The Bay State Teaching Excellence Guide: Teaching Online

Summarizes a recent study by Kumar et al on the techniques used by effective online instructors.

Resources from the Association of College and University Educators on getting an effective online course up and running quickly.

Best practices from Harvard University

Explains some common lingo and provides some tips for having a successful class

This twelve-minute video presents the best practices associated with online course design and development.

A wealth of online teaching tips from Barnard College.

Resources on instructor strategies, course enhancement, pedagogy, active learning, and sample tools to help make your job easier as an online instructor and your courses more engaging for your students.

Article (with examples) that urges faculty to use a simple course layout with weekly modules.

Modules on designing an effective online course by Muhlenberg College (CC BY-NC).

A course for instructors who would like to better understand the critical role of online facilitation in online course delivery and build practical online facilitation skills and strategies that are relevant, effective, and authentic--from University of Waterloo.

Self-paced course on teaching online courses from Indiana University.

A free ebook from Blackboard (you must register on site to access).

Created by Middlebury College's Office of Digital Learning & Inquiry, this free ebook covers how to prepare students for asynchronous classwork, structuring your class, and activities

Book description: "Providing a step-by-step course design process that emphasizes active learning and student engagement, this book will help instructors adapt traditional face-to-face courses to a blended environment..."

"Put your course online now, without sacrificing pedagogical quality Conquering the Content: A Blueprint for Online Course Design and Development, Second Edition is a highly practical guide to creating online courses. With guidance on incorporating learning theory into online course content, as well as a host of templates, learning guides, and sample files, this book furnishes instructors and instructional designers with the information and tools they need to design and develop their course content to better serve online students. This second edition introduces relevance statements and time-saving tips as well as content maps which provide a scaffold for content organization and help students anchor the topics in their memories for retrieval. Readers will gain expert insight and best practices for designing within the rapidly changing online learning environment and learn to incorporate recent advances that can improve student outcomes. Because the book is designed to focus on online teaching pedagogy, it won't go out of date as specific tools change. Nearly one-third of all students in higher education are taking at least one online class, and online hybrid classes are becoming more widespread. Distance learning is becoming the norm, but creating an online class is more complex than just posting course content on a website. Conquering the Content demonstrates how instructors can best revamp their course content to suit the online learning environment, and provides the tools and resources instructors need to transfer their effectiveness from the classroom to the online environment. Learn how to: Create student-friendly navigation structures that support what is known about the brain and learning Organize content based on priority, flow, and easy navigation Create assessments that work within the parameters of an online course "Chunk" information to facilitate better processing Time is of the essence in getting a course online, but it's important that pedagogy not get lost in the crush of new content. Course design is just as critical as course content when it comes to distance learning outcomes, and Conquering the Content provides a holistic and practical approach to effective online course development."

A faculty playbook "intended to improve course design, teaching, and learning in online environments. With special attention to the needs of instructors teaching online for the first time"--from site.

A 139-page step-by-step guide on creating an online course (PDF).

Book description: "Providing evidence-based practices for online teaching, online course design, and online student motivation integrated with pedagogical and cognitive science..."

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