8 Strategies for Effective Online Teaching: Lessons from the Past 2 Years
My biggest challenge these past couple years has been to realistically manage and readjust my expectations, as a learning designer, instructor, as well as a human being. What was planned to be a temporary solution for the teaching and learning world, our initial rush to digital has since extended well into 2022, two years later.
In the spirit of pause, reflect, and adjust accordingly, we decided to look back at this blog post (9 Strategies for effective online learning, March 2020) and reevaluate the tips while taking into consideration what we have learnt these past two years.
Using Technology & Tools
Tip #1: Leverage the available technology
Now that you have spent some time learning about what your technology has to offer, reflect on your past semesters. What features have worked particularly well when you conduct lessons and/or facilitate student interactions online? Were there features you previously used in your in-person class that translated well online?
Use the available technology to your advantage. Use it to promote asynchronous reflections and discussions amongst your students. Use it to monitor student interaction with your course materials. Use the insights provided to make informed decisions on how you can adjust upcoming lessons to better support your students’ learning.
Example:
In my experience, I found students to be more willing to share their reflections on an asynchronous discussion board than they normally would in-person, live during a lecture. I believe the asynchronous set-up provided the opportunity for students to reflect on their responses post-lecture, which in turn, led to a more thoughtful discussion.
Tip #2: Prepare for the unexpected and be flexible
You probably already have a good idea of the types of questions your students typically have throughout the semester. Compile these Frequently Asked Questions in a document you can upload to your course website for your students to reference easily.
The most common emails I receive from students relate to technical issues, so I post links to help them troubleshoot their issues. If all else fails, they also have instructions to contact the university’s technology department.
With technology in mind, try not to rely solely on one link or medium when storing your course materials. Backup your hard work in multiple locations. Periodically check in on your content and resources to make sure they remain accessible to your students. Keep a list of different variations of learning activities for when your main learning activity or assessment is giving you trouble online.
Example:
Canvas (an LMS) has a handy tool that helps check your links in your course. You can even check to make sure your course is presented in a way that is accessible to all your students, especially those who require any accommodation.
Refining Your Process
Tip #3: Set clear expectations and boundaries for the course
Students need to know what is expected of them in a course so they can effectively plan and prioritize their time. Make them aware of their responsibilities throughout the semester, including when homework/assessments are scheduled, and when and where to check-in for course announcements and updates.
Help students keep pace with course material, especially if it is an asynchronous class! Make use of past semester data insights to estimate how much time is needed to complete learning activities so your students can manage their time.
When you relay clear expectations to students, it sets you up to be clear about your boundaries as well. Inform students about your capacity and how you are equipped to help them (e.g., not technology-related questions).
Example:
Allow yourself a 24-48 hour window to respond to student emails, state it clearly in the syllabus, course announcements, and FAQ. I also found that setting aside specific student email hours helps curb my need to stop everything whenever I hear an email notification. Plus, you might be pleasantly surprised to find how many students end up discovering the answer on their own before you have had the chance to respond.
Tip #4: Create and maintain a strong and welcoming (approachable) presence
Start gaining your students’ trust by uploading a video introducing the course and yourself to the class. Throughout the semester, post regular announcements to communicate with your students, especially around critical timepoints during the semester, like mid-semester when most students tend to get swamped and lose pace with the course.
Engage your students whenever possible and switch up the ways you write to them. Use the comments section, reply to discussion boards, post a global announcement. Using different methods will offer students different opportunities to respond and engage with you and their classmates, in ways they feel safe and comfortable doing so.
If you are able, offer personalized feedback whenever possible. I acknowledge that it is not always possible to give personalized feedback on assignments, so I try rotating the students systematically, so all students receive personalized feedback from me at comparable intervals throughout the semester.
Example:
Use a spreadsheet to keep track of which groups of students you are responding to with personalized feedback messages for the different assignments. I set up simple rules to help me keep track, students with A – L last names will receive feedback for pre-lecture reflection assignment whereas students with M – Z last names will receive feedback for post-lecture reflection activity. Switch it up for the following week.
Facilitating Active Learning
Tip #5: Develop a community for learners, promote a good balance of active leaders and observers
Strive to create more opportunities for your students to take turns contributing during class. Set the example and facilitate discussions where everyone is respectful when expressing their perspectives and/or when addressing another’s perspective.
It might be uncomfortable at first but try assigning roles to students to encourage equitable collaborative learning in small groups (e.g., facilitator, notetaker, process observer, whichever types of roles that make the most sense for your lesson). This encourages students to practice contributing in ways they may not always feel comfortable signing up for. Switch up assigned roles, take note of what works best for each group of students, so you can be strategic in how you assign roles that matches their level of comfort in participation, but also to challenges them in future sessions.
For discussion posts, I often encourage students to share their answers first before reading and responding to their classmates by only releasing their classmates’ responses after they had submitted theirs. I found this setting to also be useful in preventing students from leading each other down the path of misconceptions, especially if I am not able to facilitate these posts in real time.
Example:
Encourage participation in discussion boards by having students respond to each other, and answer questions their fellow classmates pose to the group. Try out different methods (e.g., types of question prompts) so as many students as possible feel comfortable contributing.
For some additional ideas and resources, check out Using discussion boards successfully increase online class engagement and Building community online classroom affinity groups blog posts.
Tip #6: Promote self-reflection throughout
Deliberately create prompts for asynchronous discussions that encourage students to self-reflect and draw connections between new knowledge and daily life, which will motivate them to learn more about the topic.
These reflection prompts do not have to be a big addition to any learning activities you currently use. Periodically, I include a prompt in my assignments and assessments to get students to self-reflect on their current learning progress in the form of a confidence rating. I also treat these ratings as an indicator of how well my students are tracking their progress in your course. When needed, redirect them to better cues within the course (e.g., your personalized feedback, calibration between their scores and confidence ratings, etc.) to help them be better at accurately tracking their learning progress.
Example:
With a simple reflection prompt, you provide the opportunity to encourage students to think a bit more thoughtfully about their current confidence, and you will also be receiving an extra quantitative data point from your students.
Figure 1. Screenshot of a reflection prompt I use in my Cognitive Psychology online class
Tip #7: Constantly seek feedback from your students
Deliberately and creatively plan to include formative assessments, including informal types, throughout your lessons to gauge your students’ current understanding. Repeatedly ask questions that can reveal any misconceptions your students currently have. You can also get your students to come up with their own formative assessment questions as part of their assignments. The type and quality of their questions can offer insights into the depth of their knowledge of the concept you just taught them. Use this information to adjust your content to clear up misconceptions in the next class.
It is standard practice for institutions to collect end of semester feedback, but often not all students participate in these surveys. I create my own mid-semester check-in and invite students to provide feedback on how the course is going and consider implementing some changes for the second half of the semester.
Example:
End your class with an activity where students generate their “top lessons & top questions” as proof of participation (or attendance). You can use any common questions to facilitate an additional learning activity for your students. You have the option to answer these during office hours, create a short video that addresses them, or even pose them back to students and challenge them to find the answers.
Tip #8: Collect and use meaningful data from your students
Look at your course outcomes and learning objectives and define related success metrics. Additionally, use informal formative assessments as indicators of students’ learning progress in between tests and exams.
Rely on the insights you have collected from past semesters to monitor and measure the effect of any course adjustments you have made over the semesters. I also use this as an opportunity to assess my own teaching techniques, course structure, content presentation, and measure the success of my teaching goals each semester.
Example:
Use data from any digital learning platforms and usage metrics from your LMS. See what content students are spending the most time on vs. content they are not engaging with at all. If students are spending too much time (or returning to it again), it might suggest a tough concept to grasp and perhaps not presented in the most effective manner. Adjust your course structure and content accordingly to promote better student engagement in future sessions and semesters.
For additional ideas, check out 5 informal assessment strategies for meaningful formative insights blogpost.
Dive further into these strategies with Elaine Tan and Christina C, Senior Lecturer at Northern Arizona University in our upcoming webinar on May 24. Register here to attend live or watch the recording.
About the author
Dr. Elaine W. Tan, Pearson
Elaine W. Tan is a Senior Learning Designer within the Learning Research & Design team at Pearson. She uses insights from cognitive and behavioral sciences to design effective learning experiences to improve outcomes.
Elaine earned her PhD in cognitive science at Mississippi State University and has since developed a deep interest in understanding more about how we, as humans, learn best! She also has 12 years of teaching experience in cognitive and experimental psychology and is currently teaching cognitive psychology online.
