Best Practices: General

The world of online teaching can be a scary place for those individuals with little experience with technology.  Some questions that often arise revolve around how to conduct a successful online classroom when the traditional classroom may seem so much easier to operate.  In this part of the blog series, I will go over some best practices for conducting an online classroom.

In general, much of the practices that teachers abide by in the traditional classroom transfer over into the online classroom.  For example, according to “Best Practices in Teaching K-12 Online: Lessons Learned From Michigan School Teachers” the online teachers suggest “going the extra mile to support student learning.” Many of you already do this in the traditional classroom, but what does it look like in the online classroom? “The successful virtual teacher does all that he can to help all students succeed and this involves using the data that they have available to them, using the correct assessments, altering instruction, trying to address multiple intelligences, supporting the students, being available, again yet another challenge that is specific to the virtual world is just being there for the student.” (DiPietro et al., 2008).  All of those practices can be done online; in fact they may even be easier to do online.  There are tons of resources for online assessments, multiple intelligence learning, and data collection.  As far as being present, we can go back to the discussion on social presence in a previous blog, where we discussed how to make students feel as if they are interacting with “real” people.  All of this support is certainly possible in the virtual classroom.

Another practice that successfully supports the online classroom is having teachers that are not only capable of operating technologies, but are interested in exploring new technologies (DiPietro et al., 2008).  In the traditional classroom, most teachers are constantly rearranging lesson parts and updating plans to include new ideas and projects.  The same line of thinking applies to the virtual classroom.  You can’t just build a group of online lessons and assume that they will work for years to come.  You must adjust lessons with the times and update coursework with new and exciting technologies to enhance student learning.

Up Next: Flexibility and Organization…

Resources:

DiPietro, M., Ferdig, R., Black, E., & Preston, M. (n.d.). Best Practices in Teaching K-12 Online: Lessons learned from Michigan Virtual Schools. Blackboard. Retrieved October 13, 2014, from https://blackboard.cmich.edu/webapps/blackboard/execute/content/file?cmd=view&content_id=_3050188_1&course_id=_86186_1