The document discusses elements of successful online courses, highlighting the importance of building community, consistency in course design, instructor interaction, and active discussions. It also outlines best practices for course design, teaching presence, facilitating discourse, direct instruction, and utilizing learning activities and discussions to enhance student learning in blended course models with appropriate institutional support policies.

1. John J. Lawless, PhD, MPH
SUNY Empire State College
May 2010, FPP White Eagle

2. Elements of Successful Online Courses
Importance of
Building Community
Consistency of
Interaction with Active and Valued
Course Design
Instructor Course
(Institutional
(Teaching Presence) Discussions
Support)
Swan, et.al. 2000

3. Teaching Presence
 Design and Organization
https://esc.angellearning.com/section/default.asp?
id=EMPU-84BPBR
 Facilitating Discourse
 Direct Instruction
Anderson et al, JALN 5(2) 2001

4. Design and Organization
 Set the curriculum
 Utilize medium effectively
 Establish time parameters
 Establish netiquette

5. Facilitating Discourse
 Identify areas of agreement/disagreement
 Seek to reach understanding
 Encourage and acknowledge student
contributions
 Set climate for learning
 Draw participants in; prompt discussion

6. Best Practices for
Discussions
o Presence of guidelines - defining expectations in
terms of quality, quantity and possibly frequency of
posts
o Presence of feedback - Visible (preferably with the
gradebook); Both narrative feedback and numerical
evaluation
o Instructor presence - What type – evaluative
(avoid this) vs. inquisitive; How much?

7. Direct Instruction
 Present content/questions
 Focus discussion on specific issues
 Summarize discussion
 Confirm understanding through assessment
and explanatory feedback
 Add knowledge from diverse sources
 Respond to technical concerns

8. Promoting Quality
Discussions
 Instructor role – Socrates
 Promote student-centered discussion boards
 Respond to a question with a question!
 Utilize Bloom’s taxonomy in asking students
questions – analysis, synthesis and evaluation

9. Bloom’s
Anderson’s
Taxonomy

10. How to Utilize a Taxonomy
• Analyze
• Compare
Analysis • Contrast
• Hypothesize
• Design
Synthesis • Develop
• Critique
• Justify
Evaluation • Judge

11. Blended Models
How will the web component enhance the
course and student learning?
 Static
 Course Announcements, Syllabus, Online Resources
 Lecture notes, powerpoints and handouts
 Interactive
 Learning Activities and Assignments

12. Learning Activities
 Discussions
 Quizzes/Self-tests
 Team Projects
 Peer Assessments
 Mapblogs
 Wikis
 Blogs
 Videos (eg. YouTube)
 Podcasts

13. YouTube Resources
 RSS in Plain English  Blogs in Plain English
http://www.youtube.com/watch? http://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=0klgLsSxGsU v=NN2I1pWXjXI
 Twitter in Plain English  Social Bookmarking in Plain
English (i.e. delicious)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=ddO9idmax0o http://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=x66lV7GOcNU
 Social Networking in Plain
 Wikis in Plain English
English
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=-dnL00TdmLY
v=-dnL00TdmLY
 Websearch Strategies in Plain
 Podcasting in Plain English
English
http://www.youtube.com/watch? http://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=y- v=y-
MSL42NV3c&feature=channel MSL42NV3c&feature=channel

14. Institutional Support
 Policies for course development
 Curriculum Committees
 Standard templates and information documents in
all courses
 Coordinators to manage courses with multiple
sections
 Timelines (development, revisions) and resources
 Class size, enrollment caps
 Policies for support and evaluation
 Faculty training
 Instructional Designers/Technologists
 Technical support for faculty and students
 Student surveys and analysis

15. Teaching at Empire State
College
 Adjunct instructor for the Center for Distance
Learning (CDL)
 www.esc.edu – Employment- Faculty Vacancy-
 Center for Distance Learning Adjunct Faculty,
Part-time (Saratoga Springs)
 Tutor for guided independent studies – contact
 Nikki.Shrimpton@esc.edu in Syracuse

16. References
 Anderson, Terry, Liam Rourke, D. Randy Garrison and Walter Archer (2001) Assessing Teaching Presence
in a Computer Conferencing Context. Journal of the Asynchonous Learning Network JALN 5(2).
 Churches, Andrew (2008). Bloom's taxonomy: Blooms digitally. Retrieved May 18, 2010 from http://
www.techlearning.com/article/8670
 Coppola, Nancy Walters, Starr Rozanne Hiltz and Naomi Rotter (2001) Becoming a Virtual Professor:
Pedagogical Roles and ALN. Conference paper HICSS 34.
 Swan, Karen, Peter Shea, Eric Fredericksen, Alexandra Pickett, William Pelz (2000) Course Design Factors
influencing the success of online learning. Conference paper WebNet 2000. ERIC ED 448 760
 Tallent-Runnels, Mary, Julie Thomas, William Lan, Sandi Cooper, Terence Ahern, Shana Shaw and
Xizoming Liu (2006) Teaching Courses Online: A Review of the Research. Review of Educational Research
76(1): 93-135.