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Use Social Networking Tools to Share with Students Brief Supplemental Content Links and Status Updates Related to Course Work

April 9, 2015
Description Instructors use social networking tools, such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc. to interact with students and engage student learning. See the following Innovative Online Teaching Practice video for details on how social networking tools may be implemented in an online course. While the focus is on Twitter, the principles are applicable to other social…

Use Social Bookmarking to Organize and Share Online Resources

April 9, 2015
Description Social bookmarking allows users to search, manage, organize, and save web content for personal use to revisit and/or share with others. This can be especially useful in education or academia, for example, when conducting research or collaborating with multiple individuals on a project. Instructor Testimony I Diigo has proven to be extremely useful for…

Set Discussion Expectations

April 9, 2015
Selecting an effective discussion topic is important, but does not guarantee an interactive, fruitful discussion. It is crucial for instructor to set the stage and establish clear expectations for how students should participate in the discussion. Learning Objectives Before designing an online discussion, think about what you want your students to learn from the discussion.…

Send Students an Introductory Email Message Before the Course Begins

April 9, 2015
Description Many faculty members begin their online courses by contacting students in advance of the course start date or during the first week of classes with an introductory email message (Bellafiore, 2007; Gibson & Blackwell, 2005; Mensch  & Ali, 2007). The purpose of this communication is to welcome the students, establish a comfortable class environment,…

Provide Peer and Professor Feedback through Social Media

April 9, 2015
Description Facilitate student-instructor and student-student interactions using collaborative social media technologies. One popular web application is called Voice Thread. A VoiceThread is a collaborative, multimedia slide show that holds images, documents, and videos and allows people to navigate slides and leave comments in 5 ways – using voice (with a mic or telephone), text, audio…

Use Problem-Based Learning to Develop Students’ Course Related Skills

April 9, 2015
Problem-Based learning Problem-Based Learning is an instructional strategy in which students learn the subject matter of a course and the related skills by solving real-world problems and reflecting on their experiences of solving the problem/s. In Problem-Based Learning, students may be given a specific course-related problem to solve or they may be provided with a…

Use Smart Phones for Student Interaction

April 9, 2015
Description Students are increasingly using smart phones for academic activities. In a survey report conducted at the University of Central Florida, it was found that ownership of mobile devices (99.8%) remains high. 82% of student respondents indicated that they had used a mobile app for learning at least once each week. How can teachers harness the…

Manage Student Interaction with Sign Up Sheets

April 9, 2015
Description In a distance learning environment, Moore (1989) suggests there are 3 different interaction types: student to student, student to instructor, and student to content. Given various variables such as class size, student location, student needs, teaching load, and content complexity, managing student to instructor interaction can be a difficult and time consuming process. How…