Tips for teaching online

Do you suddenly find yourself teaching online due to the COVID-19 pandemic? Do you need some support? Some ideas?  For teachers who suddenly find themselves having to teach online, Dr. Anna Cohen Miller who works at the Nazarbayev University Graduate School of Education in the Republic of Kazakhstan has compiled some excellent tips and strategies.  Thanks Anna!

• A short post about How to jump into online teaching
• A living Google doc of resources and tips for Online Teaching
• An online collective with discussion, supportive ideas and resource links. The open Facebook group has grown overnight from just a few of us to over 1200.

If you have tips, tools, and ideas to share, please add them in the response box below. We can all benefit from your teaching wisdom and experience!

In my own work teaching online, one of the challenges I have found is the sheer diversity in ways to teach online. In my view, there are many ways to approach online learning, and there is an enormous range of resources that teachers can make use of. For example, it’s possible to organize a class around fully synchronous face-to-face meetings using online meeting rooms (e.g., Google Hangouts, Zoom, Adobe Connect, Blackboard). In these sorts of settings, instructors and students can give presentations, groups can be organized, and people can report out from small group discussions. The chat tool can be used to ask and respond to questions via text, or speakers can turn on their audio. Teachers can also rely on institutional Learning Management Systems (LMSs). Most readers will be familiar with LMSs such as Moodle, Blackboard, Canvas, and Desire2Learn (now Brightspace). These sorts of platforms typically allow for synchronous meetings where participants can see one another and include different tools (e.g., content modules in which text, links, and screencasts can be added, chat, quizzes, surveys, discussion forums, etc.).

Over the years, I have tended to rely on my institution’s LMS, which is currently Brightspace, while I know many instructors make excellent use of other teaching tools outside the LMS.  I’ve tried a variety of other tools that I’ve integrated into online coursework. Below is a document that former students (from an online course!) and I put together… if you are just starting to teach online, try one tool at a time, and start with those that are free! Develop your skills with those tools you like best.  You will quickly find what tools your students prefer.

Some of these tools are used by professional instructional designers (e.g., Articulate 360); others are very sophisticated tools that can be used by anyone who puts time into learning how to use it. Others are free…

List compiled by J. Allen, C. Beach, A. Bliss, V. Brackebusch, S. Cherry, K. Clayton, D. Jones, El Mozo Reyes, K. Roulston, A. Walker, M. Weatherill, and C. Yang.

Updated March 16, 2020

Kathy Roulston