So, you have just been hired by an online school and you are excited to start a new semester. You just aced your Faculty Training and now you are ready to plunge into the new world of online teaching. Don't be afraid. It is not that hard once you get the hang of it! For me, I had a hard time transitioning from face to face teaching to online teaching. When I used to teach face to face, I made extensive use of the blackboard. I would write out all my ideas before class started on the blackboard of what my class lesson would be about. I would arrive ultra early for work so that I could write all my class lessons for all 8 periods of class on the blackboard that ran all around the classroom. Each class period used to have its own lesson Each class was different. Some classes went through the lesson fast, others went through the lessons slowly and so for each class, I would adapt my class lesson for each class.
Same token with your online classes. If you are teaching in standardized online classroom, then the first thing you have to do is personalize your online classroom. A standardized online classroom is when the school gives you an online classroom with a syllabus, assignments, forums already written out for you by the Course Lead of that class. For instance, all ENGL 101 English Composition teachers would have one Course Lead who would write up the original ENGL 101 class. She would be the one who creates the syllabus, makes sure there are no dead links, creates the assignments etc. Then this original (Model Site) classroom would be cloned to all the other teachers for you to teach. In effect, you are teaching in the same exact classroom as all the other ENGL 101 English Composition teachers. So, for instance, there are 25 sections of ENGL 101, all 25 sections would contain the same exact classrom created by one teacher. The thinking behind standardized classrooms is to make sure all students receive the same quality curriculum across all sections thus eliminating the possibility of some students getting a good teacher's ENGL 101 class or some students getting a weaker teacher's ENGL 101. Having standardized classroom ensures everybody gets the same quality education created by the same highly qualified Course Lead.
1. First, log into your online class at least 2 weeks before the class start, or as soon as you receive your class on your faculty portal.
2. Make sure your class has been cloned correctly. You may need to work with Tech Support to correct any cloning errors such as Forum 1 being cloned 3 times by mistake.
3. Make sure all assignment, forum, and lesson due dates are accurate.
4. Make sure all the links work and if there are any dead links, report the dead links to Tech Support or to your Program Director.
5. Create a class schedule of all assignments so you know when you have to grade which essay. I used to keep a yellow legal pad to do this.
6. Review the class syllabus to anticipate student questions.
7. Post your introduction in the Week 1 Forum so students can follow your introduction thread.
8. Post your bio in the announcements. Add your own photo or lessons to help make the sterile classroom yours. I used to post my art in my online classroom. I love to do watercolor art and I have a lot of art about France so I would post that art in my French classroom when I taught French online.
9. Tell your students your contact information. Include your email address, phone number, times you are available, time zone (if applicable) and your office hours.
10. Set a welcoming tone in your announcements and forums so nervous students are not intimidated by the online classroom.
11. Post a welcome video of yourself. I will talk about how to create a welcome video in my next post.
12. Send a welcome message to students before the class start date to get students excited about the class. I will write about what to include in that welcome message in a future post.
If you have any additional tips, you can leave comments in the comment box What else do you do to prepare for your upcoming online classroom? Did I leave anything out?
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