LibGuides: Strategies for Online Teaching: Home

What is it?

Teaching online has its own set of opportunities and challenges. Below are some strategies for online teaching based on some common challenges of this environment.

Because you may not meet with your students in real time, it can be hard to build community. You might consider:

Offering optional synchronous office hours, coffee chats, or social time ( Zoom, Gather, etc.)
Using video or voice recordings for discussions and giving feedback (you can even used built-in tools in Canvas to do this)
Social annotation tools (e.g. Hypothes.is, Perusall) to promote discussions in readings
Use a pre-course poll or survey to learn more about your learners

As you may never meet with your students, it’s extra important to ensure that your materials and instructions clearly communicate your expectations:

Be intentional with how you organize your content (e.g. by week, module) and the user experience of navigating the materials
Help students know how much time to budget for each activity (e.g. list number of pages for readings, times for videos)
Provide rubrics, point breakdowns, clear instructions, and opportunities to ask their questions

Promoting engagement can be a challenge online. Consider how you might design your content to help students feel motivated to complete the activities with “brains on”:

Not all discussion prompts are equal - ask good questions that gets the conversation going, enables students to learn from one anothers’ lived experiences, and promotes inclusion
Break up video lectures into 6-12 minute “chunks” or embed poll questions strategically
Be cognizant of how much you are asking students to read, what readings you include, and whose work you are citing. When chosen intentionally, readings can empower learners and demonstrate the diversity of background and thought in your discipline.