10 Principles of Effective Online Teaching (and how to operationalize them! )

1. 10 Principles of Effective Online Teaching(and how to operationalize them!) Ann H. Taylor Director, John A. Dutton e- Education Institute The Pennsylvania State University

2. Our Goal • To create a community-generated list of at least 2-3 strategies you can use to operationalize eachof the 10 Principles of Effective Online Teaching

3. Our Agenda

4. Introductions • Name • Institution • Role related to online teaching • 1 Sentence: What do you hope to gain today?

5. A Quick Look at “The Original” Seven Principles of Good Practice in Undergraduate Education • Encourages contact between students and instructor, • Develops reciprocity and cooperation among students, • Encourages active learning, • Gives prompt feedback, • Emphasizes time on task, • Communicates high expectations • Respects diverse talents and ways of learning. Chickering, A.W. & Gamson, A.F. (1987). Seven principles for good practice in undergraduate education. Racine, WI:  The Johnson Foundation, Inc.

6. Our “10 Principles” in a Nutshell • Know your audience • Get organized • Get comfortable with the technology • Communicate expectations • Let your personality show • Be engaged • Build community • Plan for the unexpected • Provide meaningful and timely feedback • Practice continuous quality improvement Image courtesy of Cristoph Settgast - https://www.flickr.com/photos/csett86/, CC BY-SA 2.0

7. 1. Know your audience • Resident students • Online students • Adult learners • Military students • Students with disabilities • Part-time learners • International students

8. 2. Get organized • Online teaching is VERY different • Out of sight, out of mind? • Best practice dictates daily monitoring (Monday-Friday) • Technology can be tricky!

9. 3. Get comfortable with the technology • Make sure YOU are proficient with a new tool before introducing it to your students • Keep it simple • Know how to tell if the dog really did eat their homework! • Know where to turn for help

10. 4. Communicate expectationsfor you and your students Lots to think about… • How often will you log on and interact? • How quickly will you respond to their inquiries? • How do you want them to communicate with you? Each other? • How quickly will you return assignments? • How often should they log on and interact? • How many hours per week should they plan for? • How long should each assignment take?

11. 5. Let your personality show • Online education does NOT have to feel “distant” • A text-first approach (versus talking head video) does NOT have to read like a textbook • Engaging students is the key to success in the online classroom

12. 6. Be engaged • Once the course is ready, do NOT “set it and forget it” • #1 student complaint: Absentee professor • 3 types of engagement: • Student-instructor • Student-student • Student-content “Thanks again for being willing to assist me in completing my graduate application… In truth, its tough for me to even consider leaving Penn State. I've really had the most rewarding experience I could have hoped for and so much more. Being fortunate enough to have instructors like you…has been, for lack of a better word, simply unbelievable.”

13. 7. Build community • Chickering & Gamson: “Good practice…develops reciprocity and cooperation among students” • Engage your students with each other, too • Powerful relationships can be built online!

14. 8. Plan for the unexpected • If it can go wrong, it will  • “Life” can get in the way for both students and instructors • The best laid plans can go awry • What will you do if the technology fails? • What will you do when you have to be “disconnected”? • Who do you need to notify about planned, and unplanned, absences?

15. 9. Provide meaningful and timely feedback • Students need to know how they are doing in order to move forward • “Good job” or “needs work” is not helpful • It is hard to move forward if you don’t know if you are on the right track • Communicate what was done well and why…and how can they improve

16. 10. Practice continuous qualityimprovement • How will you know if things are going well? • Stop? Start? Continue? • Be ready, and willing, to adjust

17. Activity: Strategy Generation • Total Time: 30 minutes • Break into teams of 3-4 • For 5 minutes: Brainstorm as many ways to operationalize a Principle • Use a single sticky note for each idea – Post it! • Switch when the timer goes off! • Repeat (3 times)

19. So…what did we come up with?

20. Make Order Out of Chaos • Total Time: 30 minutes • Break into new teams of 3-4 • For your assigned Principle: • Clear out the clutter • Revise/rewrite each idea as necessary • Add new ideas that come to mind • Identify related resource needs (if any) • Identify barriers (if any) • Share electronically

21. What should make “the list”?

22. Some Supporting Resources • The Dutton Institute’s Faculty Development Site http://facdev.e-education.psu.edu/ • MERLOT Faculty Development Portalhttp://facultydevelopment.merlot.org/ • MSU’s Online Instructional Resourceshttp://fod.msu.edu/oir/online-instructional-resources • The POD Listserv http://podnetwork.org/pod-listserv/ • The Sloan-C Listserv http://sloanconsortium.org/mailing_list

23. Keep in touch! Annie Taylor atb3@psu.edu @reallyanntaylor