Best Practices for Online Education

Resources for Best Practices in Online Teaching

• instructional design - http://moodle-network.pbwiki.com/f/instructionaldesigntips.pdf
• best practices for online teaching - http://missiononline.pbwiki.com/best-practices
• Characteristics of successful online instructors - http://moodle-network.pbwiki.com/f/vocal.pdf
• Instructional Design Rubric - http://missiononline.pbwiki.com/f/idt.pdf

Websites Worth Checking Out

Why teach fully online, blended, or enhanced...

http://vudat.msu.edu/why/

Answers some of the questions of why? including benefits and limitations of online teaching. Brought to you by Michigan State Virtual University Design & Technology.

Michigan State Virtual University Design & Technology

http://vudat.msu.edu/teach/

A virtual flowchart and catalog of collective best practices on why teach online and how to get started in creating an online course. EXCELLENT resource that guides you through the steps - including how to design your online course for adult learning.

Teach Online - Michigan State's old portal for the Virtual University Design & Technology site.

http://teachvu.vu.msu.edu/public/

Still some very relevant information.

Links to Instructional Design Tips for Online Instruction (Humboldt State University) and the correlating Rubric for Online Instruction (Chico State University).

http://www.csuchico.edu/celt/roi/

http://www.csuchico.edu/celt/roi/resources.html

What is your teaching style? - Inventory (Online).

http://fcrcweb.ftr.indstate.edu/tstyles3.html

Brought to you by Indiana State University. Determine your teaching style and use this to assist in developing your online teaching presence.

Distance Education Faculty Site Map - University of Florida.

http://www.hhp.ufl.edu/depts/distance/facultyinfo/

An EXCELLENT resource for all distance learning instructors from telecourses to all online. Check this out!

IDKB - Instructional Design Knowledge Base

http://classweb.gmu.edu/ndabbagh/Resources/IDKB/index.htm

Excellent links to pedagogy and best practices for designing curriculum as it pertains to traditional and online learning.

Index of Learning Styles

http://www.ncsu.edu/felder-public/ILSpage.html

"The Index of Learning Styles is an on-line instrument used to assess preferences on four dimensions (active/reflective, sensing/intuitive, visual/verbal, and sequential/global) of a learning style model formulated by Richard M. Felder and Linda K. Silverman. The instrument was developed by Richard M. Felder and Barbara A. Soloman of North Carolina State University."

Learning Style Questionnaire - Try it yourself!

http://www.engr.ncsu.edu/learningstyles/ilsweb.html

Based upon the Index of Learning Styles. Different from Myers-Brigg and Gardner. Developed out of North Carolina State University. Try it.

Principles of Online Design for Faculty

http://www.fgcu.edu/onlinedesign/index.html

Created by Florida Gulf Coast University. A rubric style format for decision-making in choosing to teach online and creating content for online. Particularly pertains to moving from traditional to some element of online teaching.

Fac Dev 101 - Penn State's Online Course for Training Faculty in Online Teaching.

https://courses.worldcampus.psu.edu/facdev101/student/index.shtml

Taught in 9 Modules available for printable download. Excellent resources. Penn State teaches using the Angel courseware system yet these lessons are non-courseware specific and scaffolded rather well for self-paced learning. Very essential for those new to online learning.

Learning Support Centers in Higher Education: Online Teaching/Learning.

http://www.pvc.maricopa.edu/%7Elsche/resources/onlineteaching.htm

Links to zillions (well, alot) of resources available in print or on the web for online teaching. Created by Paradise Valley Community College (Phoenix, Arizona).

CATS - Community of Academic Technology Staff: Best Practices for Developing and Delivering an Online Course.

http://www.csuchico.edu/%7Ejknolle/CATS/

Chico State University - links to resources for best practices in online learning and discussion forums.

SLOAN Consortium Effective Online Practices Wiki.

http://www.aln.org/effective/index.asp

"To help make quality education online part of everyday life, accessible and affordable for anyone, anywhere, at any time, in a wide variety of disciplines, Sloan-C shares effective practices online. You see here the beginning of a site that you can help make more and more useful to the higher education community."

eLearnopedia.com

http://www.elearnopedia.com/

- Document/Article/Website searchable and annotated index of eLearning practices, tips, suggestions, pedagogy, theory, etc. for Academic Researchers, Educators, Developers, General Interest, and Content Managers. Excellent resource database.

Interactivity and the Self-Paced Online Course

http://vudat.msu.edu/breakfast_7/

There are two models presented - one the "social learning" style and another in the more traditional "demonstrative" style. The second presenter is rather lengthy so you may want to skip to the 2nd or 3rd movie, but he gives a history of why he chose to design his course the way he did and how he got there.

Articles to peruse

BE VOCAL: Characteristics of Successful Online Instructors

http://www.ncolr.org/jiol/issues/viewarticle.cfm?volID=4&IssueID=15&ArticleID=73

Article from the Journal of Online Interactive Learning - available for download as .pdf as well.

Teaching and Learning in a Hybrid World: An Interview with Carol Twigg

http://www.educause.edu/pub/er/erm04/erm0443.asp?bhcp=1

- Educause article. Also available for download as .pdf as well

Books Worth Reading

A list of hardcopy books on the topics of distance and online education. Best practices found inside. Note: A few of these texts are used in our faculty training.

"147 Practical Tips for Teaching Online Groups: Essentials of Web-Based Education" by Donald E. Hanna, Michelle Glowacki-Dudka, & Simone Conceição-Runlee. 2000. http://www.atwoodpublishing.com

"Essential Elements: Prepare, Design, and Teach Your Online Course" by Bonnie Elbaum, Cynthia McIntyre, and Alese Smith. 2002. http://www.atwoodpublishing.com

701 E-Learning Tips, produced by the MASIE center. Free book download as .pdf: http://www.masie.com/701tips/

Teaching Showcase of Levels of Interactivity and Media Choice

Virtual University Design and Technology Showcase: http://typo3.vudat.msu.edu/index.php?id=369

At this site you'll find examples of instruction geared for different levels of interactivity as well as examples of when it is best to use a certain form of media. It may help you choose what tools you want to use in your course.

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