Doubtful About Teaching with Tech? Steps to Get Your Online Classroom Built

EDITOR'S NOTE:  This is the first in a series about how to transfer your face to face courses into effective online learning communities. 

This is not only the first blog post in a series to help those who are now moving your classes from face to face delivery to an online platform but  - it's the first blog post for the Doubtfully Digital Blog. You can read about our goals for the blog here but for now let's get to it.

Whether we agree about the effectiveness of online course delivery or not, the global health crisis we are facing has forced our hand.  In order to keep our students moving towards their educational goals, we are going online.

This first blog post will focus on helping you with steps you can take to prepare yourself, your courses, and your students for the new world of online learning communities.  This post, and the others that follow in this series, are based on my experiences doing this, quite reluctantly, when a colleague of mine was injured.I asked what I could do to help with her classes.  Before I knew it, I was suddenly teaching and designing online courses. I have felt the stress and imposture syndrome you may be feeling right now. 

 I've learned a lot since then - especially how open and collaborative those in the online teaching world truly are. While I present many of my own ideas here, I gained this knowledge through practice and collaborations with many of the absolute stars of the online learning world. Kudos and acknowledgements will be offered throughout the blog.

Without further ado, let's get started. 

Step 1: The Prep and Plan 

Outline Class Sessions and Goals 

You know where you have left off in your teaching, and you already know where you have flow in the class. Now your going to:

Outline learning goals for each session - feel free to begin with you next upcoming session to build your skills using these techniques

• This is your starting map for going online.  

Make a list of your active learning activities

• Active learning still happens in online learning communities. Having a list will allow you to determine what activities can continue just as they are and which will have to be modified to be effective in your new learning arena

Make a quick list of what is going well in the class and any areas of improvement.

Since you are in the middle of a term, this list will serve as a check list for where the strengths and weaknesses of the class are at.

• Knowing where your class going well or feels effective is as important for you as it will be for your students.  You will possibly be the guide for an entirely new learning experience for a group of pretty stressed out learners. Reminding them that "Hey we've got this! Remember when we struggled in January trying to accomplish XYZ? We will get there just like we did then. "
• Summarize where weaknesses may exist in your course.  Ideas here might include a topic you believe can only be taught face to face, students struggling with performance in our class already, content areas that the learning community overall is not seeming to grasp. 

Review What You Have and What You Need

Think through the "physicals" that you bring into the classroom. 

• What materials do you bring into the physical classroom?
• PowerPoint, handouts, audio files, films and even a list of what you might write on the board
• Research how to include these in your new classroom - your school's learning management system (LMS).  Likely you know how to do some of this already. If not you can reach out to your university's tech department for support.
•  Reach out to two colleagues you know who are teaching on line. Build your support network. 
• Determine if you need tools such as a headset or webcam. Ask your university if they will supply these/reimburse for them or if you have to purchase them on your own. 

Develop a Communication Plan

Communicate communicate communicate and you will build a strong connections with your students. Communication is the "secret sauce of online learning communities."

Send out an initial "We Are All in This Together" communication. Be you - the less formal the better.  Be the human person your students see in the residential classroom  in this communication.  This is your bridge into this new endeavor. 

• Decide how you will connect with students on a regular basis outside of the class sessions. Key to success note: Over communicate for the win!  
• Develop templates for your email and LMS communication. Consider drafting the following:
• Your "We Are All In This Together" communication 
• Where We've Been and Where We Are Going: A weekly summary communication of what you've covered and what students should be working on in between sessions
• Gratitude communication: 
• Dear Student, Thank you so much for Y this week. You are adding so much to our learning community
• Communication of Concern
• Dear Student, Just a check in to see how you are doing.  I've notice a little slip in your grade and want to see what we can do to
• Check In Communication
• Hi Student, I wanted to send a message and check in and see how your transition to online learning is going. 

Coming Up Next: The Prep and Plan, Part 2