10 Best Practices
by J Hunsicker
Practices # 1-3
Contact is important
Be available to students via email, discussion board, or virtual office hours. Be timely with grading, students want to know how well they are doing. Respect student and instructor’s time.
Encourage Engagement
Create an introduction that has students interacting in a meaningful way. Allow students to share about themselves and connect with other students. Ask that they connect with each other.
Keep it fresh
Create active learning activities to keep students engaged. Active learning allows the student to focus on their own learning and creates links to prior knowledge.
Practices #4-6
Foster understand- ing of the course
Create a detailed syllabus that spells out requirements of the course and how it will be graded. Give a short quiz to make sure students understand the syllabus.
Expectations
Explain in detail what is required of the student and their hardware. Have due dates in the middle of the week. This gives time for grading and responding.
Show off
Create a way for students to show off their writing skills without writing the dreaded paper. Examples: Blogging, webpages, reflections, etc. This allows students to be creative and share their work.
Practices #7-9
Accessible to all
Create the materials to be used in the course so that it can be used by individuals that are using low bandwidth and older machines. Some students will need to use library and computer lab equipment.
Sustainable
Develop and maintain the needed infrastructure for the courses. An administrative commitment to support is vital to hold successful courses.
Respect learning styles and persanality types
Respect the diversity of the students by creating coursework that engages all learning styles and personality types. Most students are a mix of the seven learning styles ( visual, aural, verbal, physical, logical, social, and solitary). Most likely all personality types will be in the class from extroverted to introverted. Plan activities for all.
Practice #10
Keeping up
Keep current with best practices and technology. This will encourage students to value the learning experience.