|
Good Practice in
Online Instruction
|
WebCT
|
| Encourages
student-faculty contact. |
- Chat: Schedule
virtual office hours
- Personal
Homepages: Post photos of faculty and other students
- Email: 1 to 1 private
discussion
- Discussions: one
to many public discussions
|
| Encourages
cooperation among students. |
- Student Presentation:
Small teams or groups interact via e-mail; Post student papers, on
Internet-students could critique each other's work
- Email between students
on group projects; Problem solving in groups
- Discussions: Self-introductions;
Provide specific opportunities for students to interact with other
students
|
| Encourages
active learning. |
- Discussions and
Chat: Formal debate on-line between students and experts; Students
evaluate each others' postings; Invite virtual guest speakers;
- Quizzes: Use "Paragraph"
type essay questions for student to submit regular observation/reflection/journal
writings
- Email: Journaling;
Utilize a modified Delphi technique for group consensus - decision-making
- Self-Quiz: self-evaluation
- Notes: Students
take electronic notes while reading Content pages
|
| Gives
prompt feedback. |
- Chat: Live virtual
office hours where the instructor is present
- Self-Quiz: Self-quizzes
with specific feedback for all responses along with each content page
- Discussions: Topic
folders that allows students to post messages with feedback to the
instructor anonymously
- Quizzes and/or Survey:
Quizzes that provided immediate results; Needs assessment pre-class
and post class assessments
- Assignments Dropbox:
Require drafts; Web-based assignments clearly state how the Web may
be used in completing the assignment; web-based assignments direct
students to specific Websites; provide hints for searching the Web;
web-based assignments require students to evaluate and validate Web-based
information
- Student Presentations
and/or Student Homepages: Individual or group projects and portfolios
|
| Emphasizes
time on task. |
- Goals: Post course
goals and learning objectives
- Calendar: Set time-achievement
expectation that is laid out at the beginning of the course
- Tracking: Monitor
student activity on Content pages; Permit students to Track
their own progress through the Content
- Discussions: Set
limits for number and type of postings by each student;
- Email: Keep messages
succinct; Set guidelines for file format of Emailed attachments, require
virus-checking of all attached files; Require Progress Reports from
students periodically
- Bookmarks: Maintain
accurate and up-to-date links to external sites
|
| Communicates
high expectations. |
- Provide self-assessment
tools
- Clearly post course syllabus
with requirements and schedule; Course objectives written
at the higher level and clearly revealed to students
- Assignments Dropbox
makes available "stellar" examples (of past student project, for example)
for students to refer to
- Discussions Bulletin
Board: Monitor ongoing student dialogues for climate setting and
role modeling; Provide corrective feedback; Post netiquette guidelines;
Ask student to comment on what they are doing in terms of metacognition
of the Discussions process; Expect student to participate regularly.
- Celebrate in-class success
by naming student or group
- Content Module:
Provide extra content modules for supplemental readings which support
key points
- Utilize WebQuests
for promoting more discovery and constructivist-oriented learning
activities
- Encourage students to
work with "raw" or puzzling data sets, without feeling the need to
simplify examples to make calculations easier.
- Documenting student work
(for example, as portfolio material on a CD-ROM) or publishing student
work on the WWW.
- Quizzes and Selective
Release: Require mastery competence for information literacy prior
to assigning Internet research tasks
- Courses are separated
into self-contained segments (modules) that can be used to assess
student mastery before moving forward in the course or program.
- Course assignments and
projects require students to make appropriate and effective use of
external resources, including print, library, Web-based, and other
electronic resources
|
OIT 
