Online classes call for a different approach.
To engage students, online instructors must use strategies that fit the medium, encourage interaction, appeal to different learning styles and develop critical thinking. According to the Illinois Online Network (ION), simply adapting traditional teaching practices to online classes may prove ineffective. In the online environment, instructors become facilitators, creating new formats for lectures, discussions, small group work, self-directed learning and assessment.
Lectures
Online, lectures may take new audio and video forms. Purdue University suggests tutorials or PowerPoint presentations with audio and online audio clips may provide instruction. Strategically, within the presentations, instructors can provide links to websites and videos, according to ION. Short online presentations can capture students' attention span and allow them to view lectures repeatedly. This repetition can assist students who might have difficulty grasping concepts in a traditional classroom.
Discussions
According to ION, adult learners prefer discussion more than any other educational strategy. In a real-time (synchronous) discussion, online students can participate in chats. More commonly, discussion becomes asynchronous, allowing busy students to converse when their schedules permit during a set time frame. For instance, Discussion Board in Blackboard allows students to discuss issues and reply to others. Even emails can allow students to exchange papers for peer reviews of assignments.
Small Groups
The online environment can encourage small group work and collaboration, allowing the instructor to become a "consultant," according to ION. Using "real world" problems, students may explore case studies or play simulation games. Such strategies provide flexibility for groups and remove obstacles for finding meeting times. In addition, students' differences become less noticeable, allowing students with disabilities, for example, to have an equal voice. The instructor, in turn, can assist each group individually.
Self-Directed Learning
If instructors create appropriate online environments that encourage students to search the best Internet sites and databases, students can become self-directed learners, according to ION. This strategy can encourage students to learn independently as they use the institution's databases, Internet libraries, museums and news sites. As students assess the credibility of websites, they become more critical thinkers.
Assessment
Online instructors must have strategies for assessment. Without proctors for exams, instructors should create open-notes tests, according to ION. For an open-note test, instructors can randomize questions to prevent students from copying from each other and create essay questions to encourage higher-level thought processes. In addition to assessing mastery, instructors can use ungraded quizzes to help students evaluate their understanding.
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