Title: Online Teaching Persona Worksheet
Course: Dev_TOPKIT_SAMPLE_COURSE_Bauer_S_67

Introduction

The worksheet will lead you to think about communication, teaching style and building an online course that works well. Think through the questions in this handout and make notes on the worksheet. This activity is split into two parts: Self-Evaluation and Personal Reflection. Rather than delivering hard and fast dictates, this exercise is meant to "flex" your thinking and to consider the changes that come with teaching online.

The purpose of this worksheet is to:

- Focus your online teaching persona,
- Contemplate your teaching philosophy,
- Determine how you might apply your philosophy and persona in an online course.

Self-Evaluation

A. Online Teaching Persona Strategies

Check the strategies below that you plan to use to portray your online teaching persona.

Common Characteristics and Strategies | Notes
____ Effective, concise, explicit writing |
____ Use of humor |
____ Spend long hours online |
____ Provide abundant & timely feedback |
____ Trust |
____ Flexibility |
____ Creativity |
____ Organized online course |
____ Provide redundancy |
____ Authoritative |
____ Other |

B. Seven Principles for Good Practice in Undergraduate Education

Check the tools and strategies you plan to use in your online course.

Seven Principles for Good Practice | Implementation Ideas
What tools do you plan to use to "encourage contact between student(s) and instructor"?
____ Chat (student - instructor)

____ Chat (student - student)

____ Video Conference (e.g., Skype, Chat, Conferences)

____ Email

____ F2F meeting

____ Online office hours

____ Course announcement

____ Other:
How will you "develop student reciprocity and cooperation"?
____ I will assign team projects

____ I will assign team member's roles

____ In some collaborative activities, students will evaluate each other

____ Students will solve their team conflicts

____ I will solve student conflicts for them

____ Other:
How will you "give prompt feedback"?
I will respond to students' questions within ___24h ___48h ___72h

I will communicate with students in the ___AM ___PM ___Varied times

I will use:

____Auto-reply for quizzes/tests

____ Grade release after quizzes are graded

____ Embedded comments for research papers

____ Rubrics that provide details about student's work

____ Other:
How will you "emphasize time on task"?
____ Task characteristics and level of complexity will determine time duration

____ My course will go from simple to complex

____ The course goals and objectives will guide activities

____ Other:
What "active learning techniques" do you plan to use?
____ Students will apply knowledge to new settings, situations, or cases

____ Students will connect to real life events

____ Students will connect to personal experiences

____ Students will synthesize new knowledge

____ Students will evaluate new knowledge

____ Students will conduct some type of research

____ Other:
How will you "communicate high expectations"?
____ My course will integrate higher-order thinking skills activities

____ My course will contain clear course expectations

____ My course syllabus will promote academic integrity

____ My course will uphold excellence standards

____ My course will contain <Replace - Institution Name> goals

____ Other:
How will you "respect diverse talents and ways of learning"?
____ My course will consider different learning styles

____ My course will consider multiple intelligences

____ My course will use multiple assessment tools

____ My course will use lectures

____ My course will use PowerPoint Presentations

____ My course will use audio and/or video

____ My course will use instructional games

____ Other:

C. Learner- Centered Perspectives

How do you plan to set direction with intended learning outcomes?
____ I will clarify course objectives

____ I will set clear course expectations

____ I will develop an explicit syllabus

____ The syllabus will have clear policies

____ The syllabus will have manageable/timely schedule

____ Other:
How will you invoke student ownership in learning through choices?
____ I will provide multiple ways for students to achieve the target outcomes

____ I will allow students to choose what they will do in their learning process

____ I will rely on teaching students to become superior online learners

____ Other:
How will you use feedback from students to improve the learning environment?
____ I will seek continuous feedback

____ I will use multiple strategies to gather feedback.

____ I will use explicit rubrics with clear expectations

____ Other:
How will you assess students' ability to think critically?
____ I will challenge my students to think critically

____ I will set high expectations and outcomes

____ Assessments will seek students' higher-level thinking analysis

____ Other:
Will you use portfolios? If so, how will you use portfolios? | ____Yes ____ No ____ To promote, support, and evaluate learning ____ Other:
How will you show progress continually through the learning period? | ____ I will provide updates to the grade book ____ I will provide learner progress report ____ Other:
How will you promote goal setting and achievement?
____ I will provide and opportunity for scaffolded learning

____ I will build upon prior learning

____ Students will be guided one step at a time

____ Other:

D. Teaching Philosophy

Briefly state your teaching philosophy and attach it to this worksheet. Please refer to the Online Teaching Persona Reference Sheet to make sure you integrate the four components of a complete teaching philosophy.

E. Defining Your Online Teaching Persona

1. What four words describe your current face-to-face teaching persona?
2. Based on the checklist in section A, what four words describe your online teaching persona?
3. In four words, what might hinder your persona in the online classroom?
4. In four words, what do you plan to do to overcome this hindrance?

F. Getting Started Strategies

Check the strategies that you plan to use to portray your online teaching persona and communicate with students.

 | Strategies | Comments
How will you make initial contact with your students?
____ Email before class starts

____ Email on first day of class

____ Course announcement

____ Video introduction

____ Instructor intro page in course

____ Introduction discussion topic

____ Other
What orientation will you use?
____ FAQs

____ Orientation quiz

____ Module 0/Getting Started Module

____ <Replace -  Your LMS> Student Tour

____ Other:
Ho will you communicate course expectations to students?
____ Syllabus

____ Class discussion

____ Rubrics before each assignment

____ Video

____ Other:
To prepare students for a major class milestone, paper or exam, what will you do? | ____ Hold a Q&A session ____ Offer an online chat ____ Other: |
How will you communicate and disseminate technology questions, issues and solutions (resources) in your class?
____ Email

____ Class announcements

____ Technical Help discussion topic

____ Provide resource links in course

____ Syllabus and protocols

____ <Replace - Your LMS> resources

____ Other:

Personal Reflection

G. Pull it All Together When You Begin Building Your Course

Let's pull it all together - your online teaching persona, teaching philosophy, and the tools, teaching methods and strategies you will be using in your online course. The following exercise will ask you to synthesize and define your earlier work in this exercise to begin to build your course. The questions will help to clarify your online teaching role and responsibility to ensure a successful online course. This will assist you as you begin to design, develop, and deliver your online course.

1. What four words describe your personal teaching persona?
2. What four words describe how you will exhibit your teaching persona to your students?
3. What four words represent your teaching philosophy?
4. Which four words describe the major communication strategies that you plan to utilize?

Next Steps: This worksheet will be useful when you build your syllabus, expectations and instructor/course introduction during the week 2 Build Your Course Activities.

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