Excellent Online Teaching

Drawing on nearly a decade of teaching online, and many years working as a technical adviser and faculty developer in higher education, author Aaron Johnson will walk you through sixteen distinct characteristics of excellent online teaching. What you'll learn: - Strategies for connecting with your students - Effective ways to save time in grading - Ways to give your students meaningful feedback - How to communicate effectively in the online environment - How to begin and end your course with excellence - How to effectively facilitate online discussion Preview the table of contents for more Excellent Online Teaching also has a companion website with resources for each chapter. Because this is a rapidly changing field, this book focuses on enduring online teaching methods. The companion website contains updates, technical helps, and other resources. "My hope is that you'll end the semester with a new level of confidence and with course evaluations that let you know that you are on the right track. More importantly, I hope that you and your students will be experiencing a vibrant learning relationship. If you have been teaching online for a while, I think you'll find some ways to improve your game." - Author, Aaron Johnson

Effective Online Teaching is an essential resource that offers a clear understanding of how cognition and learning theory applies to online learning. This much-needed resource provides specific strategies for incorporating this knowledge into effective learner-centered teaching that gets results. The book includes strategies on motivation, tailored instruction, interaction, collaboration, monitoring and communication, time and information management, student concerns, and legal and ethical issues. Designed as a text for online instructors, the chapters can be used for self-directed learning or in a formal training setting in concert with the companion Training Manual and CD. "Tina Stavredes has done something sorely needed in the online teaching world she has successfully combined solid theory and research with the practical application of instructor training. Both the book and the training manual are a 'must' for any online education organization. Bravo!" Dr. Darcy W. Hardy, assistant vice provost for Technology Education Initiatives, University of Texas at San Antonio, and chair emerita, United States Distance Learning Association "Drawing from years of experience and solidly grounded in an understanding of the adult learner and learning, Stavredes offers dozens of helpful instructor strategies, activities, and resources to support adult learners' success in an online environment. Effective Online Teaching and its accompanying training manual is a 'must-have' set for online instructors in higher education, corporate, and government settings." Sharan B. Merriam, professor emeritus of adult education, University of Georgia, and coauthor, Learning in Adulthood "An eminently practical book that provides clear and unpretentious explanations of the learning theories that are essential knowledge for every online teacher, together with equally uncluttered and easy-to-follow guidance about how to apply this knowledge to achieve excellent teaching." Michael Grahame Moore, Distinguished Professor of Education, The Pennsylvania State University, and editor, The American Journal of Distance Education

Bring pedagogy and cognitive science to online learning environments Online Teaching at Its Best: Merging Instructional Design with Teaching and Learning Research, 2nd Edition, is the scholarly resource for online learning that faculty, instructional designers, and administrators have raved about. This book addresses course design, teaching, and student motivation across the continuum of online teaching modes—remote, hybrid, hyflex, and fully online—integrating these with pedagogical and cognitive science, and grounding its recommendations in the latest research. The book will help you design or redesign your courses to ensure strong course alignment and effective student learning in any of these teaching modes. Its emphasis on evidence-based practices makes this one of the most scholarly books of its kind on the market today. This new edition features significant new content including more active learning formats for small groups across the online teaching continuum, strategies and tools for scripting and recording effective micro-lectures, ways to integrate quiz items within micro-lectures, more conferencing software and techniques to add interactivity, and a guide for rapid transition from face-to-face to online teaching. You’ll also find updated examples, references, and quotes to reflect more evolved technology. Adopt new pedagogical techniques designed specifically for remote, hybrid, hyflex, and fully online learning environments Ensure strong course alignment and effective student learning for all these modes of instruction Increase student retention, build necessary support structures, and train faculty more effectively Integrate research-based course design and cognitive psychology into graduate or undergraduate programs Distance is no barrier to a great education. Online Teaching at Its Best provides practical, real-world advice grounded in educational and psychological science to help online instructors, instructional designers, and administrators deliver an exceptional learning experience even under emergency conditions.

As social media and Web 2.0 technologies continue to transform the learning trends and preferences of students, educators need to understand the applicability of these new tools in all types of learning environments. Best Practices for Teaching with Emerging Technologies will provide both new and experienced online, hybrid, and face-to-face instructors with: practical examples of how low-cost and free technologies can be used to support student learning best practices for integrating web-based tools into a course management system and managing student privacy in a Web 2.0 environment "Showcase" spotlights woven throughout the book, providing examples of how the tools described in the book are already being used effectively in educational settings an easy-to-reference format, organized with visual icons used to delineate each tool's visual, video, voice, and mobile features ideas for integrating mobile learning into your students' learning experiences. This practical, easy-to-use guide will serve the needs of educators seeking to refresh or transform their instruction. Readers will be rewarded with an ample yet manageable collection of proven emerging technologies that can be leveraged for generating content, enhancing communications with and between students, and cultivating participatory, student-centered learning activities.

Teaching Health Professionals Online: Frameworks and Strategies is a must-read for professionals in the health care field who strive to deliver excellence in their online classes. This compendium of teaching strategies will assist both new and experienced instructors in the health professions. In addition to outlining creative, challenging activities with step-by-step directions and explanations of why they work, each chapter situates these practical techniques within the context of a particular theory of learning: instructional immediacy, invitational theory, constructivism, connectivism, transformative learning, and quantum learning theory. The authors also address other issues familiar to those who have taught online courses. How can a distance instructor build teacher-student relationships? How does one create a sense of community in the virtual classroom? How can an online instructor best support students in their future pursuit of knowledge and their development as competent professionals? By considering these and other concerns, this handbook aims to help instructors to increase student success and satisfaction, which, the authors hope, will in the long run contribute to improved patient care.

From wired campuses to smart classrooms to massive open online courses (MOOCs), digital technology is now firmly embedded in higher education. But the dizzying pace of innovation, combined with a dearth of evidence on the effectiveness of new tools and programs, challenges educators to articulate how technology can best fit into the learning experience. Minds Online is a concise, nontechnical guide for academic leaders and instructors who seek to advance learning in this changing environment, through a sound scientific understanding of how the human brain assimilates knowledge. Drawing on the latest findings from neuroscience and cognitive psychology, Michelle Miller explores how attention, memory, and higher thought processes such as critical thinking and analytical reasoning can be enhanced through technology-aided approaches. The techniques she describes promote retention of course material through frequent low‐stakes testing and practice, and help prevent counterproductive cramming by encouraging better spacing of study. Online activities also help students become more adept with cognitive aids, such as analogies, that allow them to apply learning across situations and disciplines. Miller guides instructors through the process of creating a syllabus for a cognitively optimized, fully online course. She presents innovative ideas for how to use multimedia effectively, how to take advantage of learners’ existing knowledge, and how to motivate students to do their best work and complete the course. For a generation born into the Internet age, educational technology designed with the brain in mind offers a natural pathway to the pleasures and rewards of deep learning.