Key takeaways for me: Instructor engagement with students is as important as in a face-to-face classroom - but it has to be better planned because the spontaneous encounters will not be likely.
Empowering students to increase their motivation is essential for student success: choice is one way to do this, whether that is giving options for assignment topics, options on how many discussion posts need to be written, options on how to work through the required material, or a segment of the course that is designed by students.
Transparency in assignment design - students need to understand why they are asked to work through certain tasks. Students need to get practice in successful online learning - this may be new for us, but it is definitely a new environment for most of our students.
Encouragement - something that can happen quickly in a face-to-face classroom takes more time and effort in an online class - be an online cheerleader.
Here some more details:
1. Because we are more likely to start an online class from scratch, using backward design principles will pay off to focus on the learning objectives and outcomes, how they are connected to the assignments, and the assignments to learning activities, and these to the online resources. One point to remember here is that students may not only need to learn the content but also the tools to access, process, and create - so giving them opportunities to practice in a scaffolded environment what they are learning is essential, but also giving them opportunities to practice with the tools that will be used to create and submit high stakes assignments is important to remove that stress. Giving them an early opportunity to think about the final assignment, so that they have an idea what they do not know, also helps with scaffolding.
2. Because students who choose to take classes online are likely living a busy life with lots of other challenges, any task that does not hold them accountable is most likely not going to be done. That does not mean, though, that everything needs to have a grade. Consider conditional release: Students need to reach a certain level in a test (multiple attempts) that, when the level is reached, triggers the next module to open. So, instead of grades, the mastering of concepts and knowledge is the trigger.
3. Because faculty interacting with students is so important, schedule time during your work week that is dedicated to your students. Consider when you can schedule 30 minute segments to read and comment on discussion posts, summarize a discussion thread that highlights student ideas, and reach out to students who are in some need of encouragement. Think about deadlines differently - will you have time to provide feedback right after that deadline or do you have other commitments? If your life is too busy, think about a different deadline.
Lots more useful advice in this book that is especially relevant in a time where so many of us needed to shift to online for longer than we dreamed we would. I am looking forward to hearing from you what your takeaways are from this book.
