Moving Online Now: How To Keep Teaching During Coronavirus

Moving
Online Now
How to keep
teaching during
coronavirus
Moving Online Now
A
s the coronavirus spreads, colleges A switch to online learning isn’t a perfect
are scrambling to respond to po- solution, of course: Many professors have
tential health-care crises, campus never taught online, and technical support is
closings, and other issues that are often lacking. Some critics have raised ques-
arising and evolving on a daily ba- tions about whether requiring such a switch
sis. A major challenge: How can institutions without adequate faculty involvement would
continue to offer instruction if they decide to violate faculty governance; others question
close or to cancel in-person classes? A grow- whether an online-only model would penalize
ing number are moving classes online as a students who may not have access to digital
short-term solution. This special Chronicle tools or the internet. Still, many institutions
collection includes our best advice guides are looking to online learning as a way to sal-
and opinion pieces on online learning, to vage students’ education in the wake of the
help faculty and staff members make the ad- pandemic. We hope this collection can offer
justment if that time comes. some guidance during these uncertain times.
In this special collection:
4 The Decision to Move Classes Online as Coronavirus Spreads

The U. of Washington took the first steps, and more colleges are following daily.
8 Going Online in a Hurry: What to Do and Where to Start

Michelle D. Miller offers a primer.
11 How to Be a Better Online Teacher: A Comprehensive Advice Guide

Flower Darby covers the nuts and bolts in this thorough document.
24 4 Lessons From Moving a Face-to-Face Course Online

Kevin Gannon finds that online teaching isn’t better or worse than the face-to-face variety — just different.
28 Live From My Living Room, It’s My Classroom!

Esther C. Kim shares tips from the home front on how to better engage students online.
31 Resources
How to use technology to give your students better feedback
For questions or comments about the collection, email ci@chronicle.com
Cover photo by Stuart Isett
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As Coronavirus Spreads,
Moving Classes Online
Is the First Step. What’s Next?
By EMMA DILL, KARIN FISCHER, BETH MCMURTRIE, AND BECKIE SUPIANO
BRAD MITCHELL, ALAMY

T
he March 6 decision by the Universi- classes remotely.
ty of Washington to move all classes Though in-person classes will be can-
online amid concerns about the novel celed at Washington, dining and residence
coronavirus raises questions that col- halls will remain open, and campus organi-
leges nationwide are already asking: zations can decide whether to hold sched-
When is the right time to make that call? On uled events. Students who choose to return
what basis? And how easy is it to make the home may do so. But Cauce noted that some
transition? students, particularly the university’s large
As reports of infections in the United population of international students, may be
States grew, Washington officials said they unable to go home. For those from coronavi-
had made the decision out of an abundance rus hot spots such as China and Italy, it may
of caution. “We have a responsibility to our be safer to remain at Washington.
community and to the community at large,” Cauce praised the campus’s response to
the university’s president, Ana Mari Cauce, the announcement. Faculty members are
said at a news conference. “really stepping up” to figure out how to de-
“We want to be clear,” she said, “we’re not liver their courses remotely, she said, and li-
saying that it’s not safe to be in class.” brarians and academic advisers are working
Later on March 6, Stanford University also to put more resources online.
announced it would move its classes online
MAKING THE TRANSITION
for the final two weeks of the winter quar-
ter. At press time, a growing number of col- The decision to move classes online didn’t
leges were moving courses online, urging come out of the blue. Jennifer Doherty, a
The U. of students to leave campus, and canceling principal lecturer in the biology depart-
Washington study-abroad programs, conferences, sports ment, said that in the week or so before-
moved to a events, and university-sponsored travel. One hand, professors got emails from the pro-
distance-edu- vost’s office and, in her case, department
college had canceled its spring semester.
cation model in
Washington’s decision was made by leaders that encouraged them to think of
response to the
threat of a campuswide task force, the Advisory contingency plans for their courses. “We’ve
the new Committee on Communicable Diseases, been talking about it all week,” she said.
coronavirus. which includes medical professionals, stu- Even earlier, Ben Wiggins, the department’s
dent-support staff members, internation- manager of instruction, told professors who
al-education experts, and others. The group teach its large lecture courses that they should
also consulted with local and state pub- be ready to iron out shared policies in the
lic-health officials. Cauce said the decision event that in-person classes were canceled.
to cancel in-person classes was made on The department emphasized to students that
Thursday, before officials learned that a staff they would not be penalized if they decided
member had received a “presumptive posi- not to come to class.
tive test” for Covid-19, the disease the coro- Doherty is teaching an upper-level re-
navirus causes. search seminar with 40 seniors this quar-
In large lecture halls, students may be ter. The seniors in Doherty’s course haven’t
crammed into close quarters, heightening been particularly worried, she said. They
the likelihood of transmitting the infectious had been coming to class — and wash-
respiratory illness. And while young people ing their hands. But in some larger lecture
have been less likely to fall seriously ill from courses, attendance had already dropped
the coronavirus, or have recovered more significantly, and some professors had al-
quickly, many of the university’s students are ready canceled classes.
beyond the “traditional” 18-to-25 age range. Doherty’s students had just finished col-
In addition, students who have disabili- lecting data and were about to analyze their
ties, who are pregnant, or who have underly- results. The final was supposed to be a post-
ing health conditions could be at increased er session. “So obviously we’re not going to
risk in tight classrooms. Even before the do that,” she said. She is figuring out how to
decision to cancel classes was made, about adapt the projects for videoconferencing. The
a quarter of students were participating in university has given every professor and stu-
t h e ch ron icl e of h igh er educ at ion 5 moving online now

dent an account for the web-conferencing that if the transition to online teaching is
program Zoom, Doherty said. The biggest rushed, it could have long-term effects on
wrinkle: “This presumes that everyone has how professors view teaching remotely. “We
the internet where they are. And broadband.” don’t want to get the idea that this is what ef-
That raises questions about equity. fective online education looks like,” she said.
Internet access may be a challenge, espe- “Moving online with inadequate support is a
cially for students and faculty members in short-term solution.”
small cities and towns, where service can Touro College, in New York City, is trying
slow when everyone is trying to use video- to avoid that by planning ahead: Students
conferencing at once, said Daniel Stanford, would take all classes online for four days,
director of faculty development and tech- an official told The Chronicle by email, as a
nology innovation at the DePaul Universi- test “to prepare for academic continuity in
ty Center for Teaching and Learning. Stan- case in-person classes will need to be can-
ford also worries about how to replicate the celed.” The University of Southern Califor-
learning formats, such as laboratory work, nia announced a similar dry run.
in which being physically present is central While one national survey found that 46
to the experience. percent of professors had taught an online
Another question is institutional capacity. course, different skills are needed to switch
Are colleges generally prepared to support abruptly to doing that. What is the best way
thousands of instructors’ moving quickly to deliver a lecture? What about student pre-
from in-person to online teaching? sentations, or active-learning projects? Is
“In a word, no,” said Flower Darby, direc- it better to teach class in real time or asyn-
tor of Teaching for Student Success at North- chronously? Campus ed-tech experts are
ern Arizona University. “I don’t think most wrestling with those and other tricky issues.
institutions are equipped to handle a situa- DePaul’s Stanford collected some of the
tion such as this, in which more demands are resources he came across in a crowdsourced
Emergency Remote Teaching Guidelines
document. The New York Institute of Tech-
nology’s Keep Teaching page, for example,
offers instructors advice on creating live,
online classes through Zoom or prerecorded
lectures with Voice Thread. Duke University
has created a similar series of tips and tools
for keeping class going in an emergency.
Stanford said plenty of user-friendly tech-
nologies exist to support both synchro-
nous and asynchronous communication.
GroupMe, Slack, and WhatsApp can all be
adapted for class work, for example. And
made of the technological infrastructure and while none of those might be ideal for cre-
you need a lot of qualified people to help.” ating vibrant discussions, they are effective
Darby has been following conversations enough in the moment.
on social media among education-technol- In the meantime, DePaul is one of many
ogy and teaching specialists in recent days. colleges trying to ramp up faculty training.
While people are rallying to share resources The university is offering a series of short
and support, she noted that on many cam- webinars in which instructors can quickly
puses teaching centers may be small oper- learn the basics of videoconferencing or how
ations. “Broadly speaking, at public institu- to get the most out of their learning-man-
tions there are not enough support folks in agement system.
general,” she said. She fears that, in an emer-
LESSONS FROM ABROAD
gency, faculty members “will be thrown into
the deep end of the pool.” In thinking about moving classes online,
She and her colleagues are also concerned college leaders may want to look to univer-
moving online now 6 t h e ch ron icl e of h igh er educ at ion

Ana Mari Cauce, president,
U. of Washington: “I can’t
say where we’ll be in three
weeks with Covid-19.”
CHRONICLE PHOTO BY JULIA SCHMALZ
sities with campuses overseas. Duke Kun- ulty,” said Noah M. Pickus, a dean at Duke
shan University and New York University’s Kunshan University. “So as we get ready for
Shanghai campus made the transition to our last session of the year, we’re putting a
online instruction in February, following lot of our effort into both student support
recommendations from Chinese officials. and community.”
Leaders at both universities recommend NYU “triaged” its courses by shifting on-
keeping things simple by employing digital line those classes with the largest enroll-
tools that professors and students are fa- ments first, and determining which courses
miliar with and are already using, said Clay could not work in that medium. Lab-based
Shirky, NYU’s vice provost for educational science courses and field-trip-heavy classes
technologies. were canceled, Shirky said.
“The tools you want to use are the tools The university will follow the same
you have in place before the crisis hits,” template as it moves its campuses in Abu
he said. “You don’t want to be deploying a Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, and Flor-
whole bunch of fancy new tools.” ence, Italy, to online-only instruction.
One professor at NYU’s Shanghai campus Each transition makes the process easier
shared what he had learned from the experi- for faculty members and university offi-
ence on Twitter: cials, said Shirky.
“Every time we do this, there’s a larger
group of people familiar with it. There’s more
documentation. There’s better walk-throughs
for faculty,” he said. “I don’t think we would
have chosen to get suddenly good at this, but
that’s been one of the side effects.”
While the University of Washington is ex-
ploring scenarios in which it is forced to use
distance learning in the longer term, Pres-
ident Cauce said, it has “every intention” of
reopening at the beginning of the new quar-
ter, on March 30.
Even when teaching and technology work, “But I don’t have a crystal ball,” she said. “I
a sudden shift online can be a challenge. It can’t say where we’ll be in three weeks with
“can still feel isolating for students and fac- Covid-19.” •

ADVICE
Going Online in a
Hurry: What to Do
and Where to Start
By MICHELLE D. MILLER
T
he coronavirus has colleges and
universities swinging into action to
move courses online. In the com-
ing weeks, we’ll find out just how
prepared (or not) academe is to do
this on a large scale. Those of us in online
teaching and educational technology have
moved quickly to help, too, and it’s aston-
ishing how many useful resources have
already been pulled together.
GETTY IMAGES
Even just a few weeks into the crisis, and — things they would normally do in class.
really only a few days since class cancella- How will you give them opportunities for
tions started to become a reality, there are practice and feedback, for both small-stakes
top-quality guides free for the taking, cre- and high-stakes assignments? Undoubted-
ated by people who really know their stuff. I ly those opportunities will be different from
will make no claim to have read all or even what they were before you moved the class
a fraction of them, but there are several that online. Just be sure that it’s very clear how
are clearly share-worthy: students can access those opportunities.
And if you don’t spend much class time
• A detailed Google doc, written by Jenae having students practice and get feedback,
Cohn and Beth Seltzer — both academ- now is a good time to increase that aspect of
ic-tech specialists at Stanford University your course — given that you won’t be pre-
— is geared for Stanford, but there’s a lot senting content in person. For example:
there that anyone can use. Their guide is
particularly noteworthy for how it breaks • If students would have been developing
down the synchronous-asynchronous their skills in analyzing and synthesizing
distinction, explaining advantages and assigned readings via in-class discussion,
disadvantages of each and offering guid- perhaps they could do that online using
ance about how to use Zoom for virtual collaborative annotation of the text.
meetings. (Perusall is one such tool to do that.)
• Derek Bruff, director of the Center for
Teaching at Vanderbilt University, has • Or, if you’d normally have students prac-
pulled together a lot of useful ed-tech ad- tice by attempting to answer questions
vice under the heading of “just-in-time in an interactive in-person lecture, pres-
online teaching.” Read this page, in par- ent a version of those questions in online
ticular, for step-by-step instructions on discussion forums or quizzes, and offer
key aspects of going online fast (the ad- feedback on their responses.
vice is geared toward the Brightspace
learning-management system, in par- No. 3: Then, move on to the in-class expe-
ticular, but is general enough to apply to rience. What do you normally use your in-
other platforms, too). class time for? Try to define what you do in
class at a higher, more goal-oriented level
As a veteran of online teaching and ed- (e.g., presentation of content, checking for
ucation technology, I’ll offer my own short understanding, collaborative project work
list of advice for faculty members who need — instead of just saying “lecture,” “quiz,”
to move online, fast, with the twin goals “discussion”). If you keep those goals in
of maintaining instructional continuity as mind, you will have a better idea of how to
much as possible and finishing the semester achieve them online, as well as what aspects
strong. of the in-class experience you ought to focus
on simulating.
No. 1: Begin by going over your course as- In particular, this mini-reflection should
signments for the coming weeks. Are they help you decide whether to go with a syn-
accessible online, so that students can find chronous means of engagement (e.g., a re-
the instructions and materials that they al-time Zoom meeting), an asynchronous
need? Is it clear how students will be turn- one (e.g., VoiceThread decks or narrated vid-
ing in their work? Have deadlines changed, eos), or some combination of the two.
and are all of those deadlines prominently
posted? No. 4: Decide what you’re going to do about
any high-stakes assessments, particularly
No. 2: How will you give feedback on their exams. There are no easy answers here, es-
progress? Consider how students will be pecially if you planned to have a good chunk
able to practice the key skills and objec- of a student’s grade hinge on what would
tives you want them to get out of the course have been a proctored, in-person test. Per-

haps you could take another route to sum- online education looks like. Moving online
mative assessment for the course, such as with inadequate support is a short-term
replacing a big supervised test with some solution.” She noted that an undersupport-
type of project that is easier to personalize ed, hasty move could create bad impressions
and less dependent on proctoring. about online teaching, in general.
You also could explore online proctoring, I fear that such impressions will outlast the
but there are potentially objectionable as- present crisis. And so, while we all want to be
pects to this kind of test surveillance. Such as helpful as possible, online-teaching advo-
concerns — along with the time required cates are unanimous in cautioning that these
to research, select, and put into practice an options for salvaging the semester are not to
online proctoring system — are significant be confused with the kind of intentional de-
hurdles. But it may be worth a look, depend- sign that’s needed to create high-quality on-
ing on your situation. line offerings over the long run.
And sadly, we do need to put that
No. 5: Consider the course materials. In all message on repeat, because if we on-
likelihood, your readings and other materi- line-teaching veterans have learned any-
als exist in digital form, and you may have thing, it’s that there are too many pro-
posted them already. But you’ll need to dou- grams and institutions out there that do
ble-check that any readings, videos, prob- see this kind of rushed online teaching as
lem sets, quizzes, and the like are accessi- a quick fix. How many of us have heard
ble, along with key documents such as the some variation on the idea of “just putting
course syllabus and calendar. it all online”— in the name of profitability,
convenience, or catching some imagined
No. 6: Once you’ve dealt with those things, wave of the future?
the name of the game is communication. In It’s always telling to dig deeper into what
the face of all this uncertainty, you need to people think “it” is in that put-it-all-online
explain — as clearly as you can and in a va- edict. Is it the readings? Videos of a professor
riety of places — what students can expect giving lectures? Or (I hope) something else
about the course in the next few weeks. Be entirely?
sure to cover what it is that students are re- These are all good questions for another
sponsible for doing, how they can find the day, but for now, the focus is on students,
things they need to meet those responsibil- and on using what we know to help them
ities, and what they should do first. Make move forward under some really difficult
sure the lines of communication are two- circumstances. This is a time for online in-
way, as well. When in doubt, offer more ways struction to shine, and I think it will. Those
to get in touch with you (text, messaging of us who’ve stepped up can be advocates
app, email, video call), not fewer. for quality, while still helping our institu-
tions manage what could be one of the larg-
That’s my teaspoon of advice to add to er and longer interruptions to instruction
the pool that will no doubt be growing in that we’ve seen in this country. Keep the
the coming days and weeks. But I also want advice coming, everyone: #Instructional-
to acknowledge, and heartily agree with, Continuity. •
the caveats and outright frustration being
expressed by many in the online teaching Michelle D. Miller is a professor of psycho-
space over the way our generously contrib- logical sciences at Northern Arizona Univer-
uted advice could be misused. sity and co-creator of its First Year Learning
As my colleague Flower Darby told a Initiative. Her latest book is Minds Online:
Chronicle reporter: “We don’t want [peo- Teaching Effectively With Technology, pub-
ple] to get the idea that this is what effective lished by Harvard University Press.

ADVICE GUIDE
How to Be a Better
Online Teacher
By FLOWER DARBY
DAVID SENIOR FO R THE CHRONICLE

W
hether you’ve taught online a First let’s define a few commonly used
lot or a little, chances are you terms of online teaching.
didn’t enjoy it as much as teach-
ing in person. Maybe you didn’t Learning-management system. Otherwise
experience that fizz after a par- known as an LMS. Online classes typical-
ticularly invigorating face-to-face class. In- ly take place via your institution’s chosen
deed, according to a 2017 Educause survey, learning-management system — a platform
only 9 percent of academics prefer to teach that include communication, content de-
“in a completely online environment.” That livery, and assessment tools to facilitate the
means a whopping 91 percent of us don’t. teaching-and-learning process. The specific
And I suspect that a good majority of that 91 features of an LMS can vary from campus to
percent would prefer to teach anywhere but campus, but usually you will find the follow-
online. ing common elements and functions:
Clearly, many academics don’t see the val-
ue of online courses or of trying to become a • A grade book to record student progress.
better online teacher. Almost none of us set • Web pages or sites that allow you to pres-
out to be great online teachers when we de- ent text, videos, or links to other sources.
cided to go to graduate school. We’ve spent • Assessment tools so students can submit
years in campus classrooms, but we don’t assignments, or take a quiz or an exam.
have the same depth and breadth of experi- • Discussion forums that enable students
ence in the online classroom, as either stu- to engage in conversations about class
dents or teachers. Most of us don’t know how content with you and with one another.
to teach online or how to get better at it —
and we may not be motivated to learn. Even Module. The most common unit of organi-
more likely, we may not feel like we have zation for an online class is a module (it has
time to learn. different naming conventions). If the term
For all of those reasons, you may not is new to you, think of it as tantamount to
feel fully invested in your online teaching a unit in your in-person class. Instructors
practice. Yet it can be just as rewarding as use modules to organize class materials into
teaching in a bricks-and-mortar classroom, topics. They’re ordered sequentially and
if in different ways. Good teaching is good contain all course materials and learning
teaching. activities for that particular topic or unit.
Which brings me to the purpose of this
guide. What you will find here is advice on
how to make your online pedagogy as effec-
tive and satisfying as the in-person version, Most of us don’t know how
to teach online or how to get
including:
• 10 essential principles and practices of

better online teaching. better at it and we may not
• Common misperceptions.
• How to find help. be motivated to learn.
Online classes aren’t going away — en-
rollments continue to grow year after year. Asynchronous. Most online courses are
Further, online education increases access asynchronous — meaning students aren’t
for students who, with work and family ob- all together in class at the same time, and
ligations, would not otherwise be able to go class activities don’t take place in real time.
to college. Those people are just as much Instead, students can complete the tasks
our students as the ones who show up on whenever their schedules permit. Flexibili-
the campus, and they, too, deserve the best ty is one of the main advantages offered by
teaching we can offer. online education, and a primary reason why

many students elect to attend class online. the circumstances of online students. Some
The jargon and the setup are similar in are well equipped tech-wise, with a good
many online courses, but there are some computer and fast, reliable internet access.
differences. For example, some online Others do all of their coursework in a com-
classes include a synchronous element or puter lab on campus. Still others take their
two. Some have a small number of students laptops to public places with good Wi-Fi
— 30 or fewer — while others have large (malls, restaurants, libraries) because they
enrollments, which can be challenging to don’t have internet at home.
teach effectively (a difference that also hap- Even given such variances in class for-
pens to be true of face-to-face courses). mats and student circumstances, the fact
Some online courses are entirely home- remains that the flexibility of online educa-
grown, unique to the individual instructor, tion makes it a more accessible option than
while others are highly coordinated across traditional courses for more than 6.3 mil-
sections or rely heavily on publisher con- lion students, and counting. There are lots
tent and activities. of things you can do to be a better online
You will also encounter differences among teacher for those students. Read on.
10 Essential Principles and Practices

The teaching suggestions in this guide help you think about what you do well in
are not revolutionary. Once you read them, person so that you can do those things in
they’ll probably seem like common sense. your online classes, too. If you already em-
But that’s just the point. ploy some of these practices, the intent here
Professors often fail to make the connec- is to help you think more comprehensively
tion between what we do in a physical class- about what else you can do to be an excel-
room and what we do online. This guide lent online teacher. With that goal in mind,
aims to make that connection explicit — to let’s get to work.
Show Up to Class
Fundamentally, good teaching requires the weekly blocks of time during which you
you to be in the classroom with your stu- prepare for class and grade students’ work.
dents. When you teach in person, you don’t But such a set framework does not exist for
leave students to their own devices. You’re an online class. And without intentional
with them, engaging in any number of planning, you may go several days at a time
teacherly activities: explaining, guiding, without engaging in teacherly activities with
asking, illustrating, answering questions. your online students.
You arrive early to set up for class. You stay Instead, create a schedule for meaningful
a few minutes afterward to talk one-on-one and active involvement in your online class-
with a student who needs extra support. es. For example, how many hours a week do
You’re present and actively involved. You’re you spend teaching an in-person, 15-week
there for your students. course? Maybe it’s 10 hours a week, on aver-
Many of you haven’t translated that to on- age — combining the time you spend in the
line practice. After all, when teaching in per- actual classroom with the time you devote to
son, you have a set schedule for when to be prepping and grading (and, of course, even
in class. That schedule also may determine longer after major assignments and tests).

Schedule the same amount of time each or sent to you by email.
week to be visibly present and engaged in • Hold online office hours according to a
your semester-long online class. And I do schedule, by appointment, or both.
mean visible, meaningful engagement. Here • Post a quick video to clarify misconcep-
are some ways to do that: tions about a class topic or assignment.
• Grade and return students’ work in a
• Post a weekly announcement to provide timely fashion.
an overview of the coming week’s topic • Talk with students in online discussions.
or a recap of the previous week’s work, or
both. When you are regularly present and en-
• Respond to questions posted in an online gaged in the online classroom, your stu-
question-and-answer discussion forum dents are more likely to be, too.
Be Yourself
Most professors enjoy teaching in person online course, but strive to use a unique
because of the opportunity to interact with voice in your writing. Mini-lectures, assign-
students, share our passion for a subject, ment instructions, answers to questions,
and watch understanding dawn on their weekly announcements — you can write
faces. Some of us, admittedly, enjoy the per- those in such a way as to represent your true
formative aspect. We feed off the energy in self:
the room. We use it to fuel our own energetic
communication. Many of us have a unique • Infuse your writing with warmth. Con-
teaching persona — different from the per- vey your support. In your weekly an-
son we are in a hallway conversation or in a nouncement, for example, don’t write,
department meeting. We employ humor. We “Some of you have skipped the past
vary our delivery to best effect. We pause. few quizzes. You won’t pass this class if
We raise our voices. We gesticulate for em- you continue to do so.” Instead, write,
phasis. “Thank you for your work in this class. I
In an online classroom, your teaching know it’s a lot to manage. Just a remind-
style can get lost in translation. Although er, make sure you’re taking all the quiz-
this is beginning to change, it is still the case zes to help you be successful here. Please
that a primary means of communication in contact me if I can help or answer any
an online course is the written word. A wall questions. Thanks!”
of text can be dry and demotivating to stu- • Be human. Sometimes the inherent dis-
dents. Where is the vocal intonation? Where tance between professor and student in
are the facial expressions? How do you stride an online class infects your written com-
up and down the front of the room to help munication. But you needn’t write in a
make your point? detached tone. Instead, practice immedi-
The solution, by the way, is not to post a acy. For example, at the end of a set of as-
video of yourself delivering a standard lec- signment instructions, you could write,
ture in a classroom. The physical energy gets “If you have any questions at all about
lost in that medium, too. Instead, capture what you are supposed to do on this as-
your personality and your passion in ways signment, please remember I am here
that are different from what you might do in to help. Reach out any time so I can sup-
person, yet authentic. port your success.” That is more friendly,
Written content is inevitably part of any more caring, and more reassuring than,

“Questions? Post them in the Q&A dis- video. Or you can capture a quick video on
cussion forum.” your smartphone using the YouTube app or
similar. Either way, experiment with provid-
Recording yourself whenever possible is ing guidance and instruction via the tech-
another great way to bring your whole self nology tools you have at hand.
to class. Whether by audio or video, capture Students appreciate seeing your face
your expertise, your empathy, your teach- and hearing your voice. Don’t worry about
er persona in a way that comes across with making sure every stray hair is in place. If
much more impact than in writing (again, I you trip over your tongue while recording,
don’t mean videos of you lecturing). These that’s OK, too. Pause and start again. Af-
recordings don’t have to be professionally ter all, you’re not always perfectly polished
produced, and you don’t have to have a vid- and articulate in the classroom, are you?
eo in every module. Instead, start small. For Those little foibles make your recordings
example, record a quick introduction and authentic. They show you’re a real person.
greeting to include in the “Start Here” mod- Students need to know you in order to en-
ule of your course. gage with you online. So look for ways to
Many learning-management systems in- be yourself via technology, just as you do
clude a built-in feature to record audio and in person.
Put Yourself in Their Shoes

Your online students aren’t physically own, trying to make sense of what is in
near you or other students when they’re “in front of you on the screen. Get outside your
class.” Most do their coursework when they own head — where your online class makes
are alone, whether at home or in a public sense and everything is clear. Instead, try
space with Wi-Fi, like a library or a coffee to envision how your students are experi-
shop. They can’t turn to a neighbor for help encing the class. I will talk in more detail
or raise a hand to ask a question. That leads below about each of these, but for instance:
to a strong sense of isolation and creates a Are your instructions clear on how long stu-
need for support — different from the kind dents’ discussion posts should be, and on
you offer when you teach in person. how they should cite sources? Do you in-
In a physical classroom, you can pick up clude a detailed grading rubric? Do you pro-
on nonverbal cues. Are students bored? Tun- vide an example of a successful final project,
ing out? Confused? You can observe the sig- so that students can see your expectations
nals and adjust what you’re doing. When and don’t have to muddle through while
students are taking class at home, puzzling they wait for a reply from you?
over your explanation of a complex concept, Better yet, have a trusted colleague eval-
you’re not there in real time to allay their uate your online class. Ask experienced on-
confusion. You can’t observe when you’ve line-faculty members or campus instruc-
lost their attention or when your instructional designers to go in and poke around as
tions aren’t clear. Yet you want to support if they were students. You’ll be surprised at
them just as you would in a campus-based what they might see that you can’t — a con-
classroom. fusing organization of course materials, an
How can you do that? By anticipating their overly intimidating tone in textual instruc-
isolation and planning for it in your course tions, a lack of clarity on what to do first to
design. get started with the course. Use their obser-
Imagine that you are the student, on your vations to help you make a few tweaks.

Ideally, students should know exactly tentional, put yourself in your students’
what you are teaching and what they are shoes, and design for clarity. This principle
supposed to do as a result. That rarely hap- should guide your practice for the next few
pens by accident, though. You must be in- suggestions.
Organize Course Content Intuitively

Try to think like a student when you orga- ble, add a simple line of guidance: “Click
nize course materials. Commonly, online the link above to access the assignment
students become confused, frustrated, and submission area.”
disengaged simply because you or the cam- • Remember, online students can’t gener-
pus LMS have made it too hard to find the ally ask a quick question in real time. Re-
content and activities. When students use a move any opacity brought on by the de-
lot of cognitive resources just trying to fig- sign of the LMS by giving quick pointers
ure out where to go to access readings, vid- wherever you can.
eos, discussions, or quizzes, they have little • Think about how the use of menus, mod-
mental energy left for the content itself. Dis- ules, folders, and other organizing struc-
couraged and/or irritated students are less tures helps or hinders students’ progress
likely to learn. through the course. Strike a balance be-
Once again, compare the organization and tween scrolling and clicking. Students
support services of your in-person courses should be able to access content, assess-
with what you provide in your online teach- ments, and learning activities without
ing. In both contexts, there should be a meth- constantly clicking more and more links.
od to your madness that is not hidden from Equally important, use LMS tools such
students. The design and sequence of content as folders and pages to keep things or-
and learning activities in both realms should ganized. An online course should not be
be methodical, systematic, and purposeful. one giant website of endless scrolling.
In person, you have the advantage of giving Nor should it be a warren of nested and
verbal explanations, reminders, and nudges. subnested folders. Aim for a good mix of
Since that opportunity doesn’t exist in quite navigational approaches so students ex-
the same way online, you need to give struc- perience neither scrolling nor clicking
tural support to head off points of confusion. fatigue.
To identify those points:
Strive for a course organization that is
• Activate the student-preview function clear, methodical, and intuitive. Help stu-
(most LMSs have this feature) and nav- dents move through content and activities
igate your course as if you were new to smoothly and seamlessly, so that their at-
online learning in general and to your tention remains focused on learning the
LMS in particular. material. If they have to click out of a mod-
• Is it clear where things are found? Note ule and into another folder to watch a re-
times when it’s not immediately evident quired video, that can be distracting — or
what a student should do. In some LMSs, frustrating if it’s hard to find. Similarly, re-
for example, a text heading may actual- quiring students to exit from a sequence of
ly be a link that students have to click to content pages and access a quiz by navigat-
access a content page or assignment. The ing to a different location wastes time and
need to click to get to more information mental energy. Instead, try to order materi-
might not be clear to them. When possi- als and activities such that the flow makes

sense for someone new to the course. Ask too close to the content and unable to see it
an online-savvy colleague for help if you are from a newcomer’s perspective.
Add Visual Appeal

Online courses suffer a well-earned repu- proach the campus teaching center or the
tation of being ugly, dry, boring, and unap- LMS-support staff. An online course that is
pealing. Humans are more likely to want to visually appealing (or at least not complete-
be in a space if it is pleasant to look at. Plen- ly ugly) helps students to engage more fre-
ty of students would rather learn in a new quently and more meaningfully. Unfortu-
building than in a dingy lecture hall that nately, public links to visually effective on-
hasn’t been renovated in decades. The ap- line courses are few, but here’s an example
pearance of our surroundings affects our (open in view-only format): “Modern My-
enjoyment and therefore our engagement. thology and Geek Culture.” Notice the visual
That’s why you need to give serious impact of the home page, then click around
thought to the way your online courses look. to observe its logical, student-friendly orga-
You may be surprised at the impact a few nization.
small touches can make.
When thinking about the visuals of an Note: All visuals should be accessible to all
online class, look to your favorite websites. students. Use the formatting tools in your
Study the layouts of books and magazines text editor, such as heads and subheads, to
that you enjoy. A great deal of thought has enable screen readers (a tool to help blind
gone into their design. Why not apply this students). Pictures, graphs, and formulas
philosophy to an online class? need alternate text descriptions (again, for
You don’t have to be a graphic designer to screen readers). Videos should be captioned
enhance course appearance. A little atten- or a written transcript provided. Principles
tion to presentation goes a long way. Do you of Universal Design for Learning show us
have a lot of written lecture notes or instruc- that such supports benefit all learners, not
tions? Break up long chunks of text with just those with disabilities. Work with your
subheads and space between paragraphs. local instructional designer and disabili-
Embed relevant images. Include thumbnail ty-resources specialist for help on this front.
videos that you’ve either created or sourced By no means should you deny students ac-
from YouTube, news sites, or library resourc- cess to any content just because you want
es. Aim for attractive yet appropriate. your course to look nicer. Work with the ex-
Not sure where to start? Many institutions perts on your campus to ensure good looks
have media designers who can help. Or ap- and accessibility.
Explain Your Expectations

When you’re standing at the front of a written instructions and not say a word
classroom and you assign a task, a paper, about the assignment. Nor do you display
or a project, you don’t simply hand out the instructions on a PowerPoint slide

without explaining more about what you case, you haven’t really solved the problem.
are looking for and what students should Aim for a balance between thorough and di-
do to succeed. gestible. Here are a few ways to do that:
Yet that is what often happens in online
classes: The only instructions come in the • Write down the directions as if you were
form of written text. You might think your having a conversation with a student, so
writing is clear, but what’s missing is the they don’t read like a textbook.
kind of nuanced explanation that you rou- • Create an informal two-minute explain-
tinely provide in a physical classroom. er video to flesh out some details of an
Remember, online students typically work assignment.
by themselves. They can’t ask for, or re- • Provide a rubric.
ceive, clarification in the moment they first • Share an example of student work that
encounter your assignment instructions. earned top marks. Maybe even share an
Which is why you need to explain what example of mediocre work so students
you’re looking for as clearly as possible in an can compare the two.
online class.
But don’t go to the other extreme and cre- In short, provide as much meaningful
ate tomes of written instructions, overly de- support as you can — without going over-
tailed directions, pages and pages of materi- board — so that students don’t have to guess
al that students won’t bother to read. In that what you want them to do.
Scaffold Learning Activities

When you teach in person, you do a lot son classroom — the knowledge and skills
of modeling that you may not even be they will need do well on those assess-
aware you’re doing. For example, when ments?
you demonstrate how to solve an equation, Here are some examples of how to scaf-
you’re explaining your thinking process. fold activities in an online course. When
When you share examples and analogies, possible, make these an opportunity for
you’re showing how you connect concepts you to give incremental feedback so stu-
for deeper understanding. When you ask dents know whether or not they are on the
critical questions, you’re modeling how right track:
thinkers in your discipline make sense of
theories and approaches. • L et’s say you want students to record
You explain things — step by systematic a video presentation of their research
step — to help students learn and perform topics. It’s hard enough to give a good
successfully on tests, projects, papers, and presentation without the video-re-
other assignments. cording element. So help your online
That kind of modeling and “scaffolding” students gain practice with the tech-
doesn’t happen quite as naturally in on- nology before they have to use it for a
line classes, where real-time interactions high-stakes project. For example, in the
are limited. To help students succeed, you first week or two of class, give them a
must be creative. Scrutinize your assess- low-stakes, low-stress assignment: Ask
ments, both large and small. Have your them to record and post a two-minute
students had the opportunity to build — video introducing themselves to the
step by step, as they would in an in-per- class.

• A s part of an orientation module, ask an assignment in the LMS. It’s a good
students to send you a message us- way correct any missteps early on.
ing the LMS messaging/email system • At the beginning of the first module,
so they know how to do this later in ask students use one of the many free
the class if they have a question for mind-mapping tools available on the
you. Ask them to answer a question web to create a concept map of what
about the syllabus or to list two goals they already know about the course
for their learning in the course. Reply topic. Then, at the end of each module,
with a short personal greeting so they assign students to create a summary
know you received the message and are concept map to help them make sense
available to help. of each topic.
• During Week 1, ask students to upload
a PDF file of their handwritten work Look for ways to break down complex
solving the first step of a problem. This tasks so that students make timely prog-
exercise will help them learn how to ress and receive feedback on their work
turn a photo on their mobile device while there is still time to adjust their ap-
into a PDF file, and how to submit it as proach if needed.
Provide Examples
During an in-person course, if students • Source existing videos that put another
raise their hands and say they just don’t spin on a particular topic.
get some concept, you find another way • Record a short guest-lecture video to
to explain it. You come up with examples, let students hear from another expert
maybe from another realm of life. That va- in your field.
riety of examples and explanations helps • Structure ways for students to explain
learners grasp the information in a way new information to one another — as
that makes the most sense to them. Exam- novice learners, they may come up
ples are even more crucial in online teach- with examples and illustrations that
ing. make more sense to their peers than
Consider the first time you taught a col- your explanations do. For example, you
lege course. Maybe you borrowed a syl- could assign semester-long groups of
labus from a previous instructor to guide two and ask students to interact with
you in developing your own. Likewise, the their partners every week by phone or
first time you taught online, you may have text to explain course concepts — in an
relied on someone else’s content in the introductory psychology class, for ex-
LMS so that you didn’t have to start from ample, how neurons fire in the brain.
scratch. Those of you who had to create Students could submit a short summa-
your first online class without any model ry of their work with their partner and
to emulate know how challenging it is to tell how it helped them better under-
produce something entirely new. stand that week’s concepts.
Online learners, too, benefit from multiple
explanations of difficult concepts and multi- How many examples should you pro-
ple examples of the kind of work you want to vide? Lots of them, wherever possible. You
see. Among other options, you might: may want to make some examples option-

al or supplemental, for students who want first step.
more help. Requiring all students to read In your teaching and writing for the
or watch multiple examples and explana- course, model the kind of work you wish to
tions may feel like busy work for some. see. For example, use a professional yet con-
In addition to sharing explanations of versational tone in your discussion posts.
concepts, give as many examples of pre- Demonstrate how you respect and value di-
vious students’ work as appropriate. Show verse perspectives. When you show students
their full work or just pieces. For a persua- what you’re looking for, they’re likely to be
sive essay, you can show examples of effec- more confident in their ability to succeed on
tive introductions; for a complex clinical a task, which in turn increases their motiva-
process, provide work showing only the tion to engage meaningfully.
Make Class an Inviting, Pleasant Place to Be

Ask yourself: Do you enjoy going into Apply that same principle to your online
your online classroom? Do you like being classes. A deliberate effort to make them
there? Do you look forward to communi- more inviting and pleasant is likely to re-
cating with your online students in the sult in more interesting classes. Students
same way you look forward to interacting will want to be in your online class if you:
with students in a physical classroom?
Those are hard questions, but they shine • Use plenty of visuals, media, interac-
a light on an important issue for many fac- tive tools, and learning activities.
ulty members. If we’re honest, many of us • Streamline course organization and
would have to say that we don’t enjoy be- navigation. Organize the furniture in
ing in our online classes as much as we en- the room, so to speak, to create maxi-
joy teaching in person. Indeed, that could mum flow. (The proprietary nature of
help explain why only 9 percent of us pre- most online courses makes it difficult
fer to teach online exclusively. We simply for me offer open examples of what I
may not enjoy being there as much. mean, but the “Modern Mythology and
If you struggle to enjoy the online learn- Geek Culture” course I’ve already men-
ing environment as an instructor, it’s not tioned illustrates many of these design
hard to imagine that this struggle is even strategies.)
harder for students. • Convey positivity and optimism that
When you teach in person, you do a lot students can succeed.
of things to help students feel welcome • Demonstrate compassion and caring
and comfortable in the classroom. You for your busy online learners.
greet students. Smile. Make eye contact. • Respect their time and engagement by
Answer questions. You show your support being present and engaged yourself.
in countless ways. Even when the physical
classroom is not particularly attractive, By making your online class more enjoy-
you do a lot to improve the atmosphere able, you make students want to show up.
in the room to make it more pleasant and And students have to want to be in class
therefore more conducive to learning. before they can learn anything.

Commit to Continuous Improvement
A hallmark of good teaching is the desire colleagues to delve into books about ef-
to keep getting better at it. Bring that zeal fective online-teaching strategies.
into your online classroom the same way • Subscribe to teaching-related news-
you bring it to your campus classroom. In- letters, such as Faculty Focus and The
vest a little time and energy into developing Chronicle’s Teaching Newsletter. Some-
as an online teacher. Even small efforts can times they feature articles specifically
have a big impact. related to online teaching; other times,
Compared with teaching in person, on- reading about a new approach in the
line teaching is still rather new, but there are physical classroom leads to an idea for
things you can do to improve and find fresh your online teaching.
ideas to try: • Explore best practices presented in the
Teaching Online Pedagogical Repository.
• Participate in workshops offered by your
institution’s teaching-and-learning cen- Demonstrate your commitment to student
ter. success by pursuing your own professional
• Join book-discussion groups with your development from time to time.
Common Misperceptions
Many dedicated online teachers have In the early days of online learning,
figured out some good approaches, but many online classes were treated like
mistaken ideas about online learning per- electronic correspondence courses. Stu-
sist. Here are some of the most common. dents worked through the content alone,
submitted their assignments, and re-
“Online classes are like slow cookers: Set ceived grades only after they had com-
and forget.” Despite the efforts of leading pleted the entire course. For some peo-
online educators and educational devel- ple, correspondence courses work. But
opers to debunk this myth, many facul- they take a high level of motivation,
ty members still treat it as gospel, con- which other online learners, struggling
sciously or not. Perhaps in part because to balance work and family obligations,
online courses take so much preparation simply can’t muster on their own.
before the first day of class — ideally, all Instead, plan to guide your online
content (assessments, activities, prompts) class actively and frequently. Just as you
is created in advance and in place for a advise your students to do, block out
turnkey experience — many academics time in your weekly calendar as if you
seem to believe that students should be were attending class in person. Post an-
able to walk themselves through an on- nouncements, give further explanations,
line course without much active guidance provide tips on forthcoming assign-
from the instructor. ments, answer questions, reply to online
That is a recipe for disaster. discussion posts, grade students’ work.

When teaching in person, you don’t ex- of the 13,451 faculty respondents in the
pect students to proceed without regular 2017 Educause survey on faculty and in-
guidance. The same need for continuous formation technology don’t agree that on-
faculty involvement holds true online. line learning is effective. About 45 percent
of faculty respondents said that students
“Online students are lazy/disengaged/ don’t learn as well online as they do in
(insert negative adjective here).” Many person. In short, they believe that online
online students are prone to minimal en- education just doesn’t work. But we have
gagement or drifting away from class al- plenty of evidence that online courses can
together. Does online education attract a produce student-learning outcomes com-
certain type of personality, people who are parable to those of in-person courses.
not highly motivated to succeed? Or have Note my use of the word “can.” Much
we inadvertently created conditions on- like the best in-person courses, the
line that contribute to student disengage- high-quality online versions require ex-
ment? Things like: cellent online teachers. It’s on us to design
and teach those highly engaging and ef-
• Confusing and unappealing course de- fective online classes.
signs.
• A shortage of faculty expertise in excel- “Teaching online is not as enjoyable as
lent online instruction. teaching in person.” We all know that
• T he inherent technical challenges of many academics don’t perceive online
learning online. teaching to be as rewarding as teaching in
• A student population that tends to be person. But could that be because we ar-
working and/or raising children while en’t doing it right?
pursuing degrees. If you find online education to be unsat-
isfying, that might be because the activi-
With that combination of circumstanc- ties you undertake when “teaching” online
es, it’s not surprising that some online stu- resemble administrative tasks more than
dents do only the minimum required. dynamic co-construction of new knowl-
Online learning requires high-level ex- edge with students. You log in to grade
ecutive-function skills that some students student work, check boxes, go through the
may not possess. The lack of social and lo- motions, manage operational functions.
gistical support that is an inherent part of No wonder it doesn’t seem fulfilling. Those
in-person education — where students in- activities are drudgery.
teract with the instructor and their peers But online teaching can certainly be re-
on a regular basis inside a physical class- warding — if in ways different from the
room — means that online students must face-to-face version. My own experience is
be able to manage their time well, motivate a case in point: Most of my online students
themselves, direct and regulate their own are working and caring for children or oth-
learning, and seek appropriate help when er family members. They’re taking online
needed. But often they simply can’t do all classes because it’s the only way for them
of that on their own, and online courses are to earn a degree and improve their lot. One
their only option to a degree. of my students, who was serving in the
Good online teaching requires you to Air Force, recorded his video introduction
make an extra effort to help those students from his young daughter’s pink-and-pur-
persist, learn deeply, and experience trans- ple “princess” bedroom. Yes, he was a little
formation as a result of your online class- embarrassed, but I was impressed — no,
es. That takes some awareness of the chal- moved — by his resourcefulness. It was the
lenges of online education. It takes careful only room in the house where he could find
thought. Planning. Caring. But it can be a few minutes of quiet during the family
done. And it seems well worth doing. evening routine to do his classwork. So he
swallowed his pride and greeted us from
“Online classes don’t work.” Almost half the floor of his little girl’s bedroom, sur-

rounded by toys and dolls. You just don’t Embracing those differences — the ad-
get those glimpses into your students’ per- vantages of online classes, the techno-
sonal lives, those tangible experiences of logical opportunities afforded by a class-
the challenges they choose to overcome, room without walls — is how we find joy in
when teaching classes on campus. teaching online.
How to Find Help

Ideally, you’re now energized to reinvigo- portant new insights and ideas. Propose
rate your online teaching. There’s no need to that a five-minute tip about online teach-
go it alone. Take advantage of resources and ing be a regular agenda item at depart-
support as you seek to grow in this pursuit. ment meetings. Join a book-discussion
group on excellent online teaching. At-
Make friends with your campus instruc- tend workshops, showcases, and confer-
tional designer. You are an expert in your ences to learn what others at your insti-
subject matter. Instructional designers (like tution and elsewhere are doing in online
me) are expert in effective online teach- education. Talk with your fellow online
ing and learning. Collaborate with this of- educators, learn from their approaches,
ten underutilized colleague to refine your and contribute your own ideas. We’re all
approach. Maybe you attend a workshop, in this together. Let’s commit to learning
meet for coffee, or pick up the phone for a from and with one another.
15-minute conversation about a new idea.
Whatever your preference, this person At this point, you may feel overwhelmed
can significantly improve your experience by all the ways of improving your online
and satisfaction with teaching online. Go teaching practice. So start small. Pick one
ahead. Give us a call. thing. When you have that down, choose
another. Continue step by step, always
Seek an experienced online teaching striving to get better for the sake of your
mentor. Teaching online is a skill differ- online students’ learning and success.
ent from teaching in person. Find someone With some effort, with creative thinking,
who does it well. Learn from that person’s with curiosity and courage, you can dis-
expertise. Emulating the example of some- cover the fizz of teaching within an online
one in the online-teaching trenches — who classroom. •
is not only surviving but thriving — can be
transformative. Flower Darby, a senior instructional design-
er at Northern Arizona University, teaches
Connect with colleagues who are trying online courses at the university and at Es-
to be excellent online teachers. Interact- trella Mountain Community College. She is
ing with others who are grappling with the author, with James M. Lang, of Small
the same teaching issues can lead to im- Teaching Online (Jossey-Bass, 2019).

ADVICE
4 Lessons From
Moving a Face-to-Face
Course Online
By KEVIN GANNON
W
here I teach — a small, primar-
ily residential liberal-arts col-
lege — there was a time when
professors would have avoided
online teaching like the plague.
Five years ago I wasn’t teaching any online
courses. This semester, my entire course
load is online. And so is next semester’s.
What’s interesting is how many of us
who work at “traditional” colleges — where
dorms and dining halls occupy equal pride
of place with classrooms and laborato-
ries — are now trying to figure out how to
create an online version of a face-to-face
courses we’ve been teaching for years.
Online courses were once well outside
the higher-education mainstream, de-
rided as glorified distance-education or
trumped-up correspondence courses by GETTY IMAGES
those who saw them as the opposite of what Kevin Gannon
a college experience should be. In the last
10 to 15 years, however, spiraling enroll- • Now that online education is “a thing,”
ment pressures and a brutal fiscal environ- institutions with teaching at the heart of
ment have pushed many colleges and uni- their missions are indispensable parties
versities into an online presence they might in the conversation. We are now at the
never have anticipated a few planning cy- online table in larger and larger num-
cles ago. bers.
There are several positive aspects to this
development: But the trend has produced its fair share
of challenges as well:
• Online learning means increased access
to higher education, which is an indis- • Campus administrators might see on-
putable social good. line courses primarily as a cost efficien-

cy, for example, and ignore the very real teaching. There are a lot of factors to con-
need for the support and time it takes to sider, and the work can differ greatly de-
teach them well. pending upon the type of course and dis-
• So long as there are still predatory, cipline. If you are in the process of moving
for-profit, financial-aid thieves mas- your courses online — or just mulling how
querading as colleges and universities, your course design and teaching would
online courses will still be held in suspi- look in an asynchronous, digital learn-
cion in many quarters of academe. ing space — chances are you’re wading
• A side from such macro-level concerns, through the same questions and factors,
online teaching presents significant too.
challenges to faculty members. And one What follows, then, are some of the most
of the most significant is the myriad important things I learned in the process
complexities involved in moving a face- of changing from a teacher who taught ex-
to-face course into the online realm. clusively traditional, face-to-face courses to
one who does both and is often immersed
That last challenge was the one I faced in the online environment.
when I taught my first fully online course
five years ago. As I looked at the class — an Avoid seeing online teaching exclusively
upper-level U.S. history seminar — and through the lens of face-to-face courses.
began to think about how I would teach it Initially I was stuck in that very mind-set.
online, my heart sank. How was I going to It suffused all of my judgments and real-
preserve what I thought was most essential ly limited my imagination when it came to
— the regular student interaction, the free- designing an online course.
wheeling give-and-take as we discussed
a particular source or topic — if none of
us would be together in the same physical
space at the same time? How could I take a Now that online education
course that seemed to depend on synchro-
nous activity and make it work in a com-
pletely asynchronous environment? And
is “a thing,” institutions
even if I was able to figure out acceptable
answers to those questions, where would I
with teaching at the heart
even begin?
Fortunately, I had the assistance of col-
of their missions are
leagues who were more familiar with the
online world than I was. I was able to tap indispensable parties in
the conversation.
their expertise, and get introduced to a
valuable collection of resources about on-
line teaching and learning. That, in turn,
helped me develop an online version of the
course that far surpassed my expectations No, I can’t exactly replicate a synchro-
— and students’ as well, judging from the nous seminar-style discussion in an online
positive end-of-semester course evalua- course. But the thoughtful, deliberative
tions. analysis and deep conversation which arise
The experience convinced me that online out of asynchronous online discussions
courses could work well, and I have regu- can’t be replicated in a face-to-face class,
larly taught them since. either. It turns out online teaching and
I vividly recall, though, how overwhelm- learning isn’t inherently better or worse
ing the task seemed initially, and the sheer than the face-to-face variety — just differ-
volume of questions I had about how all of ent. And in both types of courses, you’ll get
this would work, exactly. And I’m remind- more out of teaching them if you focus on
ed regularly of those anxious moments now the opportunities they present rather than
when I work with colleagues new to online the obstacles.

Taking the value judgments out of the ing and then maintaining meaningful en-
equation allowed me to escape the lim- gagement with your students.
its I’d artificially imposed on the process.
When I stopped thinking about what I Know your tools better than you think you
couldn’t do online, and started asking what need to. The ed-tech arena is a crowded
I could do, I found was able to think of ways one. At any given time there’s at least one
to accomplish online the goals I had set for app or platform screaming about how it’s
the course when I was teaching it face-to- the newest, best, easiest tool for your online
face. My learning outcomes were the same course. And that app or platform is just as
in both realms — I just needed to take dif- likely to be gone within a year as it is to be-
ferent vehicles to get there. come and remain a valuable teaching tool.
That said, you can find good digital tools
Online teaching isn’t less time-consum- that (a) afford students the means of inter-
ing than the traditional kind. We know acting substantively with you and with one
that effective teaching isn’t the product of another, and (b) enable a deep engagement
circumstance, but rather a significant in- with course materials or applications. Per-
vestment of time in preparing the learn- haps you elect to use a web annotation tool
ing space, as well as encouraging what de- like Hypothes.is, or a collaborative digi-
velops within that space. It may seem like tal space like Padlet. Maybe you’re using
I’m belaboring the obvious by suggesting the wiki space in your LMS, or have decid-
that’s true online as well but, all too often, ed that a WordPress blog will be the main
we hear online teaching framed in terms of course forum. Whichever tools you adopt,
“efficiency.” integrate them into your course in a way
Deciding to house your courses on the that complements rather than subverts
institution’s learning-management sys- your pedagogy. Choose your tools to help
tem (LMS) involves far more than simply accomplish a specific learning goal in your
posting things on Blackboard or Canvas course, not simply because they’re trendy
and calling it a day. For example, putting a or free, or because you’ve had colleagues
course online means you have to consid- who swear by how cool they are.
er even more carefully both the substance
and tone of your written documents. You’d
be amazed at how the absence of things
like vocal inflection, hand gestures, and fa-
cial expressions can cast your words in a
So long as there are still
much different light for students. For exam-
ple, gently guiding a student to a more skill- predatory, for-profit, financial-
ful or accurate response in a discussion is
a lot easier to do in person than via written aid thieves masquerading as
colleges and universities,
feedback, where sometimes even careful-
ly phrased comments can come across as
harsh or impersonal. If you use video mate-
rial, you need to ensure captioning or tran- online courses will still be held
scripts are included.
Good discussion spaces, course blogging
platforms, curated materials to accompa-
in suspicion in many quarters
ny each module — all of those take time to
build. And it’s a different process than sim-
of academe.
ply compiling lecture notes loosely based
on a textbook chapter. You’ll also need to know the technology
Furthermore, the time commitment well enough to be the main troubleshoot-
doesn’t go away after the course is built. er for your students when — not if — they
Throughout the semester, you have to encounter difficulties setting up or using a
spend a considerable amount of time creat- tool themselves. At any rate, only through

using and experimenting with a digital tool all the usual challenges of designing and
can you really know if it’s the right one for leading courses with the issues particular
your course and learning outcomes. to a digital environment. Yet it’s also an ex-
cellent opportunity to refine your teaching
Above all, presence matters. An online
course can absolutely be a powerful learn-
ing experience, with students as deeply en-
gaged as they would be in a seminar-style You’d be amazed at how the
class. But that outcome isn’t the product of
chance; it’s only accomplished when both
you and your students are present in the
absence of things like vocal
course and with one another. Presence is
perhaps the single most important ingre-
inflection, hand gestures, and
dient in meaningful learning online. Re-
search has shown that two types of pres- facial expressions can cast
ence in particular — social and cognitive
— are key in online teaching. your words in a much different
light for students.
Online courses may be asynchronous,
but they don’t have to be impersonal or at-
omized. There are plenty of ways to build
and maintain a meaningful presence for
both you and your students. (Hint: It goes practice in general. Moving a course on-
well beyond relying on threaded discus- line challenges you to consider exactly why
sions.) Tools such as personalized avatars, you do what you do — from course goals to
creative introductory posts, and video discussion questions to assignments and
comments can be important personalizing tests. In that process, you’ll likely find you
features, while assignments designed for need to do things differently online. You
interaction and collaboration ensure every- may even conclude that your face-to-face
one’s presence is a vital part of the course’s teaching needs an overhaul, too. Either
routine. way, the experience should spur you to re-
Absent any social or cognitive presence, flect critically about teaching, and that’s
online courses resemble the worst of face- never a bad thing. •
to-face pedagogy: hundreds of students
crammed into impersonal lecture halls, Kevin Gannon is a professor of history at
merely the passive recipients of “content.” Grand View University and director of
If that’s all online courses aspire to be, we its Center for Excellence in Teaching and
might as well just have students watch You- Learning.
Tube.
Ultimately, teaching online combines Originally published on March 24, 2019

ADVICE
Live From My
Living Room, It’s
My Classroom!
By ESTHER C. KIM
F
or the past two years, I have been Since our online students cannot assess
teaching live, video graduate cours- our body language, we should use our fa-
es online through a platform called cial expressions to affirm and engage with
2U. It had become such a routine that them. Now I aim to smile more (when ap-
I didn’t pay much attention to the propriate), nod, and make nonlexical con-
differences between online and “on the versation sounds such as “hmm” and “uh
ground” courses until this past semester, huh.” In the same way, I pay close atten-
when I started to notice several sharp dis- tion to what my students’ facial expressions
tinctions. Without a physical classroom show they’re thinking about our particular
presence, the task of truly engaging stu- classroom material. For this reason, I ask
dents can be daunting. So with some re- students to be on audio and on camera for
flection (and the aid of many captivating the duration of the class, as it helps me read
YouTube tutorials), I have developed several and understand their facial expressions.
strategies that have helped
me better motivate my stu- Open your class early. In a
dents on live video plat- traditional “on the ground”
forms. Among them: classroom, both instruc-
tor and students have the
Pay attention to facial ex- option of arriving early or
pressions. I learned a lot by staying after class. This is
watching how a few highly one of those invisible fea-
popular YouTubers main- tures of classroom culture
tained my attention. Most that does not exist online
notably, the best video lec- — unless it is purpose-
turers are animated in the ly created. So I “open” my
way they speak and pres- online class about 10 min-
Esther C. Kim
ent their material, wheth- utes before the official start
er their topic is how to use time to allow students to
scales of measurement in statistics or how “arrive” early, ask questions, or chat with
to apply bronzer so it looks like a natural one another (about anything, course-re-
tan. While you may think this isn’t what lated or not). It’s a great way to create a
you signed up for when you decided on a sense of community, because the alterna-
lifelong career in thinking, writing, and tive looks something like this: Students
teaching great minds, there are a few tricks log in via audio one minute before class,
I’ve adopted to become more animated. wait silently for class to start, turn on the

camera, and, when class is over, prompt- to-face online time by verbalizing their
ly log off. Such a format may be efficient, questions or comments.
but it impedes positive instructor-to-stu- At times, students use the chat box to joke
dent as well as student-to-student rela- or have side conversations with one anoth-
tionships, which, research has shown, er. Since I feel it is important to create an
help facilitate learning. amicable classroom culture, I ask them to
verbalize these jokes as well and to restrict
Provide suggestions for a strong classroom chat-box content to topic-related material.
climate. At the start of the semester, I offer That way the whole class can chuckle and
ways for students to stay engaged in an on- then move on, without students’ competing
line classroom environment, and I explain to outsmart a joke.
the importance of remaining on camera
and on audio. Without a proper explana- Make participation mandatory. As instruc-
tion, students mistakenly think that they tors, we all face the problem of silence at
can multitask during live class sessions. some point during class, or of discussions’
Among the tips I offer them: becoming dominated by a few students. To
encourage participation and the comple-
• Refrain from opening email, texting, or tion of reading assignments, I use random
browsing the web. selection: I write each student’s name on
• Choose a space where you don’t en- a slip of paper and put the slips in a large
counter distractions, which could in- container. Whenever I ask key discussion
clude family members, laundry, dirty questions and do not have volunteers, I pull
dishes, or a busy street outside your
window.
• Avoid sitting on a comfortable couch or
bed.
I “open” my class about
• Pay close attention to peers’ comments
and ask yourself if you agree or dis-
10 minutes early, to allow
agree, and why. Add to the dialogue by
sharing your thoughts. students to ask questions
and chat with one another.
• Avoid taking class from coffee shops or
other public spaces. The background
noise can create a distraction both for
you and for the entire class. Also, inter-
net connections may be inconsistent in a name from the bowl. To add a little ani-
public spaces. mation to the task, I sometimes take a few
seconds to shake up the bowl, then stick my
Don’t use the chat box when you can hand in and call out the name. Students’
speak instead. On my university’s plat- anticipation of having their name pulled
form, there’s a chat box in which students out of a jar is less scary than being directly
can type messages in real time. This could called upon.
be a useful tool if used properly. But I of-
ten find it difficult to simultaneously Make use of external online tools such as
read the chat box while listening to a stu- Google Drive. Some online-classroom plat-
dent who’s speaking. The same goes for forms are limited when it comes to shar-
when I am speaking and someone is typ- ing documents in real time. When I assign
ing comments or questions in the chat students to work in small groups, I post a
box. If there’s a robust dialogue happen- link to a Google Drive page for each small
ing among a few of the students and oth- group. They will remain connected via
ers want to interject, they can place their camera and audio through the platform,
comments in the chat box. Otherwise, I but can open the external link to work
ask that they take advantage of the face- on assignments together. Since they will

have access to the Google Drive even after Another helpful tech support is a battery
class, they can revisit what their group has backup unit into which you can plug your
worked on during class. computer and your router or modem. I bought
mine for less than $50, and it has already
Prepare for technology failures. Wheth- saved me through a temporary power outage.
er it’s problems with the online platform
O
or Wi-Fi connections, technology can fail. nline education is a growing field, and,
During the first few semesters of teach- with some effort, it can emulate the
ing online, I frantically tried to fix the feeling of students and instructor be-
problem while remaining on camera. Un- ing together in a physical classroom. While
less you are certain that it will be a quick YouTubers have the advantage of being able
fix, it’s best to post a message on the chat to edit their videos and upload the best ver-
box or say (if your audio is working) that sions, instructors who teach via video have
you are facing technological problems, a greater benefit in being able to interact
and then offer a five-minute break. In- with their online students. Teaching peo-
clude a time stamp in case the platform ple how to apply makeup so they look like
freezes; for example: “Hi all, I’m having they’re not wearing any might make some-
technical difficulties. It’s 5:55 p.m. right one a YouTube star, but creating student
now — let’s take a five-minute break and engagement that looks and feels natural is
regroup at 6 p.m.” In my experience, five truly satisfying. •
minutes is enough time to restart the
platform, restart your computer, or con- Esther C. Kim is a lecturer in the Rossi-
tact your online-support staff. On that er School of Education at the University of
note, make sure you have your real-time Southern California.
online-support phone numbers saved in
your phone’s contacts. Originally published on April 8, 2018

Resources for Giving Students Online Feedback
The following excerpt and list of tech tools fers thousands of online-learning mate-
are from The Chronicle’s Advice Guide “How rials for educators around the world.
to Give Your Students Better Feedback With
Technology.” The authors are Holly Fiock, an Free tools:
instructional designer in the College of Ed- • SoundCloud: An easy audio-recording
ucation at Purdue University, and Heather tool that you can embed in your learn-
Garcia, an instructional-design specialist at ing-management system so students
Oregon State University Ecampus. can click an arrow and play your re-
cording.
Technology has the potential to make • Vocaroo: A simple, PC-friendly tool for
course feedback better — more effective, recording your voice. You can immedi-
more engaging, more timely — but that won’t ately get a link to the recording and give
happen automatically. Technology must be it to students.
thoughtfully applied, not just used for the • Screencast-O-Matic: A screencasting
sake of using it. As an instructor you may tool that allows you to record up to 15
have a variety of feedback tools already at minutes.
your disposal, via your institution’s online • Kaizena: A site that helps you provide
platform or learning-management system verbal feedback directly on student doc-
(LMS), such as Google Classroom, Black- uments and track their progress by com-
board, Moodle, Desire2Learn, or Canvas… paring your feedback history over multi-
ple assignments.
What follows is a list of applications and • Screencastify: A screen recorder for
technologies found to be most useful in pro- Chrome (via extension) that requires no
viding feedback. We do suggest that you first download.
check with your department and/or institu-
tion to see what is already available (and locally Paid tools:
supported) for instructors on your campus. • VoiceThread: A learning tool that allows
the instructor and the students to partic-
A starter kit: ipate in a pre-uploaded presentation by
For newbies to digital feedback tools, here providing text, audio, and/or video dis-
are the best resources to get you started: cussions.
• A list of 75 digital tools and apps that in- • Snagit: A screenshot program by
structors can use to assess student per- TechSmith that captures both video and
formance and provide them with feed- audio.
back. • Camtasia: Another program by
• T he Chronicle’s guide, “How to Make TechSmith that allows users to create
Smart Choices About Tech for Your video via screencast or direct recording.
Course,” by Michelle D. Miller. • Panopto: A program that provides re-
• A column from The Hechinger Report, cording, screencasting, and video
“Has Video Killed the Red Grading Pen?” streaming for users.
• MERLOT: Part of the California State • Hippo Video: An all-in-one, cloud-based,
University system, the acronym stands video-management system that allows
for Multimedia Educational Resources users to capture, edit, and share video,
for Learning and Online Teaching. It of- audio, and screen recordings.

1255 Twenty-Third Street, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20037
202 466 1000 | Chronicle.com
©2020 by The Chronicle of Higher Education Inc. All rights reserved.

Moving Online Now: How To Keep Teaching During Coronavirus

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Moving Online Now: How To Keep Teaching During Coronavirus

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Moving

In this special collection:

4 The Decision to Move Classes Online as Coronavirus Spreads

8 Going Online in a Hurry: What to Do and Where to Start

11 How to Be a Better Online Teacher: A Comprehensive Advice Guide

24 4 Lessons From Moving a Face-to-Face Course Online

28 Live From My Living Room, It’s My Classroom!

For questions or comments about the collection, email ci@chronicle.com

Cover photo by Stuart Isett

BRAD MITCHELL, ALAMY

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CHRONICLE PHOTO BY JULIA SCHMALZ

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DAVID SENIOR FO R THE CHRONICLE

• 10 essential principles and practices of

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10 Essential Principles and Practices

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Put Yourself in Their Shoes

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Organize Course Content Intuitively

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Add Visual Appeal

Explain Your Expectations

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Scaffold Learning Activities

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Make Class an Inviting, Pleasant Place to Be

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How to Find Help

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©2020 by The Chronicle of Higher Education Inc. All rights reserved.

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• 10 essential principles and practices of

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