Teaching Strategies

Teaching Strategies

Research on online learning shows that these four areas have significant impact on student learning, engagement and satisfaction. The following are a variety of possible strategies and resources for incorporating these areas into online courses. Successful courses need not employ all of these strategies.

Instructor Presence

Teacher standing in front of classroom iconStudents’ perception of instructor presence has an effect on their engagement; students are more engaged when their instructors are a frequent and positive presence in the course.

Strategies:

  • Regular planned instructor communications with the class via regular announcements or weekly check-ins
  • Instructional content (e.g., video, audio, interactive lessons) visibly created by the instructor
  • Regular instructor participation in class discussion (e.g., Carmen discussions or synchronous sessions)
  • Regular opportunities for students to receive personal instructor feedback on assignments
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​Key Resources

Scholarly Evidence

  1. Teaching presence coupled with high-quality interactions (i.e., those which promote critical discourse) can engage students in a deep approach to learning.
    Garrison, D.R. & Cleveland-Innes, M. (2005). Facilitating cognitive presence in online learning: interaction is not enough.     The American Journal of Distance Education, 19(3), 133-148.
  2. Students’ sense of connectedness and learning is directly related to active presence of instructor (e.g. encouraging and acknowledging participation, providing feedback, addressing misperceptions, etc.) in the course.
    Shea, P., Chun S. L, & Pickett, A. (2006). A study of teaching presence and student sense of learning community in fully online and web-enhanced college courses.     Internet and Higher Education, 9, 175-190. 
  3. Teaching presence (e.g., providing structure and feedback and focusing discussion), social presence (e.g. providing emotional support and encouraging collaboration) and cognitive presence are all critical interacting elements that support a Community of Inquiry between instructors and students within computer-mediated communication modalities (i.e., online courses).
    Garrison, D.R., Anderson, T., & Archer, W. (2000). Critical inquiry in a text-based environment: Computer conferencing in Higher Education.     Internet and Higher Education, 2(2-3), 87-105.
  4. Teaching presence and social presence have a positive effect on student self-efficacy (i.e., the belief that they can achieve significant learning).
    Shea, P., & Bidjerano, T. (2010). Learning presence: Towards a theory of self-efficacy, self-regulation, and the development of a communities of inquiry in online and blended learning enviornments.     Computers & Education, 55, 1721-1731.
  5. In online courses, the role of the instructor shifts to providing resources, serving as facilitator, and providing social support; these positive attributes—in addition to sense of belonging in a learning community—promote student academic engagement.
    Vayre, E. & Vontrhon, A-M. (2017). Psychological engagement of students in distance and online learning: Effects of self-efficacy and psychosocial processes.     Journal of Educational Computing Research, 55(2), 197-218.
  6. In a study conducted at a midwestern university, undergraduate students have high expectations for their instructors to be positive and enthusiastic, to possess strong teaching skills, and a content area expert. Furthermore, online students’ expectations for the role that the instructor should play in their course did not differ from their peers enrolled in face-to-face courses.
    Trammel, B.A., & Aldrich, R.S. (2016). Undergraduate students’ perspectives of essential instructor qualities.     The Journal of Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, 16(1), 15-30.

 

Student Peer Contact

Icon of two students talking to each otherStudents engage more in courses when they have an opportunity to interact with their peers and feel they are part of a community of learners.

Strategies:

  • Opportunities for students to interact academically with classmates through regular class discussion or group assignments
  • Opportunities for students to interact socially with classmates (e.g., group video conference sessions, course Q&A forum)

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Key Resources

Scholarly Evidence

  1. Facilitating student connectedness with each other and promoting a sense of community increases student engagement (i.e., interest and motivation in learning of course content).
    Young, S., & Bruce, M.A. (2011). Classroom community and student engagement in online courses.     MERLOT Journal of Online Learning and Teaching, 7(2), 219-230.
  2. In a study of peer-moderated discussions, a strong sense of relatedness among participants promotes increased contributions to online discussions. Furthermore, student moderators can create a deeper online discussion through initial messaging being more elaborative, which is evident of knowledge construction, rather than simply social in nature.
    Xie, K., & Ke, F. (2011). The role of students’ motivation in peer-moderated asynchronous online discussions.     British Journal of Educational Technology, 42(6), 916-930.
  3. Providing multiple means for online students to interact with each other, in addition to interacting with the content, can their perceived enhance engagement.
    Dixson, M.D. (2010). Creating effective student engagement in online courses: What do students find engaging?     Journal of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, 10(2), 1-13.
  4. By encouraging online students to give feedback on their peers’ thoughts and ideas (e.g. replying on discussion boards and utilizing a rating mechanism for discussion posts), instructors can increase the frequency of students overall posting and non-posting behaviors (i.e., reading, evaluating others’ thoughts, and formulating responses) in the course.
    Xie, K. (2013). What do the numbers say? The influence of motivation and peer feedback on students’ behavior in online discussions.     British Journal of Educational Technology, 44(2), 288-301.

 

Variety of Teaching Methods

Laptop computer with a book in place of a display iconStudents understand and engage with course material in a variety of ways. Overall student success in a course is maximized when there are frequent, varied learning activities.

Strategies:

  • Opportunities for students to receive course information through a variety of different sources, including indirect sources (e.g., scholarly resources and field observation)
  • Variety of activity and assignment formats, providing students with multiple means of demonstrating learning
  • Opportunities for students to apply course knowledge and skills to authentic, real-world tasks in assignments
     

Key Resources

Scholarly Evidence

  1. A synthesis of on successful online teaching strategies in higher education identified that one best practice involves the inclusion of variety in teaching and instructional methods (e.g., utilizing collaborative activities and reflective activities in conjunction with clear assessment criteria).
    Kebritchi, M., Lipschuetz, A., & Santiague, L. (2017). Issues and challenges for teaching successful online courses in higher education: A literature review.     Journal of Educational Technology, 46(1), 4-29.
  2. Universal Design for Learning (UDL) encourages inclusive course design that reaches all learners. For example, through the framework of UDL, instructors can set the objectives for a particular assignment, but allow students to be creative in the way in which they construct their response to the that assignment’s criteria (e.g., create videos, podcasts, infographics, etc. in place of a “traditional” essay or test).
    Tobin, T.J. (2014). Increase online student retention with universal design for learning.     The Quarterly Review of Distance Education, 15(3), 13-24.
  3. To best serve the needs of diverse learners (e.g., from different social and cultural backgrounds), instructors can provide learning materials in a variety of modalities (e.g., text, video, graphic, audio).
    Rogers-Shaw, C., Carr-Chellman, D.J., & Chio, J. (2018). Universal design for learning: Guidelines for accessible online instruction.     Adult Learning, 29(1), 20-31.
  4. In order to enhance student learning, course learning activities should be designed to be authentic (i.e., those that provide real-world relevance, ill-defined that are open to multiple interpretations, contain complex tasks, encourage collaboration, problem-solving, and reflection, promote examination through different perspectives, interdisciplinary, and seamlessly integrated with assessment).
    Herrington, J., Reeves, T.C., Oliver, R., & Woo, Y. (2004). Designing authentic activities in web-based courses.     Journal of Computing in Higher Education, 16(1), 3-29.

 

Metacognition and Student Support

Students have successful, meaningful experiences when they understand how the components of a course connect together, when they have guidance on how to study, and when they are encouraged to take ownership of their learning.

Strategies:

  • Instructor explanations provided about the overall design or organization of the course
  • Context or rationale provided to explain the purpose and relevance of major tasks and assignments
  • Guidance or resources provided for ancillary skills necessary to complete assignments (e.g., library research, technology tools)
  • Opportunities for students to take ownership of their learning process (e.g., choosing topics of interest for assignments)
  • Opportunities for students to reflect on their learning process (e.g., goals, study strategies, progress)
  • Opportunities for students to provide feedback on the course
     

Key Resources

Scholarly Evidence

  1. Providing resources for success in an online learning environment could expedite student shifts in student learning strategies from aiming for a getting a high grade to following up on provided resources (e.g. suggested readings) and to taking more ownership for their own learning.
    Richardson, J.C. & Newby, T. (2006). The role of students’ cognitive engagement in online learning.     The American Journal of Distance Education, 20(1), 23-37.
  2. In computer-mediated environments—like online courses—providing students with specific problem-solving prompts in conjunction with reflection prompts can improve achievement.
    Kauffman, D.F., Ge, X., Xie, K., & Chen, C-H. (2008). Prompting in web-based environments: Supporting self-monitoring and problem solving skills in college students.     J. Educational Computing Research, 38(2), 115-137.
  3. Instructor should support student use of self-regulated learning strategies such as metacognition, time management, effort regulation, and critical thinking in order to promote achievement.
    Broadbent, J. & Poon, W.L. (2015). Self-regulated learning strategies & academic achievement in online higher education learning environments: A systematic review.     Internet and Higher Education, 27, 1-13.
  4. When surveyed about effective online teaching, students appreciate well designed, well organized, and structured online courses.
    Young, S. (2006). Student views of effective online teaching in higher education.     The American Journal of Distance Education, 20(2), 65-77.
  5. The inclusion of increased interaction between students and content (SC), between students and peers (SS) and students and teachers (ST) positively impacts student learning. Furthermore, the presence of strong design features, which promote student-content engagement, promotes achievement over the presence of weak course design features.
    Bernard, R., Abrami, P.C., Borokhovski, E., Wade, C.A., Tamim, R.M., Surkes, M.A., & Bethel, E.C. (2009). A meta-analysis of three types of interaction treatments in distance education.     Review of Educational Research, 79(3), 1243-1289.