Mechanics of Teaching Online Facilitator Dr Sophia Scott

Mechanics of Teaching Online Facilitator: Dr. Sophia Scott

Agenda • • • Creating an OIS Class Student Access Course Web site Design Best Practices Course Evaluations Other important issues

Creating an OIS Class • • Open web Choose a template Download students Unlocking the class

Agenda • • • Creating an OIS Class Student Access Course Web site Design Best Practices Course Evaluations Other important issues

Student Access • Southeast Keys – http: //www 6. semo. edu/infotech/Student/SEKey. F AQ. asp • Southeast online website – http: //online. semo. edu/content/index. asp • My Southeast Portal – http: //www. semo. edu/my. Southeast/index. htm – http: //portal. semo. edu/cp/home/loginf

Agenda • • • Creating an OIS Class Student Access Course Web site Design Best Practices Course Evaluations Other important issues

Course Website Design • • Folders and index Web site organization Web-page organization OIS features

Course Website Design • Folders of class – Class folder (must have an index. htm or index. asp) – Protected folder – Images folder • Recommended on website – Online course link – Systems requirements

Course Website Design Website Organization • All pages should have a navigation bar which includes a link back to the Class Homepage • The class Homepage should be named index. htm or index. asp • Use only alphanumeric characters in page names • Each page should have a short, descriptive name and a relevant title • All pages should be organized into descriptive folders

Course Website Design Website Organization • Avoid using automatic pop up windows • If using links that open new windows, warn the user first • Use the same theme/template for the entire class • Graphic buttons should have equivalent text buttons somewhere on the same page • Run the Front. Page report to check for broken hyperlinks before the class starts

Course Website Design Website Organization • Link to the system requirements page from the Class Homepage • Any additional system requirements must be included in the class website and links should be provided for each • All fair use and copyrighted material should be password protected

Course Website Design Website Organization • Don’t use spaces in directories or filenames • Don’t use animated clip art on the class web pages • Put announcements on website instead of sending all students a mass email • All pages should have a navigation bar which includes a link back to the Class Homepage • Keep assignments list updated and current

Course Website Design Web-page Organization • Do not include official Southeast logos on instructional pages. • Don’t hyperlink a URL. Hyperlink the relevant text Navigation • All pages should have a navigation bar which includes a link back to the Class Homepage • Use horizontal navigation bars, not vertical, on second and subsequent level pages • Buttons on navigation bars should have descriptive titles

Course Website Design Web-page Organization Links • Don’t make regular text look like hyperlinks (i. e. blue, underlined regular text is not appropriate) • Can’t link to commercial sites due to our agreement with Morenet • Don’t hyperlink the URL, hyperlink the relevant text • Links to the OIS components should be descriptive unless they are defined previously in the class (Tests & Quizzes, Gradebook, Your Account, Logoff, Bulletin Board, Drop Box, Server Time)

Course Website Design Web-page Organization Links • Don’t hyperlink your email (hyperlinked email require that an email client is installed on the user’s system) • Add a link to tech support on your Class Homepage o For online classes: (online. semo/help) o Web supported: cstl. semo. edu. support/ students • Periodically run the broken link program within Front. Page • None of the hyperlink colors should match the background colors

Course Website Design Web-page Organization Body Text • Don’t use underlines • Use the same font size and style for the textual material throughout the class. • Use serif and sans-serif fonts appropriately • Use web safe fonts (i. e. Times, Courier, Arial) • Use printable, readable, high contrast color fonts • Don’t make regular text look like hyperlinks

Course Website Design Web-page Organization Images • All images should have alt tags to make them ADA compliant • Text in an image should be saved as a gif • Use. jpeg image format for photographs; . gif for logos and pictures Tables • Tables should use relative sizing (i. e. in percent rather than in pixels; fixed size tables don’t print well) • Use consistent sizes for tables at the same hierarchal level • Cell padding should be used so that text is more readable (spaces text from borders, images, etc. ) • All tables on a page should be the same size

Course Website Design Web-page Organization Page Layout • Use of color on the web pages should have relevance • Make sure background images are relative and easy to read through • Use the same theme/template throughout the entire class • The web should have a well-defined css • Make sure the page title is viewable in the browser window • All pages should be setup to 800 x 600 • Do not include official Southeast logos on instructional pages

Course Website Design OIS Features Teaching Practice: • Put a fake student in the class without instructor privileges so you can view the class from the student’s perspective • All Microsoft Office documents should be saved as. htm files as well as saving in the native format on the web for the students to download • Office hours should be listed on the Class Homepage or faculty member’s page (three hours per week are required by Southeast’s Faculty Handbook) • Keep a dynamic Announcements page • Don’t link to commercial websites (For more info, visit MORE. net) • Do not require face-to-face or synchronous meetings

Course Website Design OIS Features Teaching Practice: • Have a schedule which outlines the materials and the available & due dates for the class • Minimize reliance on external websites for content or assessment • Review publisher provided materials before using in a class • Once the class has begun, only delete a student if they have never logged into the class and show as dropped in OIS Manager (you may be required to provide last date of attendance) • No assignments should be due before class begins • Due Dates – Don’t use midnight (it is ambiguous), define due dates in Central Time • Don’t change due dates after the class has started

Course Website Design OIS Features UTest: • If you want to minimize the printing or copying of your tests, require the use of the secure browser • Do not provide immediate feedback besides the student’s grade when the test is being used for assessment • Publish feedback after the test has been closed • Use question banks for multiple choice/TF/matching/fill in the blank when possible • Review publisher’s test bank questions before putting them into UTest • Test banks should be at least three times the size as the number of questions on the test

Course Website Design OIS Features UTest: • Randomize the questions on the test • Randomize the answers on the multiple choice questions • If you randomize the answers, then don’t use “all of the above”/etc. as a choice in the list of possible answers • Instructors should tell students to save their tests frequently; to enforce this action, consider using the feature in UTest which will only put part of the test on each page • If the student has a problem and has saved the test previously then the instructor just has to add time for that particular student to finish the test

Course Website Design OIS Features UTest: • Tests should be available for a minimum of 24 hours • Make sure the test time length is appropriate (multiple choice questions need approximately 1 minute, etc. ) • Take the test using your fake student id and your faculty id before making it available to your students • To increase your objectivity when grading text answers, click on the checkbox that allows you to grade anonymously

Course Website Design OIS Features Forum: • Set up your Forum with the grading structure in mind • Familiar yourself with the three levels of organization within Forum before you setup your Forum • If the text of the assignment is lengthy, make it available as a web page and link it from the Forum message. • Disable student editing of posts after due dates (or before grading posts)

Course Website Design OIS Features Drop. Box: • Familiarize yourself with the three levels or organization • Use a different category for each grading scheme • Set the number of files to one if you only want one file per student • If you want to give inline feedback, then edit the file itself • Make sure you limit the allowed file types to only the file formats you can read • Instead of putting the assignment in the text of the Drop. Box, make the assignment available as a separate web page or as a downloadable file.

Course Website Design OIS Features Grade. A: • Update the gradebook as frequently as possible • Use Grade. A as the only mechanism for delivering grades to students. • Use descriptive titles for gradebook entries • Make sure the server area has only the information which the instructor wants shown to the students Calendar: • Put only beginning and ending dates for each event; don’t post the event everyday it is available. • In the pop up window, put a link to the assignment’s webpage

Agenda • • • Creating an OIS Class Student Access Course Web site Design Best Practices Course Evaluations Other important issues

Best Practices E-mail etiquette • Set up a folder for each class in your e-mail client, and get in the habit of moving each class-related e-mail to the folder as soon as you have acted on it. This gives you an archive of e-mail traffic - invaluable for resolving grade disputes, etc! • Studies show that students expect a response to an e-mail within 24 -48 hours. Don't let e-mails "pile up". • Create and use a signature file that includes contact info.

Best Practices E-mail etiquette • When sending a batch of e-mails to your class, put e-mail addresses in the BCC line. DO NOT use CC, because some e-mail facilities will shunt the e-mail to a junk file or Spam file if there are many names in the CC line. Also, since addresses in the CC line are visible to all recipients, you will be giving out the student's email addresses to each other; some do not want their address distributed like that. • Warn students about spam filtering and full email accounts: – – Some ISPs filter spam email. Forwarding email from a SEKey account to an external email address will open the possibility that email addresses you send will be filtered and the student will not see them. SEKey email inboxes have a maximum capacity. If student don't keep up-to-date with their emails (deleting old messages, empty the deleted messages box, etc. ), messages you send them may bounce back from a full email account

Best Practices Example of an Announcement Monday, July 19, 11: 30 p. m. : Yes, you see right. It's true. Dr. Dave HAS graded ALL assignments! The gradebook now shows final grades. I made the very last assignment have a value of "0" so it became bonus points, which most of you got. I lowered the curve by 25 points for each cutoff to account for the lack of opportunity to revise journals. Between those two, you got a 35 point bonus. I won't submit grades until end of July. I am pretty careful with grading, but I am human and no human is perfect. If you find a mistake, let me know and I will fix it if a real mistake. Again, hope you learned something from this class and hope you enjoyed it. Good luck in future classes. Feel free to drop in and say "Hi" if you are on campus. I am in Kent 305 and serving as CSTL Director as well as Interim Dean of University Studies. Dr. Dave

Best Practices • No assignments should be due before class begins • Due Dates – Don’t use midnight (it is ambiguous), define due dates in Central Time • If due dates have to change, then inform the students with enough notice that they can have time to adjust their schedules if necessary; moving due date up is not recommended • Give students explicit instructions about number/type/style of communications they can expect from instructor

Best Practices • Put a phony student in the class without instructor privileges so you can view the class from the student’s perspective and use that ID to log in every time you create new pages to check links and assignments • Require Southeast email • Provide opportunity for students to practice using the OIS components prior to giving them required assignments • Office hours should be listed on the Class Homepage or faculty member’s page (three hours per week are required by Southeast’s Faculty Handbook)

Best Practices • Keep a dynamic Announcements page • Don’t link to commercial websites (For more info, visit MORE. net) • No face-to-face or synchronous meetings for online classes • Have a schedule which outlines the materials and available dates for the class

Best Practices • Minimize reliance on external websites for content or assessment • Promptly respond to student emails • No assignments can be due before class begins • Let students know the timeframe in which they can expect assignments to be graded. • Promptly grade and record all assignments

Best Practices • Clearly explain the objective(s) for the class and for each assignment. Students sometimes think assignments for web classes are busy work because the instructor does not do a good job explaining the rationale for the assignment. • Use a variety of assessments • Lots of smaller assessments, not a midterm and a final • Don’t put so much weight on the tests/quizzes that it tempts students to cheat

Agenda • • • Creating an OIS Class Student Access Course Web site Design Best Practices Course Evaluations Other important issues

Course Evaluations • IDEA – campus wide odd years, spring semester • Discipline/department specific

Agenda • • • Creating an OIS Class Student Access Course Web site Design Best Practices Course Evaluations Other important issues

Other important issues • New ways of cheating • Organization • Other tips

Special Thanks to: Dr. Davit Starrett Dr. Tamela Randolph CSTL staff

Thank YOU for your time!