Ten best practices for teaching online
Best Practice 1: Be present at the course site.
This could start with an introductory video introducing myself and the course; it could continue with video introductions to units or weeks of the course. In a language course, there would likely be synchronous meetings of the group, which would contribute to instructor presence.
Best practice 2: Create a supportive online course community.
Start with icebreakers so students get to know each other and create a level of comfort with each other. For example, have them post short videos intros in which they tell classmates three things about themselves. Have other students listen and ask three of their classmates a question. I can model this so that the students can also get to know more about me as well.
Establish and communicate guidelines for interacting with each other--showing respect. Possibly negotiate an inclusivity course statement with the group (Seburn, 2019) to make all members of the group feel included and create a feeling of trust within the group.
Utilize discussion activities on a discussion board or apps such as Flipgrid or Padlet to encourage interaction between students.
Best Practice 3: Develop a set of explicit expectations for your learners and yourself as to how you will communicate and how much time students should be working on the course each week.
Embed this into the introductory steps of the course. For a language class, it would be helpful to also discuss these with students during class time and / or explain in a video to ensure that they understand and that this information is clear.
Best Practice 4: Use a variety of large group, small group, and individual work experiences.
Best Practice 5: Use synchronous and asynchronous activities.
Include some synchronous activities where groups meet online to work on projects or the class as a whole meets, as well as time to work asynchronously doing research on a topic or contributing to a blog or e-portfolio. Working completely synchronously is very tiring and working completely asynchronously may feel isolating for learners (and would not be effective for most language-learning classes), so find a balance between the two.
Best Practice 6: Ask for informal feedback early in the term.
Solicit feedback early in the course--within the first couple of weeks. Use polling, surveys or do this more informally as a discussion with the group. I might also give students guiding questions to ask them to write short texts about what they e.g. find most useful, least useful for them and ask them to suggest how the course could work better for them.
Best Practice 7: Prepare discussion posts that invite responses, questions, discussions, and reflections.
For discussions on a discussion board, create open-ended questions that encourage students to apply concepts they've been learning about. Use Socratic-type questioning and ask clarification questions to encourage students to reflect on what they know/ don't know. Encourage or require students to respond to some of the other students' posts (Boettcher, 2016, pp. 53 - 54).
Best Practice 8: Search out and use content resources that are available in digital format.
Use authentic materials from TED.com, YouTube, Vimeo, etc. Search for a digital version of an ESL textbook--they are just becoming available by the looks of it. Use materials from sites such as onestopenglish.com (which will most often be in pdf format) or create more interactive materials such as quiz-type activities using google forms.
Best Practice 9: Combine core concept learning with customized and personalized learning.
Include some places in the course where students can choose a topic that they're interested in. For example, if more advanced students are going to watch a TED Talk and then explain the main points of the talk to a group / discuss it with the group, have them choose their own topic. This allows them to choose their own content at some points in the course. Alternatives could also be given for formats when it comes to assignments, similar to what we've been able to do with some of the assignments in EDUC 4150.
Best Practice 10: Plan a good closing and wrap activity for the course.
Presentations seem to be a natural activity for consolidation for language classes. Students could research a topic or present some parts of their e-portfolio, for example. For students who have gotten to know each other well, fun awards for their participation in the course can provide a sense of closure. Students can prepare these in groups or the instructor can do it--this would only work well for smaller groups in which the learners and the instructor know each other well.
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