Title: Instructional Strategies & Best Practices
Course: Dev_TOPKIT_SAMPLE_COURSE_Bauer_S_67

Henry and Meadows (2008) summarize aspects of online teaching that reportedly contribute to enhanced learning and student satisfaction. They include interaction strategies such as quick turnaround time by the instructor, frequent and engaged contact, individual feedback, great communication skills, and regular use of student names. There are a number of instructional strategies and best practices located in the next sections. Most of these examples come from UCF faculty.

Social Presence

- The Faculty Center for Teaching and Learning compiled a list of helpful activities called the OnlineGroupActivities (PDF) handout.
- Wikis are popular online tools used for collaborative work. UCF faculty and student share their experiences and suggestions related to using wikis in online courses in the brief video below (approximately six and a half minutes long).

Teaching Online Strategies

Visit UCF’s Teaching Online Pedagogical Repository to review the following faculty strategies:

- Group Discussion Strategies
- Group Evaluation Strategies
- Social Networking Strategies: Facebook
- Social Networking Strategies: Twitter

Optional Further Reading

- EDUCAUSE. (2010). 7 Things You Should Know About Assessing Online Team-Based Learning. EDUCAUSE. Retrieved fromhttp://www.educause.edu/ELI/ELIResources/7ThingsYouShouldKnowAboutAsses/210831
  - This article is a quick overview of online team-based learning, how to assess team-based learning, and its implications to teaching and learning.
- Obojobo. (2011) Facilitating interaction for online courses learning object. Retrieved from: https://obojobo.ucf.edu/view/1668
  - This learning object focuses on strategies for facilitating effective interaction in online courses using Webcourses@UCF tools, such as discussions, mail and chat.
- Teaching Online. (2011). Instructional best practices using technology. UCF Teaching Online. Retrieved from http://teach.ucf.edu/pedagogy/best-practices/
  - Read more strategies for facilitating collaborations located in the “Interaction” section.
- Faculty Focus. (2010). Student collaboration in the online classroom. Madison, WI: Magna Publications, Inc. Retrieved from http://www.facultyfocus.com/free-reports/student-collaboration-in-the-online-classroom/
  - This 32-page long report is compiled by Faculty Focus, an online, higher education newsletter, and concentrates on building relationships and communities in online courses. The report consists of 18 articles written by college instructors sharing instructional tips and practices. You will need to create an account with Faculty Focus to download the free report.

References

- Henry, J., & Meadows, J. (2008). An absolutely riveting online course: Nine principles for excellence in Web-based teaching. Canadian Journal of Learning and Technology, 34(1). Retrieved from http://www.cjlt.ca/index.php/cjlt/article/viewArticle/179/177

TOPKit Sample Course created by Sue Bauer, John Raible, and Jessica Tojo. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.