Are you teaching online this semester? If so, check out this checklist to help you prepare and build your course, zero in on student engagement and instructor presence, and overall focus on student success and retention.
BEFORE SEMESTER BEGINS
- Complete a self peer review.
Use the Online Education Council peer review rubric or the Blackboard Exemplary Course Award rubric to review your course. See the “Good Practice Teaching Standards” on the IDeL website. - Make course improvements.
Using the information gleaned from the peer review rubric above, reflect back and ask yourself: what worked last semester, what didn’t, were students confused, are more directions or explanation needed, can you add in more interactivity or active learning through instructional design, do you need some help from the digital studio in bringing in more video with Panopto? - Communicate and open your course to students in Blackboard.
In order to best help your student prepare for the upcoming semester, be sure to communicate with your students before the semester starts and open up your course availability to students. - Encourage students to complete readiness checker.
Take a moment to encourage your students to complete the self-assessment: “Are your ready for online learning?“
FIRST WEEK OF SEMESTER
- Welcome your students.
Post an announcement and email your students to welcome them. Let them know who you are, where to begin, etc. - Provide a course orientation.
Some students may be new to online learning, and all of them will be new to your course. Give them some guidance around how your course is designed, create a course overview video, provide tips for success, etc. - Connect with your students.
Provide a way for students to introduce themselves with a FlipGrid video, a discussion board post, a blog post, or other. - Monitor your student logins.
Review the Blackboard Performance Dashboard and check in to make sure that your students are logging into your course! If not, send a personal email and reach out to them.
- Establish your online presence.
Be sure that you are visible in your online course. Take note of the times where you send out communication, respond to student’s discussion board posts, etc. Take advantage of the Blackboard Retention Center to review your engagement.
DURING THE SEMESTER
- Monitor your students.
Check in and monitor your students using the Blackboard Performance Dashboard, Grade Center, and Retention Center. - Maintain instructor presence and communicate regularly.
Be sure you are continuing to engage in the course to ensure you are electronically “visible” to students. Use discussion board, email, announcements, etc. to keep communication flowing. - Offer online office hours.
Use Blackboard Collaborate to offer students to meet with you live for online office hours. This can help break down the barriers and increase engagement with students. - Mid-semester course correction.
Provide an opportunity for students to give you feedback in mid-semester as to how things are going. Use a Blackboard survey to get feedback from students that may provide you with insights for improvement. - Grade and provide feedback.
Be sure you are providing timely feedback on learning activities, assignments, quizzes, and tests. Students will often submit their assignment and desire immediate feedback. Use the Blackboard Grade Center to provide student feedback, the Blackboard inline grading feature for assignments, etc.
END OF SEMESTER
- Complete a self peer review.
Use the Online Education Council peer review rubric or the Blackboard Exemplary Course Award rubric to review your course. See the “Good Practice Teaching Standards” on the IDeL website. - Look for course improvements.
Using the information gleaned from the peer review rubric above, reflect back and ask yourself: what worked last semester, what didn’t, were students confused, are more directions or explanation needed, can you add in more interactivity or active learning through instructional design, do you need some help from the digital studio in bringing in more video with Panopto? - Enter final grades into Banner.
MORE TIPS
IDeL in eLearning offers a variety of additional tips for teaching online:
- Theory in Practice (TIP) Sheets
- Good Practice Teaching Standards
- Video Advice from Experienced Online Faculty
Are you teaching online? Please leave a comment with your tips for success!