A Survival Guide to Teaching Online
Once you have your course content developed, the fun begins! This section contains timely information to help you implement your technology-enhanced instruction and anticipate possible challenges. Hopefully, you have developed all of your content by now, but you need to continue engaging students in the course site, especially if you are teaching a fully online course. You need to have a regular presence so students feel there is someone on the other end.
Tips for the First Day(s) of Class
Welcome the class
Post a general “Welcome” announcement including how to get started in the class (e.g., read the syllabus and first unit) in addition to creating a discussion forum for “Class Introductions”. You can post a more thoughtful and complete welcome message to the class in the discussion board which may sound repetitive but consider this as an opportunity to humanize yourself in an online course as well as setting a tone for the class. Another great option would be to post a short video clip containing your greeting and brief introduction to course goals.
Finalize content
Aside from the syllabus, you should strive to have all major assignments, grading schemes, samples, readings, unit commentary, etc., available for use (you don’t want to be writing the course and teaching it at the same time). Once enrollments are loaded, any content released to students will be accessible as soon as they log into your course site. You may opt to date-release certain content (vigilantly check your dates for accuracy) but make sure everything loaded onto Isaak-Sakai is otherwise complete, accurate, and finalized.
Check your links
It is a good policy before the course goes “live” to click around and make sure all your external (and internal for that matter) links are active and bring the user to the intended destination. This measure is especially worthwhile when teaching a course developed in previous semesters, as online content may have been moved, modified, or withdrawn without your knowledge.
Set up and assign custom groups
If you are dividing your students into custom groups for tailored access to course content, discussions, or group projects, now is the time to create and assign groups to course site tools as appropriate. More information about creating custom site groups is available on the Manage Groups help page.
Set up the Forums
If you plan to use the Forums tool to facilitate weekly, monthly, or topic-based discussions, consider having the structure roughly in place to immediately greet students. This also means that any custom groups should be assigned to forums and discussions as needed. It is also helpful to have one of your own posts in place to offer greetings and serve as a model for students as they begin crafting their own forums content.
Set up the Assignments tool
If you plan to accept online submissions via your course site, the Assignments tool provides a great solution. Having this in place and properly co