Effective Strategies for Online Teaching Success

1. Best Practices in Online Instruction David Favre, PhD Center for Innovation in Teaching and Learning

2. Agenda By the end of this workshop you will be able to… • Translate effective face-to-face teaching principles to online contexts. • Apply the breaking of mental sets to seeing opportunities in online instruction.

3. Is There a Model? • No model • Look for evidence-based principles and practices. • Analyze their components and contexts to determine how their qualities can be translated online. • Think outside the box (your mental set). • Synchronous vs. Asynchronous

4. Keep in Mind • Core Teaching Functions • Classroom management • Instructional strategies • Student engagement

5. Principles of Effective Teaching (1 of 2) (Ambrose et al., 2010) • Student’s prior knowledge can help or hinder learning. • How students organize knowledge influences how they learn and apply what they know. • Students’ motivation determines how much effort and persistence they will direct toward their learning. • Students develop mastery when they acquire component skills, practice integrating them, and know when to apply what they learned.

6. Principles of Effective Teaching (2 of 2)(Ambrose et al., 2010) • Goal-directed practice with targeted feedback enhances the quality of student learning. • Students’ current level of development interacts with the social, emotional, and intellectual climate of the class to impact learning. • Students need to practice self-regulated learning before they can become self-directed learners.

7. Translating Best Practices Source: Weimer (2015) Source: Justin (2010)

8. Activity 1: Breaking Mental Sets (1 of 2) Mental sets are frameworks people use consistently for problem solving. • Draw four straight lines that connect all 9 dots. • You can’t lift your pencil or re-trace any line.

9. Activity 1: Breaking Mental Sets (2 of 2)

10. Best Practices in Online Instruction

11. 1 – Be Present in Your Course (1 of 2) • Welcoming video • Share some of yourself • Monitor student interactions • State communication expectations • Use tools • Announcements • Discussion boards • Instructor blogs • Instructor presence is the focal point for community bonding • Virtual office hours

12. 1 – Be Present in Your Course (2 of 2) Cautions: • Don’t dominate the interactions • Instructor evaluative comments can kill discussions. • Goldilocks zone for motivational messages: Nilson & Goodson (2018)

13. 2 – Use Active Learning • Design for collaboration over competition • Consider best platforms • Small group learning • Keep same groups together • Group goals with individual accountability • Well-moderated discussions with interactions and reflection • Interactive videos with questions and reflections • Surveys • Role lays • Simulations • Media Space • Digication

14. 3 – Give Feedback • Be prompt • Provide targeted feedback based on criteria to help students improve. • Automate feedback for online quizzes and knowledge checks with explanations. • Encourage student reflection on their performance.

15. Activity 2: Automated Quiz Write a multiple choice item for a content area in your discipline. • Include a stem, a key, and three distractors. • Write brief explanations for the key and distractors that will provide helpful targeted feedback.

16. 4 – Create a Safe & Welcoming Environment • Have people introduce themselves • Encourage small talk before class • Include personal anecdotes • Structure for inclusivity • Don’t avoid course appropriate topics related to diversity just because they are sensitive issues. • Set expectations for communications • Code of conduct • Netiquette • Monitor

17. 5 – Promote Self-Regulation of Learning • Teach appropriate self-regulation methods • Planning – Monitoring - Evaluating • Cognitive modeling • Make a consistent pattern of due dates • Short videos support comprehension (5-8 minutes) • Emphasize time on task • Provide sufficient time for learning activities • Inform students of how long things should take • Address time management strategies • Remind students of due dates

18. 6 – Design Discussion Posts to Invite Active Learning • Discussion posts should invite responses, questions, discussion, and reflections. • Set expectations • Consider alternatives to discussion boards such as audio/video postings and responses. • Discussion boards are equivalent to classroom or face-to-face discussions but they are asynchronous. • More reflection time • They are captured • Model Socratic / probing and follow-up questions • Allow time for responses

19. Activity 3: Breaking Mental Sets (1 of 3) Here is another mental set problem: XII Can you make a twenty? XX

20. Activity 3: Breaking Mental Sets (2 of 3) Here is another mental set problem: XII, XX How about a seven? VII

21. Activity 3: Breaking Mental Sets (3 of 3) Here is another mental set problem: XII, XX, VII Now,…try to make a one.

22. 7 – Respect Diverse Talents and Ways of Learning Afford a variety of opportunities (multimodal) for student success. Source: National Center for Design for Learning

23. 8 – Use Technology Appropriately • Select technology that… • Integrates well with your learning objectives. • Is easy to learn. • Available to all of your students. • FERPA (Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974) • Student information is secure • Open social media sites should not be required • Technology and products should be accessible • (P)erceivable • (O)perable • (U)nderstandable • (R)obust

24. 9 - Minimize Cognitive Load • Students learn new info better and longer… • in chunks that are logical groupings. • when complex lessons are presented in short segments. • when new material is scaffolded. • Scaffolding Techniques: • Modeling a method of reasoning • Exemplars • Step-by-step hints with feedback when needed • Worked examples • Graphic organizers

25. 10 – Combine Core Concept Learning with Personalized Learning • Identify core concepts – tied to learning goals and outcomes • Guide learners through increasingly complex learning activities • Allow for personalization/customization • Choice increases motivation • Meaningfully supports learners personal and professional goals • Connects new knowledge to learners’ social environments (Vygotsky, 1978) • Theory-Application cycle is important for knowledge consolidation

26. Activity 4: Reflection Think about a good practice you experienced in online instruction either as an instructor or student. • Share this experience with your group. • Is there a way to rethink this practice to make it even better?

27. Thank You! favre@Illinois.edu

28. References Ambrose, S. A., Bridges, M. W., DiPietro, M., Lovett, M. C., & Norman, M. K., (2010). How learning works: Seven researched-based principles for smart teaching. San Fransico; Jossey-Bass. General Education Board (Illinois Office of the Provost) (n.d.). Best practices. Retrieved from https://publish.illinois.edu/onlineinstruction/resources-best-practices-in-online-instruction/ Justin (2010). Skype conferencing beta. Retrieved from https://www.flickr.com/photos/jmarty/4891061419/in/photostream/ Nilson, L. B. & Goodson, L. A. (2018). Online teaching at its best: Merging instructional design with teaching and learning research. San Fransisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. Vygotsky, L. S. (1978). Mind in society: The development of higher psychological processes. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Weimer, M. (2015). Cooperative learning structures and deep learning. Retrieved from https://www.facultyfocus.com/articles/teaching-and-learning/cooperative-learning-structures-and-deep-learning/