help further integrate the discussion with the rest of the course. It can be helpful for the instructor to model this behavior in their own posts. In developing discussion questions or assignments, the authors suggest that sometimes it may make sense to make them very specific, while at other times you may want to leave them more open-ended to allow the students to determine where the discussion goes. You may also want to create a place for student reflection “on what was learned from specific classmates during the e-discussion.” To further help facilitate engaging discussions, it is recommended that students be assigned to smaller groups within the class and have them respond to each other. This can help students feel more connected, and thus engaged in the course. The authors suggest that students have access to all groups, but only be required to participate in their own group.
 * Fischer, K. Reiss, D. and Young, A. (2005). //Ten tips for generating engaged online discussion.// Austin, TX, University of Texas.**

[] Howard asserts that due to the high dropout rate and the numerous freshman students “lost” and “wandering the digital halls” of online composition courses for dangerously extended amounts of time, instructors should incorporate either a minimal amount of actual face-to-face contact or live synchronous electronic communication, either auditory or visual. He acknowledges the inherent problems of arranging actual face-to-face contact, along with the technical problems associated with live online communication. Additionally, Howard concedes that some of the most commonly used programs such as Blackboard do not have this component built in. However, he asserts that due to a general lack of university experiences of many freshmen, instructors easily can miss the “class-wide confusion” accompanying many activities in a freshman writing course. He enthusiastically proclaims the numerous benefits offered through online writing instruction—e.g. increased opportunities for collaboration with a wide writing community, the positive effects online courses have on traditional classes for many students, higher expectations, increased accountability, and easy accessibility of archived online exchanges. Howard cites over twenty scholarly sources concerning distance education in order to demonstrate his general knowledge of online education and to situate his argument. In summary, he feels that much of the success of online instruction, often demonstrated at the graduate level, is simply not reflective of the needs of freshmen composition
 * Howard, Samuel B. “The Benefits of Face-to-Face Interaction in the Online Freshman Composition Course.” //MERLOT Journal of Online Learning and Teaching//. Vol. 5, No.4. Dec. 2009.**

An interesting discussion about Online Teaching:media type="custom" key="8165930"