E-Learning and Online Teaching

While developing effective teamwork and collaboration skills are considered important to the learning process, many students find group work challenging and difficult.

Strategies that work in relatively small online courses do not necessarily translate when enrollments increase. Without a change in instructional strategies, doubling the number of students doubles the instructor's workload on things such as grading and feedback.

To address this issue, Keith Restine, associate director of distance education, and Allison Peterson, senior instructional designer, both at Texas Woman's University, recommend addressing instructor workload in two key areas: group work and discussion boards.

Most of us assume that confidence and certainty are preferred over uncertainty and bewilderment when it comes to learning complex information.

...A new study led by Sidney D'Mello of the University of Notre Dame shows that confusion when learning can be beneficial if it is properly induced, effectively regulated and ultimately resolved.

In an online environment, human interaction does not just happen naturally. Your online students need a way to get to know you, the instructor, and others. There are several ways to encourage your students to interact with each other. The idea is to be creative and set several guidelines for students to follow in order to stimulate asynchronous discussions.

Teaching online is challenging. This site is being developed as a resource for online teachers. The materials presented here have been created by students in a graduate course devoted to developing instructional strategies for teaching (and learning) in online environments. Many of the activities you will find here have been adapted from activities typically found in traditional face-to-face classrooms. Others are completely original - developed solely for the purpose of enhancing instruction in synchronous and asynchronous learning environments. We are confident you will find something of value within this site

Embodied Cognition is telling us that effective learning takes place in a dynamic environment that includes interaction and manipulation. I think we can simulate these experiences even if they are digitally-based. People learn by doing.

If you have either attended or facilitated training in a virtual classroom you know that maintaining a high level of interactivity is key to keeping participants engaged.  Here are ten ideas for exercises to try in your next virtual classroom...

To create assignments that work the focus must be on process, not task. Many constructivist learning theorists in the past have agreed on this, yet it remains a challenge. It's tempting to identify tasks, as they can be analyzed more easily, they're quantifiable and, therefore, gradable. Process-based learning is messier, takes longer to evaluate and, by definition, allows for many more variables than simple tasks. I do not mean that tasks are never to be assigned or evaluated. I mean that tasks are simply that--tasks. They do not necessarily demonstrate the learning of the student in the wider sense of the word. To shift the focus to process, however, we need to change what we value in our grading.