Online Pedagogy: Theories & Best Practices
" New technologies can communicate high expectations explicitly and efficiently. Significant real-life problems, conflicting perspectives, or paradoxical data sets can set powerful learning challenges that drive students to not only acquire information but sharpen their cognitive skills of analysis, synthesis, application, and evaluation. " Chickering, A. & Ehrmann, S. (1996), Implementing the Seven Principles: Technology as Lever" at http://www.tltgroup.org/programs/seven.html . |
Comprehensive Websites about Best Practices
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Seven Principles for Good Practice in Undergraduate Education
Chickering, A. & Gamson, Z. (1987). Seven principles for good practice in undergraduate education. AAHE Bulletin (39)7. Summarized several places on the Internet including: [ http://honolulu.hawaii.edu/intranet/committees/FacDevCom/guidebk/teachtip/7princip.htm ]
Good practice in undergraduate education:
- encourages contact between students and faculty;
- develops reciprocity and cooperation among students;
- encourages active learning;
- gives prompt feedback;
- emphasizes time on task;
- communicates high expectations; and
- respects diverse talents and ways of learning.
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Guiding Principles for Faculty in Distance Learning
Simonson, M., Smaldino, S, Albright, M. & Zvacek, S. (200 6 ) Teaching and learning at a distance: Foundations of distance education. ( 3rd) Upper Saddle River, NJ: Merrill Prentice Hall. [ Publisher/Book Homepage ]
- Distance learning courses will be carefully planned to meet the needs of students within unique learning contexts and environments.
- Distance learning programs are most effective when they include careful planning and consistency among courses.
- It is important for faculty who are engaged in the delivery of distance learning courses to take advantage of appropriate professional developmental experiences.
- Distance learning courses will be periodically reviewed and evaluated to ensure quality, consistency with the curriculum, currency, and advancement of the student learning outcomes.
- Faculty will work to ensure that incentives and rewards for distance learning course development and delivery are clearly defined and understood.
- An assessment plan is adapted or developed in order to achieve effectiveness, continuity, and sustainability of the assessment process.
- Course outcome assessment activities are integrated components of the assessment plan.
- Learning activities are organized around demonstrable learning outcomes embedded in course components including: course delivery mode; pedagogy; content; organization; and evaluation.
- Content developed for distance learning courses will comply with copyright law.
- Faculty members involved in content development will be aware of their institution's policies with regard to content ownership.
- The medium/media chosen to deliver courses and/or programs will be pedagogically effectual, accessible to students, receptive to different learning styles, and sensitive to the time and place limitations of the students.
- The institution provides appropriate support services to distance students that are equivalent to services provided for its on-campus students.
- The institution provides its students at a distance with accessible library and other learning resources appropriate to the courses or programs delivered via technology. It develops systems to support them in accessing and using these library and other learning resources effectively.
- It is important to provide the appropriate developmental experiences for faculty
who are engaged in the delivery of distance learning experiences.
- The institution implements policies and processes by which the instructional effectiveness of each distance learning course is evaluated periodically.
- Timely and reliable technical support is vital to the success of any distancelearning program.
- It is recommended that a system of faculty incentives and rewards be developed cooperatively by the faculty and the administration, which encourages effort and recognizes achievement associated with the development and delivery of distance learning courses.
- The institution will communicate copyright and intellectual property policies to all faculty and staff working on distance-learning course development and delivery.
- The institution complies with state policies and maintains regional accreditation standards in regard to distance-learning programs . (pp. 143-144)
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Basic Skills for Online Instructors
Crys, T. E. (1997) Competence in teaching at a distance. In Crys, T. E. (Ed.) Teaching and learning at a distance: What it takes to effectively design, deliver, and evaluate programs (pp. 15-18). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. [ Publisher/Book Homepage | Inside the Book at Amazon ]
- Instructors should know how to manage collaborative groups.
- Instructors should how to leverage questioning strategies effectively.
- Instructors should have subject matter expertise.
- Instructors should be able to coordinate and involve students in activities.
- Instructors should have knowledge of basic learning theory.
- Instructors should have specific knowledge of distance learning theory.
- Instructors should be able to correlate study guide with distance media.
- Instructors should be able to apply graphic design and visual thinking. (pp. 16-17)
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Characteristics of Meaningful Learning as Guidelines for Designing Constructivist Learning Environments
Jonassen, D . ( n.d. ) Design of Constructivist Learning Environments . [ http://tiger.coe.missouri.edu/~jonassen/courses/CLE/index.html ]
Meaningful learning is:
- Active
- Constructive
- Collaborative
- Intentional
- Complex
- Contextual
- Conversational
- Reflective
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General Guidelines for Distance Education Programs
Mehrotra, C. M., Hollister, C. D. & McGahey, L. (2001) Distance learning: Principles for effective design, delivery, and evaluation. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. [ Publisher/Book Homepage | Inside the Book at Amazon ]
- Identify the teaching or learning objectives to be achieved, and then choose the technology tools that make the goals achievable.
- Subordinate technology to the educational objectives.
- Choose technologies that are appropriate to the educational, geographic, social, and economic status of the learners.
- Use a delivery mode as transparently as possible.
- Devise alternative delivery methods for students having special needs.
- Choose technologies that are established, reliable, adaptable to a range of disciplines, and well supported.
- Make plans for an alternative delivery scheme that can be deployed rapidly if the primary delivery system fails.
- Choose delivery methods that maximize the time that instructors can spend assisting students (pp. 96-104).
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Other Resources :
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