Entering the Hallowed Halls of Cyberspace:

Developing Strategies for Teaching, Interacting, and Delivering Information Online

Matthew R. Turner, Ph.D.

School of Communication

Radford University

Scott A. Turner, Ph.D.

Math and Computer Science

UNC Pembroke

Overview

•Introductions and interactions

•Group discussions and grading

•Encouraging student feedback

•Creating and delivering content

How Often Do you teach online?

A.NeverB.OccasionallyC.RegularlyD.All the time

Never

Occasio

nally

Regularly

All the ti

me

39%

24%

16%21%

How Much do you feel pressured to teach online?

A.Little to no pressure

B.Some pressureC.High pressureD.What’s a face-

to-face class?

Little to

no pressure

Some pressu

re

High pressu

re

What’s

a face

-to-fa

ce cl

ass?

30%

11%16%

43%

What do you Teach online?

A. I teach all of my classes online

B. I teach most of my classes online

C. I teach online classes occasionally

D. I teach hybrid courses

E. I have some of my course content or work online

F. I do nothing to very little online

0% 0% 0%0%0%0%

Introductions and Interactions

•First impressions matter

•Set tone for the course

•Continuing involvement matters

How to Introduce yourself

•Welcome letter

•Audio welcome

•PowerPoint/Prezi (Presentation software with pictures)

•Video welcome

Get to Know you Assignment

•PowerPoint

•Prezi

•Video

Dr. TurnerA comedy in five acts.

My Family

This is my family on International Talk Like a Pirate Day (Sept. 19)I have a wife and three daughters. The oldest two are eight year old twins. The youngest is five and about to enter Kindergarten.

Fun FactI have two sisters who graduated from Radford University

Setting Expectations

• Set expectations for responding to students• Gives structure• For your own sanity

• Set hours and media• Virtual office hours• When you will be checking e-mail/IM• How quickly you will respond

• Be consistent

being a continuing Presence

• Posting to forums/discussion boards

• News items or current events

• Responding to student requests

• Post most frequently missed test questions

• Feedback on assignments

• Video Feedback

• Handwritten feedback

• Water cooler discussion board

Which of the following have you done for online discussions? (Select all that

apply.)

A. Read and respond to all posts. Grade on quality.

B. Read and respond to some posts. Grade by number of posts.

C. Require all students to do all posts. Grade selected posts throughout the term.

D. Have students read and evaluate each other. Students grade each other.

31%

20%

12%

37%

Discussion

In groups of 4-6 people,

discuss what do you think about these techniques?

Which ones work?

Have you used these?

What additional techniques have you used or do you think could work?

Which of the following have you used to encourage student participation?

(Select all that apply.)

A. First/early submissions get bonus points

B. Impose penalties for late submissions

C. Extra credit for creative posts or assignments

D. Hard deadlines for assignments

E. Soft deadlines for assignments

F. Grade only first fixed percentage of submissions

0% 0% 0%0%0%0%

Discussion

In groups of 4-6 people,

discuss what do you think about these techniques?

Which ones work?

Have you used these?

What additional techniques have you used or do you think could work?

Encouraging student Feedback

•Progress Reports

•Class surveys

•Suggestion forums

Creating and delivering content

•University provided resources

•Low cost options

•Free options

Capture software

•Screencast-o-matic

•Blueberry Flashback

•Jing

•Camtasia

•Adobe Presenter

•CMS (Blackboard, D2L etc.)

•Digital camera or phone

Hosting Sites

•Youtube

•Vimeo

•Google drive

•Skydrive

•Campus server

•CMS (Blackboard, D2L, etc.)

Summary

•Changes that happen with online courses

•Technology is more flexible and accessible than it was

•You will most likely have to teach online at some point•You might want to get started

before you are forced to