As professors, we work hard to create the perfect syllabus for our courses. We outline our expectations, students’ responsibilities, and important policies. Ideally, we do all of this with a learner-centered approach. We are told that the more information we provide, the more successful our
Many years ago, a higher-education publication ran a commentary from a faculty member who complained that students were bored by her lectures because she was not entertaining them enough, but that she should not have to entertain them; however, she was wrong.
The Learning Management System (LMS) was developed to allow faculty to create online courses without having to learn HTML. It provided even the least technologically sophisticated faculty member with an opportunity to teach online by centralizing all course functions in one “mothership.”
How can institutions support excellence in online education? The question is one of paramount importance to all institutions with online course offerings, but it may be a particular challenge to residential, research universities, which are not necessarily designed with online education in mind. But Julie
Class discussions are valuable for pushing participants to think more deeply about ideas and defend their thoughts. However, poorly designed online discussions can turn into mundane and tedious renderings of testimonials, folk wisdom, and repetitious speculations. To avoid this, instructors need to provide the right
Guest speakers were always one of my favorite parts of teaching Principles of Public Relations in a traditional classroom. They invigorated my class with their real-world stories and advice that complemented the textbook and lesson plans. Every semester students would tell me how guests had
I often tell faculty interested in online teaching that it requires a fundamental change in mindset from content creator to content curator. Faculty are used to creating their lectures from scratch for face-to-face courses, but the wealth of good educational content on the web makes
Massively open online courses (MOOCs) have become a major part of online learning, with numerous universities offering courses that draw upwards of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of participants. These courses help fulfill higher education’s mandate of serving the public good by making university
Some of the best-known theories about how adults learn have been put forward by Malcolm Knowles, but how might his theories apply to online courses? We’ve been considering this question in light of two of Knowles’s theories—the value of life experiences and the significance of
Beverley McGuire has taught online courses for 10 years, and she’s been a student in them for five. From those experiences, she’s learned a few things about making online courses effective. She’s also conversant with current research and collaborates with colleagues. From that knowledge and
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