Essential Standards for Quality Online Learning: Part 2

​As I wrap up another semester of online teaching with success rates at or near 100%, I decided to share the things I do that matter most to student learning and success. My hope is that this dispels any myth that teaching online is easy. Just as with learner success, teaching success is the result of deliberate effort, wise strategies, and help seeking. 

Course Management

​The following are critical, minimum expectations for a high-quality online course:

Once students are on course, carefully designed systems can help keep them on course. These systems rest on a foundation of communication.

Establish a proactive, flexible, and responsive communication plan for supporting student learning and success. Effectively meeting this guideline means:

• Regular synchronous web conferences are held to address muddy questions, answer questions, and review upcoming modules, including their outcomes and supporting assessments, materials, and activities. Typically, conferences are held at the beginning of each new learning module in the course and are recorded.

 

• Regular office hours are announced on the LMS, included on the course schedule on the LMS, and posted in the course syllabus. Typically, to encourage engagement, hours should occur across multiple days. A good rule of thumb when teaching online is to offer at least four virtual office hours distributed across at least four days. To encourage students to take advantage of your diverse availability and make appointments, consider posting the hours on a calendar tool. During office hours, use the waiting room feature and display an appropriate message to alert students to the process used to admit them into the meeting room.

 

• Create an Ask the Instructor forum on the LMS for open Q&A on forum. Subscribe to the forum and commit to responding to messages in the forum promptly, typically within 24 hours.

 

• Make clear when students can expect a response to the LMS messages, emails, and other communications. Typically, a response within 24 hours is appropriate.

 

• Make clear when students can expect to receive feedback on their work in the course. Typically, feedback within 72 hours is appropriate.

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• Record grades on the LMS. If you use other technologies for grading, record grades for those activities. Use great care in setting up your gradebook. Ideally, you will have the gradebook organized in a way that is intuitive to students. Check all settings. If you use extra credit, use special care in incorporating them into your course so that they work as intended in the gradebook.

Bottom Line: These principles emphasize learning and success. 

For more essential standards check out Part 1 on Course Introductions and Part 3 on Backwards Design.​For questions on these essential standards, email Dr. Bob DuBois at DrBob@UTK.edu.

​Written by Bob DuBois