1. John J. Lawless, PhD, MPH
SUNY Empire State College
May 2010, FPP White Eagle
2. Elements of Successful Online Courses
Importance of
Building Community
Consistency of
Interaction with Active and Valued
Course Design
Instructor Course
(Institutional
(Teaching Presence) Discussions
Support)
Swan, et.al. 2000
3. Teaching Presence
Design and Organization
https://esc.angellearning.com/section/default.asp?
id=EMPU-84BPBR
Facilitating Discourse
Direct Instruction
Anderson et al, JALN 5(2) 2001
4. Design and Organization
Set the curriculum
Utilize medium effectively
Establish time parameters
Establish netiquette
5. Facilitating Discourse
Identify areas of agreement/disagreement
Seek to reach understanding
Encourage and acknowledge student
contributions
Set climate for learning
Draw participants in; prompt discussion
6. Best Practices for
Discussions
o Presence of guidelines - defining expectations in
terms of quality, quantity and possibly frequency of
posts
o Presence of feedback - Visible (preferably with the
gradebook); Both narrative feedback and numerical
evaluation
o Instructor presence - What type – evaluative
(avoid this) vs. inquisitive; How much?
7. Direct Instruction
Present content/questions
Focus discussion on specific issues
Summarize discussion
Confirm understanding through assessment
and explanatory feedback
Add knowledge from diverse sources
Respond to technical concerns
8. Promoting Quality
Discussions
Instructor role – Socrates
Promote student-centered discussion boards
Respond to a question with a question!
Utilize Bloom’s taxonomy in asking students
questions – analysis, synthesis and evaluation
10. How to Utilize a Taxonomy
• Analyze
• Compare
Analysis • Contrast
• Hypothesize
• Design
Synthesis • Develop
• Critique
• Justify
Evaluation • Judge
11. Blended Models
How will the web component enhance the
course and student learning?
Static
Course Announcements, Syllabus, Online Resources
Lecture notes, powerpoints and handouts
Interactive
Learning Activities and Assignments
13. YouTube Resources
RSS in Plain English Blogs in Plain English
http://www.youtube.com/watch? http://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=0klgLsSxGsU v=NN2I1pWXjXI
Twitter in Plain English Social Bookmarking in Plain
English (i.e. delicious)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=ddO9idmax0o http://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=x66lV7GOcNU
Social Networking in Plain
Wikis in Plain English
English
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=-dnL00TdmLY
v=-dnL00TdmLY
Websearch Strategies in Plain
Podcasting in Plain English
English
http://www.youtube.com/watch? http://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=y- v=y-
MSL42NV3c&feature=channel MSL42NV3c&feature=channel
14. Institutional Support
Policies for course development
Curriculum Committees
Standard templates and information documents in
all courses
Coordinators to manage courses with multiple
sections
Timelines (development, revisions) and resources
Class size, enrollment caps
Policies for support and evaluation
Faculty training
Instructional Designers/Technologists
Technical support for faculty and students
Student surveys and analysis
15. Teaching at Empire State
College
Adjunct instructor for the Center for Distance
Learning (CDL)
www.esc.edu – Employment- Faculty Vacancy-
Center for Distance Learning Adjunct Faculty,
Part-time (Saratoga Springs)
Tutor for guided independent studies – contact
Nikki.Shrimpton@esc.edu in Syracuse
16. References
Anderson, Terry, Liam Rourke, D. Randy Garrison and Walter Archer (2001) Assessing Teaching Presence
in a Computer Conferencing Context. Journal of the Asynchonous Learning Network JALN 5(2).
Churches, Andrew (2008). Bloom's taxonomy: Blooms digitally. Retrieved May 18, 2010 from http://
www.techlearning.com/article/8670
Coppola, Nancy Walters, Starr Rozanne Hiltz and Naomi Rotter (2001) Becoming a Virtual Professor:
Pedagogical Roles and ALN. Conference paper HICSS 34.
Swan, Karen, Peter Shea, Eric Fredericksen, Alexandra Pickett, William Pelz (2000) Course Design Factors
influencing the success of online learning. Conference paper WebNet 2000. ERIC ED 448 760
Tallent-Runnels, Mary, Julie Thomas, William Lan, Sandi Cooper, Terence Ahern, Shana Shaw and
Xizoming Liu (2006) Teaching Courses Online: A Review of the Research. Review of Educational Research
76(1): 93-135.
Hinweis der Redaktion
Course Design: easy interface, few similarly structured modules/units
Interaction w/Instructor: frequency and constructive presence of instructor
Discussions: high percentage of course grade, required frequency of interaction 2xweek, ave. length of postings, fosters interactivity among students
These three elements help to support the development of knowledge building communities
Teaching presence is defined as having three categories
Discussions can be key if you take a constructivist view of learning –students learn when their ideas are challenged, reformed, synthesized through their interactions with others.
So guided participation is really important. Instructors play a crucial role in student’s knowledge construction by scaffolding the learning process for them.
So it is the instructor’s role to organize online interactions that are sufficiently structured to support student learning.
A high degree of interactivity and student participation is critical to online instruction.
This can happen in the course by asking followup questions – adding additional information to the discussion – guiding and keeping the discussion on track. All this has to be done in a climate of respect and safety.
Switch from noun (passive) to verb (active)
If you don’t know where to begin or what some of these things are…. And are feeling too-dated/old to ask… there is help online….