Instructional Strategies for Enhancing Learning in Online Courses

Teaching in an online environment often presents challenges to faculty members, especially for those that have limited to no experience teaching fully (and even blended/hybrid) online courses.  When online courses remove the face-to-face and seat time elements of traditional courses, faculty must re-think and assess the way they teach and engage adult learners.  Below, I present five instructional strategies to consider that have helped me make the transition to teaching online.

Vary the learning activities.  Implementing the same activity across lessons or units will quickly add boredom and disengage learners. Additionally, you will notice many students tend to duplicate their responses across discussions, assignments, and in their writing when using the same activities.  Consider switching between discussions, collaborative tasks, individual tasks, case studies, reflection papers and reading briefs, blog and journal entries, presentations, and end-of-module live web conferencing sessions.  For example, in one unit/module use a structured threaded discussion in your LMS (learning management system) where students are responding to posted questions and engaging in ongoing dialog with peers and the instructor.  Then, in a later unit/module, instead of a thread discussion board, have students post responses to discussion posting to a blog (i.e. WordPress, Blogger, Edublogs, etc.)
where students can comment and engage in dialog with their peers.  In an even later unit/module, have students post responses with their voice and/or web camera using VoiceThread.  The idea here is to take advantage of the technologies your LMS and the Web have to offer so that your students have multiple methods and media to demonstrate their understanding of course content (i.e. achieving specific learning outcomes).  The more you diversify the learning activities, the greater you will increase and maintain student interest and engagement with the course content.

Beef up the threaded discussions.  Students need to have opportunities to exchange ideas and interact with their peers in online learning environments.  Historically in online courses, an LMS's threaded discussion tool is used to create a forum where students post responses to questions in a primarily text-driven exchange of ideas and conversation.  Additionally, some discussions simply ask students to (1) post a response to some question(s) that the instructor has presented followed by (2) responding to a specific number (3 is a popular number) of peer's initial responses..........the process ends here.  This method, which is still used today, doesn't engage adult learners with the content nor encourage interactivity.  Here are two points to consider when designing/developing discussion forums:

1. Ensure that you design discussions that have (a) structure, (b) presents higher-order thinking questions (i.e. Socratic method), and (c) requires students to synthesize and reflect on their own and peers' ideas.
2. Text is not the only medium for communications in threaded discussions.

Regarding Point #1:  By "structure" I mean that the online discussion's design integrates a process, via a list of steps or phases, that ensures meaningful dialog among students (and the instructor as a facilitator when appropriate).  Here is an example of a structured discussion involving multiple questions I used in a graduate-level instructional technology course of 16 students.  Take note that each "step" has its own unique requirements and deadlines.  The questions that will drive the overall discussion dialog should not be answered out of a textbook.  Questions should reflect the higher levels of Bloom's Taxonomy and not have one single "right answer/solution."  Students then need to be able to reply to others' ideas in meaningful ways with supporting evidence (i.e. minimizing "I agree" or "I disagree" replies).  This Q&A format is simply one method of designing online discussions.  You may also want to consider role-playing, student-moderator, and debate formats.

Regarding Point #2:  Most of today's LMSs allow students to post and reply to discussion threads beyond traditional text.  Consider giving your students various media options for their postings.  For example, have the options for students to post links to a podcast recording, YouTube video, a VoiceThread, or even record their responses with their web cameras directly into the discussion thread.  In other words, students can use any medium to post to a thread without straying away from the task/goal at hand.  The task/goal and discussion questions don't change, but now students have different ways they can engage in this online dialog.  I have found this strategy to be highly motivating among students.

Provide timely student feedback.  Students will give push back (which is sometimes reflected on course evaluations) if they don't receive timely feedback on their own learning.  Even in face-to-face environments, students need to know their progress in their understanding of content so they can improve and learn from previous errors over the duration of a course.  We sometimes don't consider that providing feedback in a timely, yet reasonable, manner is a critical element to establishing a positive relationship with your students and building a sense of a learning community.  Be clear in your syllabus and in your initial communications with your students at the top of the semester on what your general student feedback turnaround time is.  Also ensure that your feedback is clear and meaningful to the student so they can improve their own learning over time.  The more a student feels connected to the instructor, the more engaged they will be with the course content.  

Include some live synchronous component(s) in this predominately asynchronous learning environment.  One of the common criticisms of online courses is removal of the "social" element that is frequently present in traditional face-to-face environment.  The fact of the matter is that not all face-to-face learning environments are "social" nor involve learning activities that engage students in collaborative efforts.  Despite this common criticism, the technologies that can bring students closer together in today's online digital environment have improved significantly over the last few years.  Online students often desire this "social" factor commonly experienced in face-to-face classrooms, but utilizing tools such as scheduled live Web conferences, live chats, and backchannels fills in most of this gap.  For example, I schedule end-of-module Web conferences, with Adobe Connect, where students have opportunities to (a) have open discussions regarding the applications/implications of the module's content to their respective fields of practice and (b) work in smaller groups, via breakout rooms, on a task I assign during our live session.  Before using Adobe Connect, I would host live text-based chats.  I eventually used both live chat and Web conferencing so that students experienced the various level of interactivity provided by both of these communication technologies.  The main take away here is to consider utilizing some synchronous components into your course so that your students don't feel as if they are learning in isolation.  These technologies will never replace face-to-face communications, but they provide the next best option in the online learning environment.

Solicit student feedback.  Instructional delivery is essentially a communication process between a faculty member and a student related to specific course content.  This communication needs to be a two-way process.  Asking students for their feedback instills the idea that their opinions matter for (1) the continuous improvement of the course and (2) gives the instructor an assessment of what the student knows, doesn't know, and wishes to know.  Student feedback allows the faculty member to determine if learning outcomes were achieved and integrate strategies that aim at enhancing student learning over time.  Consider using the LMSs survey tools that can allow for anonymous feedback or simply communicate with your students individually.

Final Thoughts

Replicating instruction that takes place in the classroom to an online course does not work.  Yes, the content and learning outcomes don't change, for the most part, however an online course is a different learning environment than a traditional face-to-face one.  In designing an online course, faculty must move away from "how will I translate what I do in my face-to-face course to an online course?" to "how will I deliver content and how will students achieve learning outcomes in the online learning environment?"  

What additional strategies would you add to this list?  Use the comments section to share your ideas and experiences with online teaching.