The nationwide shift in recent years to offer accessible, equitable, and quality online learning options has permanently altered how teachers manage their classrooms, deliver instruction, and facilitate students' progress. Much like traditional classroom settings, managing a successful online classroom requires intentional setup to facilitate a supportive and enriching learning environment for students.
However, the rapid shift to online education has left teachers to develop strategies and tools independently with little guidance, minimal funding, and a general lack of support. Instructors are expected to manage systems and resources on their own and have had insufficient time and training to develop the necessary tools and strategies to ensure student success. At the virtual OLC Innovate 2023 event, Sean Spear, professor at Northcentral University, shared tips, strategies, and tools that teachers can use and implement to provide a meaningful learning experience.
Compared to traditional, on ground classroom settings, online programs offer flexibility for students and provide more freedom in busy schedules. However, when designing online courses and programs, the nature of the flexibility these types of programs offer must be kept in mind. The interaction between peers, instructors, and the digital course infrastructure must operate at a level that facilitates success and engagement and offers adequate support. Spear made these considerations in the lens of course design and course management, explored below.
Course Design
How, then, should online courses be designed for optimal student learning and support? Spear emphasized that effective course design incorporates support services, clear expectations, transparent communication protocols, and thoughtful course and course resource organization. These elements are fundamental in facilitating a successful online learning environment.
- Support: Students and instructors need support resources, apparent technology requirements, and accessibility considerations and accommodations. These needs and services must be addressed and provided in an online format.
- Expectations: Clear expectations regarding typical response times, due dates, and course policies must be set. Transparency with expectations ultimately sets students up for success. It’s important that policies & resources are available to students upfront so that they can focus on the content of the course. Students need to feel comfortable and supported in their learning, and clear communication guidelines for each area of the course will help avoid confusion.
- Communication Protocols: The course should include guidelines and directions on how to contact instructors, how students should log in, synchronous versus asynchronous activities, and how to communicate with peers. Spear recommends that universities set up mini courses prior to the start of a course to include basic and foundational information for navigating their online course/program.
- Course Resources & Organization: This includes making course texts, syllabus, calendar, and assignment rubrics readily available and intuitive to access. The organization of the course into weekly modules that include folders for materials and assignments will help students progress through the digital content seamlessly. Unclear course navigation is a barrier to success. By creating an effective and intuitive learning path, instructors reduce frustration and allow students to be more self-sufficient. The structure in an online course helps avoid confusion and creates a clear path for student progression throughout the course.
Course Management
Once the design of the course is addressed, how should instructors be facilitating the courses? Spear discusses prioritizing community building, assessments, feedback, interactions, and tool selection to optimize course facilitation.
- Community building: Discussion boards, community forums, announcements are modes to build community in an online classroom. Connecting digitally with students builds rapport and camaraderie.
- Assessments: Students benefit from clear and detailed information on how they are to be evaluated and assessed and these can be made transparent in announcements, assignment directions, rubrics, and in the syllabus. Monitoring/tracking student activity/assignments can help instructors identify students who are struggling.
- Feedback: Feedback should be focused and relate to course objectives and students should be given a space to ask questions. Feedback should be timely, substantive, and feed forward. Smaller formative assessments (quizzes, discussions) give timely insights to student progress before larger, higher-stakes assessments. Feedback should help students do better on the next assignment. Instructors should provide students with the opportunity to connect with them to discuss feedback.
- Interaction: Peer-to-peer interaction and student-instructor interaction can be facilitated through tech tools, meetings, lectures, and class discussions.
- Choosing the Right Tools: Rather than implementing the newest and shiniest EdTech, instructors should ask themselves: What tools/apps are my students currently using? Which tools are compatible with our Learning Management System? Which tools can be used for more than one type of assignment collection/provide data for instructional purposes? Can students give feedback and help evaluate the new/free app resources that are available for usage?
Designing and managing an online classroom is challenging and requires considerations and demands that are nonexistent in traditional learning settings. Thoughtful course design coupled with intentional course management will lend to successful learning outcomes in the digital learning environment.
For more articles from the OLC Innovate event, see:
Centering Equity Through Blended and Hybrid Teaching Practices
Educators Utilizing Ed3, Blockchain, and Metaverse Technologies
Students, Faculty Experiencing Burnout in Colleges, Universities