Online Teaching vs.

Classroom Teaching
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As a teacher, you may be suddenly faced with the challenge of needing to teach a course online, and
wonder how to do this.  Before thinking about the ‘how to’ of this challenge, we need to think about
how an online teaching class is different from a classroom with walls.  Understanding these differences
will help you more successful in your converting your course to an online environment:

Student access to materials: In a traditional classroom, a student arrives for a lesson at a set time
and the teacher delivers the content in real time, and is able to ask questions and assess
understanding through conversation and discussions.  If you are considering simply converting your
teaching to an online platform like Zoom or Google Hangouts to teach, don’t.   We cannot assume that
every student has access to a laptop and a stable internet connection at all times, so we need to make
sure that every learner has access to materials at all times, whenever they log on to the course.  Yes,
you could record your videos and post those online, but there are other effective ways to share
information that won’t use lots of data.

Time Management:  Be prepared for the fact that activities and learning takes more time in an online class than in a
face to face class.  In a face to face class, it’s easy to see when someone is on the wrong page of a textbook, or
distracted.  You can look over a student’s shoulder to check how they are answering a question and give instant
feedback.  That’s not possible in an online class so be prepared to take things slower.  Also consider how to make
instructions clearer, give short chunks of information so students aren’t overwhelmed, and think about how you will
check on their progress and give opportunities for students to ask questions if they don’t understand.

Communication:  In a face to face class, discussions happen synchronously (i.e. in real time), which means that you
can answer questions immediately, and build on ideas quickly.  You can see body language and facial expressions
and that guides the conversation.  Discussions online do not have all of those social cues - (unless you use emojis :-)
- and they happen asynchronously (i.e. not in real time), so discussions can seem slower and disjointed.  But there
are good points to online discussion - you may find that some of the quieter students are more willing to participate,
and also, the discussions are more reflective..

Roles of the Instructor:  In a face to face class, an instructor teaches, assesses, organises activities to practise new
skills and understanding.  In an online class, the instructor does all of these things, but may also need to provide
technical support to learners to access the materials.  Also, the instructor may need to check in with students more to
see how they are doing.  In a face to face class, the instructor is available during class time and perhaps at set times
after.  But in an online course, the instructor might not need to be available at set times, but needs to manage time to
design, assess, and answer questions on discussion boards..

Resources:  In a classroom, you may use a course book or written materials to guide your lesson, or a presentation
with some videos.  In an online course, you can use many different online resources, or create your own videos, or
write your own text.  The opportunities are endless (and therefore a bit confusing sometimes, so try to keep it
simple).  You also need to remember to view the materials from your students’ point of view.  Is there too much
information in one lesson?  Do you need to break that down?  How can you make it more manageable?.

Assessments:  In a classroom, you can ask questions during a presentation to check understanding.  In an online
environment, you need to think of ways to check understanding for your benefit as the teacher - but also so the
student knows that they are on the right track and have understood too.  

The Methods of Engagement

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Teaching is about delivering information in an efficient, effective, and appealing way. For this reason,
you should always have an instructional plan in mind.
Baby Steps 
These are simple activities/challenges in your course that give your students a sense of
accomplishment and confidence. They keep students excited about learning more. Include baby steps
throughout the training, mainly where students should have accomplished a particular challenge and
are ready to move on to more challenging activities.
Scaffolding 
Scaffolding is layering the learning experience, so students build on the concepts they already
understand. Scaffolding requires that you gradually layer from simple concepts more challenging ideas
by telling students how this new information fits into what they already know.
Active & Self-Directed Learning 
In-order to learn something, students should have to do something. Allow your students to apply the
content they are learning about by using quizzes, assignments, and projects to move from passive to
active learners. Social activities such as starting a dialogue in the discussion section or sharing
pictures of the activities can increase the engagement of students as well.

Gagne's Nine Events of Instruction

In 1965, Robert Gagne proposed a series of events that are associated with and

address the mental conditions for learning. Each of the nine events of instruction is

highlighted below, followed by sample methods to help implement the events in your

own instruction.

Use Gagne’s nine events in conjunction with Bloom’s Revised Taxonomy to design

engaging and meaningful instruction.

1. Gain attention of the students

Ensure the learners are ready to learn and participate in activities by presenting a

stimulus to capture their attention.

These are a few methods for capturing learners’ attention:

• Stimulate students with novelty, uncertainty, and surprise

• Pose thought-provoking questions to students

• Have students pose questions to be answered by other students

• Lead an ice breaker activity

2. Inform students of the objectives

Inform students of the objectives or outcomes for the course and individual lessons to

help them understand what they are expected to learn and do. Provide objectives

before instruction begins.

Here are some methods for stating the outcomes:

• Describe required performance

• Describe criteria for standard performance

• Have learners establish criteria for standard performance

• Include course objectives on assessment prompts

3. Stimulate recall of prior learning

Help students make sense of new information by relating it to something they already

know or something they have already experienced.

There are numerous methods for stimulating recall:

• Ask questions about previous experiences

• Ask students about their understanding of previous concepts

• Relate previous course information to the current topic

• Have students incorporate prior learning into current activities

4. Present the content

Use strategies to present and cue lesson content to provide more effective instruction.

Organize and group content in meaningful ways, and provide explanations after

demonstrations.

The following are ways to present and cue lesson content:

• Present multiple versions of the same content (e.g. video, demonstration, lecture,

podcast, group work, etc.)

• Use a variety of media to engage students in learning

• Incorporate active learning strategies to keep students involved

• Provide access to content on Blackboard so students can access it outside of class

5. Provide learning guidance

Advise students of strategies to aid them in learning content and of resources available.

In other words, help students learn how to learn.

The following are examples of methods for providing learning guidance:

• Provide instructional support as needed – i.e. scaffolding that can be removed

slowly as the student learns and masters the task or content

• Model varied learning strategies – e.g. mnemonics, concept mapping, role playing,
visualizing

• Use examples and non-examples – examples help students see what to do, while

non-examples help students see what not to do

• Provide case studies, visual images, analogies, and metaphors – Case studies

provide real world application, visual images assist in making visual associations,

and analogies and metaphors use familiar content to help students connect with

new concepts

6. Elicit performance (practice)

Have students apply what they have learned to reinforce new skills and knowledge and

to confirm correct understanding of course concepts.

Here are a few ways to activate learner processing:

• Facilitate student activities – e.g. ask deep-learning questions, have students

collaborate with their peers, facilitate practical laboratory exercises

• Provide formative assessment opportunities – e.g. written assignments, individual

or group projects, presentations

• Design effective quizzes and tests – i.e. test students in ways that allow them to

demonstrate their comprehension and application of course concepts (as opposed

to simply memorization and recall)

7. Provide feedback

Provide timely feedback of students’ performance to assess and facilitate learning and

to allow students to identify gaps in understanding before it is too late.

The following are some types of feedback you may provide to students:

• Confirmatory feedback informs the student that they did what they were

supposed to do. This type of feedback does not tell the student what she needs

to improve, but it encourages the learner.

• Evaluative feedback apprises the student of the accuracy of their performance or

response but does not provide guidance on how to progress.

• Remedial feedback directs students to find the correct answer but does not
provide the correct answer.

• Descriptive or analytic feedback provides the student with suggestions,

directives, and information to help them improve their performance.

• Peer-evaluation and self-evaluation help learners identify learning gaps and

performance shortcomings in their own and peers’ work.

8. Assess performance

Test whether the expected learning outcomes have been achieved on previously stated

course objectives.

Some methods for testing learning include the following:

• Administer pre- and post-tests to check for progression of competency in content

or skills

• Embed formative assessment opportunities throughout instruction using oral

questioning, short active learning activities, or quizzes

• Implement a variety of assessment methods to provide students with multiple

opportunities to demonstrate proficiency

• Craft objective, effective rubrics to assess written assignments, projects, or

presentations

9. Enhance retention and transfer

Help learners retain more information by providing them opportunities to connect

course concepts to potential real-world applications.

The following are methods to help learners internalize new knowledge:

• Avoid isolating course content. Associate course concepts with prior (and future)

concepts and build upon prior (and preview future) learning to reinforce

connections.

• Continually incorporate questions from previous tests in subsequent examinations

to reinforce course information.

• Have students convert information learned in one format into another format. For

example, requiring students to create a concept map to represent connections

between ideas.

• To promote deep learning, clearly articulate your lesson goals, use your specific

goals to guide your instructional design, and align learning activities to lesson

goals.

Summary

Gagne’s nine events of instruction can help you build a framework to prepare and

deliver instructional content while considering and addressing conditions for learning.

Ideally, you should prepare course goals and learning objectives before implementing

the nine events—the goals and objectives will help situate the events in their proper

context. The nine events of instruction can then be modified to fit both the content

and students’ level of knowledge.

Curate
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You’ve decided which learning documents should move forward to become online training courses.
But, before you dive in and start copy-pasting content into your online training software, you’ll likely
need to edit them slightly.
 
As we’ve already said, students can be overwhelmed if too much information is presented in one go,
so think about how you are going to chunk information.  Salman Khan, founder of Khan Academy,
notes in an article for Time magazine, that long lectures and lengthy videos prove unfit for learning
because attention “maxed out at around 10 or 15 minutes.” So try to shorten existing documents and
videos because shorter content means learners can digest the information better. Shorter content
provides another benefit: it’s easier to update. Reshooting a 2-minute video takes much less work
than a 10-minute version.
 
If your content is usually presented in Word or Powerpoint documents, you will want to consider
editing these.  Bulleted lists might work in PowerPoint presentations and Word documents, but such
lists aren’t great for learning. Bulleted lists often strip meaning and content from the presented
information, which means they are unclear in an online course.
 
This can be solved by filling in that missing context. This can be done in lots of different ways.  For
example, you could create a video to go with your presentation to explain one or two points (no more
than that)  Or you could add text to explain the context of the presentation in more detail.  
 
The subject of designing this content in different ways is further explored in our DEOLE course, so if
you would like to know more, consider taking our longer 4 day course to take a deeper dive into the
pedagogical features of online course design.