Quality Online Teaching: Managing the Online Teaching Workload

We often tell students that they need to be organized to manage their workload when they take an online course. But, it is even more important for you to manage your own time when teaching an online course. The lack of pre-defined, scheduled class times, combined with navigating the tools for online grading and communication can make it feel overwhelming. This archived online workshop will introduce you to some strategies for keeping up with the course, techniques that can save you time, and best practices to manage student expectations of you, including some simple suggestions for saving time and increasing your efficiency.

Quality Online Teaching: Feedback Strategies for Your Online Course

Students in an online course need feedback early and often, so that they can track their progress and improve their performance. There are many ways you can provide your online students with great feedback. In this archived online workshop, learn feedback strategies to incorporate into your online teaching and innovative ideas for faculty, student-to-student, and reflective feedback.

Quality Online Teaching: Best Practices for Delivering an Online Course

Teaching an online course is not so different from teaching a F2F course. You still need to communicate with your students, grade student work, and support their learning. There are some differences, though, and research has shown that following some best practices can increase student success. In this archived online workshop, find out how to best support your students in the online environment. You will discover practical strategies you can implement in your own online courses.

How to Setup a Custom Course Entry Home Page in Blackboard

For several years, I have been customizing the entry point / home page in my online courses that I’ve designed and taught in Blackboard Learn. In some courses, I’ve setup a course communication dashboard home page where I’ve aggregated various course communications and information items into a singular location. Most recently, I’ve shifted to utilizing a course welcome – start here page that provides my students with general overview information about the course, instructor contact information, and helpful tips for getting off to a strong start in the course.

Sample customized course home page

For those interested in developing their own customized course entry home page in Blackboard, I’ve recorded this video tutorial overview of the course entry home page template that I use in my Blackboard Learn courses, with step-by-step instructions for how to setup in your own course. The template home page HTML code is available in HTML or TXT formats.

If you’d like to experience the custom course home page referenced in the tutorial within a course, the Blackboard course that I demonstrated is available for self-enrollment or to download as an OER package, more details here.

If you found this information helpful, or if you have developed your own custom course home page template, I’d love to hear from you! Leave a comment and let’s connect.

#BbWorld15 Blackboard – Inspire the World to Learn