Some of you know that in addition to being an online adjunct and community manager at AdjunctWorld, I am also a licensed clinical psychologist. So, when I find an article that merges my two interests – mental health psychology and online teaching – well, you know I just have to share it! Our friend and… Read more »
Posts Categorized: Online Teaching Resources
Questions Without Answers – A Tip For Good Discussion Board Prompts
The discussion board is an important element of the online classroom. One might even go as far as to say that it is the most important element. It’s not only where the instructor teaches (does the job of teaching) and where students engage with the material in a personal way, but it is also what… Read more »
Inspiring Students to Respond to your Feedback
A friend of mine (also an online instructor) and I were chatting over coffee the other day. She was telling me she spends hours providing thoughtful feedback on her students’ essays, only to find out that a large proportion of them aren’t always reading that feedback (as suggested by some of the questions they ask… Read more »
Showing Online Students You Care
The phrase “show, don’t tell” has been popping up on my radar a lot lately. In editing student papers, in researching best practices in CV and cover letter writing, and…in my web reading this week! A fellow AdjunctWorld community member, Dr. Bruce Johnson, publishes a blog with regular articles about online education. I came… Read more »
Academic Freedom and the Structured Classroom
One of the things we discuss in our popular Fundamentals of Online Teaching (OT 101) certificate course is how some schools will provide their online adjuncts with everything they need to teach a course up front. They will give you a syllabus and assignments and even early messages to students and all you do is plug-and-play. Other schools… Read more »
Engaging Students with Weekly Video Announcements
Last week, we discussed three techniques to use to “invite” your students to an online discussion – a means of increasing engagement, an essential variable in online student (and teacher) success. This week, I’ll add another tip for increasing engagement, as reported on the Blackboard Blog (2016): Increase student engagement by posting weekly video announcements…. Read more »
5 Creative Icebreaker Assignments for the Online Classroom
Time and time again, research is telling us that a sense of community is vital to the success of the online classroom. Setting the stage at the beginning of the term is a great way to help establish this sense of community. Thus, any “let’s get to know each other” activity is more than just… Read more »
Relationship Between an SME and and Instructional Designer
A web article out of Brown University describes this relationship quite succinctly and well. I’ll summarize the high points here and add in a few others from my own experience as an SME. I’ll also direct you to the article, titled Best Practices in Online Teaching for additional helpful information. Defining the Roles. Faculty and… Read more »
Crafting Good Discussion Questions and Facilitating Fruitful Conversation
We know that the discussion board is the heart of any online classroom. One of our responsibilities as online instructors is to craft and facilitate quality discussions that will help students meet the learning objectives of the course. But what types of questions make for good discussions? What are some ways to ensure that the… Read more »
Components of Online Teaching Presence: Facilitating and Direct Instruction
Hello! Here on the AdjunctWorld blog, we seem to ping pong back and forth between brief articles about finding online teaching work and those regarding honing one’s craft as an online instructor. This week, we will focus on the latter. Even if you aren’t teaching online yet, when you do land an interview ideas such… Read more »