I Have to Know What??!!Online Teaching Competencies

Adapted from “Online Teaching Facilitation Course:Core Competencies: http://www.ncrel.org/meeting/2005/docs/etlead2.pdf

AndIllinois Online Teacher Competencies: http://www.ion.uillinois.edu

The Good News…

• You don’t have to learn everything at once

• You don’t have to do it all by yourself

• Workshop opportunities provide just the training you need, when you need it, in the format that works best for you

Online Teaching Roles

• Web-enhancing on-ground courses

• Facilitating Online Courses

• Developing fully-online courses

Recommended Strategy• Start with web-enhancing on-ground classes• Start small

– Syllabus

– Calendar

– Readings/Handouts

• Add additional features as your knowledge grows:– WebCT

– Role of online environment in your courses/discipline

Competencies

• Technical Skills

• Pedagogical Skills

Technical Skills - Basic

– Put syllabus online– Customize your course home page– Use WebCT email– Use WebCT discussion tool

• Create discussion topics• Participate in discussion threads

– Create and use file attachments with emails and discussion posts

Technical Skills - Basic

• Post entries to the WebCT calendar

• Prepare course for new trimester

• Use WebCT “Track Student” tool to monitor student activity/participation in a course

Technical Skills - Intermediate• Content Presentation

– Edit existing course documents (change syllabus, fix broken links, add additional information, etc.)

– Search the Internet to locate appropriate teaching resources

Technical Skills - Intermediate• Content Presentation

– Upload and link PowerPoint Presentations, single documents, etc.

– Create a link to a Web resource

• Assessment– Create and Administer online quizzes/exams

• Create quizzes using WebCT and Respondus• Establish quiz settings• Grade manually-scored test items

Technical Skills - Intermediate

• Assessment– Create and grade assignments online

• Assignment tool• Downloading, grading and uploading graded

assignments to students

Technical Skills - Intermediate

Technical Skills - Intermediate

• Manage WebCT Grade Book– Create grade book columns for manually-

graded course elements– Post manually-graded activities to course

grade book– Override automatically posted grades as

necessary

Technical Skills - Advanced• Use WebCT tools to create a navigable

course structure (Content Modules and Organizer Pages)

• Create and save content materials in appropriate Web formats (e.g., html, swf, etc.)

Technical Skills - Advanced• Provide guidance to students experiencing

problems using WebCT tools.• Restructure a Publisher Course

Technical Skills Advanced

• Design and develop assessment strategies appropriate for learning objectives and the online environment.

Pedagogical Skills - Basic

• Understand the relative strengths and weaknesses of traditional and online learning environments

• Apply good teaching practices to the incorporation of online components into web-enhanced courses

• Understand the student experience of online learning

• Model effective online interaction and communication

• Apply facilitation strategies to encourage student-content interaction, critical thinking, and movement from theory to practice.

• Moderate online discussions to achieve effective levels of student-student interaction

Pedagogical Skills - Intermediate

Pedagogical Competencies - Advanced

• Design instruction that utilizes the unique characteristics of the online learning environment to effectively address learning objectives

• Determine appropriate online teaching strategies for specified learning objectives

• Present/explain content clearly in the online environment

• Design learning activities that engage students in student-content and student-student interactions

Pedagogical Competencies - Advanced

• Design course elements to assure that the course is ‘teachable’– Appropriate student-faculty interaction– Adequate feedback to students regarding

academic performance– Reasonable number of online hours required

of teaching faculty

Pedagogical Competencies - Advanced

• Design and develop assessment strategies appropriate for learning objectives and the online environment.

• Utilize facilitation strategies that create a ‘community of learners’ environment in the online classroom

Developing Online Teaching Competencies

• Faculty Development– Faculty Workshops– Consulting Services

Faculty Development:

• Online Workshops– Self-paced– Facilitated– Learn what you need when you need it– Open entry – you can start at any time

Faculty Development: • Face-to-Face Workshops

– Scheduled annually (typically each workshop is offered once a year)

– Repeats online workshops in face-to-face format

– Additional training for specific content development tools (e.g., Viewlet Builder, Camtasia, Captivate)

• Online Teaching “Labs”– Scheduled in conjunction with Face-to-face

Workshops– Tool/Procedure-specific– Fully ‘hands on’– Open to faculty who attend face-to-face workshops

or to those who are completing the workshops online

Faculty Development:

• Facilitating Online Courses at GSU– Prepares faculty to teach an online course

• Facilitation strategies• Minimal subset of WebCT tools needed to teach a

course that is already online and ready-to-go

– This workshop is offered only in an online format

Faculty Development: Online Workshops

• WebCT Basic Training – – Prepares faculty to use WebCT tools to web-

enhance on-ground courses• Most Extensive Workshop Series• Focuses on Use of WebCT tools from the

designer/instructor perspective• Provides the technical base faculty will need in order

to develop fully-online and hybrid courses

Faculty Development: Online Workshops

Faculty Development: Online Workshops

• Web-Enhanced to Fully Online– Builds on the WebCT Basic Training workshop

sequence– Focuses on instructional design and

pedagogical issues

To Preview Workshops

• http://webct.govst.edu

– User id = fsiguest– Password = fsiguest

To Sign Up for an Online Workshop

• Contact– Jan Engle x 3073

• J-engle@govst.edu

– Barbara Mandel x 4940• B-mandel@govst.edu

Face-to-Face Workshops

• Will begin in the Fall

• Schedule will be published on the Faculty Resource Home Page available from the WebCT login page.http://webct.govst.edu

Online Teaching “Labs”• Will be scheduled and announced in conjunction with

On-ground workshops beginning in the Fall.• During the Summer …

– Individual ‘labs’ during Drop-in Consulting Hours• Center for Online Teaching and Learning

C2311 3:00 – 4:30 Tuesdays and Thursdays

– Individual ‘labs’ by appointment• Jan Engle – x3073• Barbara Mandel – x4940

Consulting• Course design• Restructuring publisher courses• Selecting content presentation tools to meet teaching

objectives• Content development• Designing/developing authentic assessments• Designing/structuring student-student interactions• Designing/structuring collaborative projects• Application of WebCT tools to a specific course

Help!• Center for Online Teaching and Learning

– Gary Fisk: g-fisk@govst.edu ex: 4094

– Jan Engle: j-engle@govst.edu ex: 3073

– Barbara Mandel: b-mandel@govst.edu ex:4940

• Online – Discussion boards in Faculty Development course shells