What I Wish They Told Me Before I Taught My First eLearning Course

With online learning being so popular now, many trainers and college faculty are learning to teach their first online class.  Today a number of great resources are available to beginning online teachers.  These resources range from blogs and websites dedicated to this to entire books on the subject.  Additionally, there are numerous great courses now that help you learn how to teach online.  I taught my first online graduate level course over ten years ago.  The resources were not as plentiful as they are now.  I was given a syllabus and an empty course shell in Blackboard.  I think someone wished me good luck. That was about it.

Looking back there are a number of things that I wish someone told me before I taught my first online class. Here are some of them:

1. Know Your Students - It is important that you get to know your students (and their motivations). For example, do they need your course to graduate this semester?  Are they working three jobs and taking care of kids?  Are students taking your course because they love the topic?  Or did they register because all their other class choices were filled?  Have they taken online classes before?  Beware the students taking you class because they think that online classes are "easier".

2. Be Deliberate About Communication - Have a plan about how and when you communicate with your students.  For example, I tell my students to expect a response from me in 24-48 hours when they post a question or send me a direct email.  Don't leave them guessing.  Over the years I have received numerous VERY long emails from students.  They have dozens of questions and concerns about their performance in the course.  Rather than respond via email, I usually ask them to talk on the phone with me.  It gets to the point quicker and helps to deal with any issues directly.  Additionally, it may be a good idea to have a course FAQ.

3. All Students Will Not Read the Syllabus - As teachers we are very proud of our course syllabi. Be prepared that a number of students will not read it.  How do you deal with this?  You can structure an assignment that forces them to read the syllabus (scavenger hunt).  Or you can award bonus points if students can answer questions about your syllabus.  Remember that the syllabus is the contractual document between the students and the college.   When there are issues over grades, the courts always refer back to the syllabus.

4. Technology Will Fail You and Your Students - No matter what you do, technology will not work at times for you and your students.  Murphy's law mandates that this failure will happen at the worst possible moment.  Encourage (require?) your students to have access to a backup computer. Additionally, have them save everything in MS Word first before they post it.  It's also a good idea to have them save files online using tools such as Google Drive and others.  This will minimize issues such as "my hard drive died and my assignment is gone".

5. Check Your Course Every Day - I originally thought that checking my course every few days would be more than enough.  Wrong!  What I discovered was that it makes much more sense to check in online every day, even if it is only for 20 minutes or so.  Students constantly want feedback in a timely matter.  Additionally questions may pop up that are time sensitive and need to be addressed quickly.

6. Simple Is Good - My original course design was much more complicated than it is now. I used to think that "more was better".  What I discovered over the years was that I sometimes confused students by giving them too much information. They didn't know what to do or where to go on the course site.  Now I've really scaled my course design back.  The lesson I learned was "it's not about the technology".

7. Students Know How to Take An Online Course - Even though the first online course I taught was in 2004, I really thought that students knew how to take an online course.  Boy, was I wrong! Taking a course online is a completely different experience than taking a face-to-face course. What I've learned is that just because I have a lot of experience teaching and taking online courses, it doesn't mean that my students do. We sometimes forget that everybody does not use a computer every day.

8. Students Will "Disappear" - I was surprised to learn that a handful of students simply "disappeared" from my course.  What I discovered was students simply stopped showing up or stopped participating in the class.  Even worse, they never even told me why.  I had to seek them out myself. What I found out was they had work issues, personal issues, medical issues, etc.  Some stopped participating just because learning online wasn't for them.

Over the years, I've learned that online courses are not for every student, nor are they for every instructor.  As an instructor, it is helpful to keep an open mind and realize that you can always learn and get better.  Ten years from now, who knows what I'll write about this topic.

For more info, check out my video on this topic check out my video at http://www.gregwilliams.net/GregWilliams/Videos.html

How To Choose An Online College Program - Insider Tips

It's Hard to Choose!

A Poor Choice Can Be Costly
The growth of eLearning has exploded.  More students than ever before earn entire degrees online.  But have they made the right choice?   Most people really don't know how to assess eLearning programs.  It is easy to choose the wrong program.

As someone who manages and teaches in an online graduate program I probably have some insight that most people don't. Before you spend a lot of time and money at the wrong school, you should consider these issues.

Your Career Goals

What are your career goals?  Does the program help you to meet them?  Will it help you get a job or a promotion? Identify the type of job you want to have five years from now.  Through your network (or through LinkedIn) find people that are doing this job.  How did they get there? Does anybody have a degree from the school you are investigating?  Ask employers if they hire candidates from that school.

Accreditation 

Is the college or university accredited?  Hopefully, it is accreditation by one the major six regional accreditation associations.  Sorry, but these are the only ones that really count in my opinion.  I had to deny admission to a young lady who graduated from a school that was accredited by the Association for Biblical Higher Education.  She tearfully told me "they said they were accredited". Unfortunately for her they were accredited, but it wasn't the type of accreditation that really counts. Additionally, accreditation is awarded to the university overall and not to an individual program in most cases.   

Reputation

The reputation of the institution and the program is very important and can cut across many areas.  For example, what do alumni say about the program? Do employers hire their graduates?  What do people say about the faculty? Today with LinkedIn it is fairly easy to find people who maybe graduates of a particular college.  Additionally, if an organization is hiring you can ask them if they have a history of hiring graduates from particular schools. 

Program Design and Format
The format and design of the program can differ greatly in online programs.  As a learner you will be spending a lot of time and money, so you want to make sure the program is a "fit" for you. Does it have synchronous, asynchronous or blended course delivery?  What are the course deliverables for students?  Do yjur ise pares and academic case studies, or more applied projects.  I think project work has many advantages over tests and papers. Do they require a comprehensive exam or portfolio of work samples?  In my opinion professional portfolios are the way to go. They can demonstrate your skills and competencies to potential employers.

Student and Career Services

If you are an adult student you probably are very interested in getting a job.  Does the college have career services oriented toward working adult students?  Do they have connections with employers and professional associations? Who hires their graduates? Can you actually talk to student service reps on the phone, or do they push you to search online for everything?  Do they have so many students that they cannot prove adequate service?

Academic Policies

Can you start the program and/or graduate in any semester? Or do they only accept new students in the Fall semester?  Do they allow you to take any electives, or is it a lock-step program with little choice?  What is their policy concerning transfer of credits?

I've posed a lot of questions. You can find answers to most of them by talking to current students, alumni and employers. Additionally, you can find a number of answers on the college website and using LinkedIn. Of course don't forget the obvious.  You can simply call and ask them. In the end, it is worth the time and effort to research potential schools and programs. Make the right choice. Your career may depend on it.

eLearning Quality

When I tell people that I am a college professor, they usually ask me what I teach. When I tell them that I teach instructional design and e-learning development, I often get a puzzled look from them. After explaining what instructional design is, the conversation usually turns to eLearning and quality.

Many times people tell me that they think that the quality of e-learning is not good. I ask them what their experience is with e-learning. I asked if they have ever taken an e-learning class or have even taught a class, or part of an online class. The answer is usually no.

What they usually tell me is that they think that e-learning is simply ”not very effective”. As an educator I am interested in how people from their opinions. When I asked them how they formed their opinion about e-learning, I discover that they have very little first-hand experience with it. Often times they will say that “I heard that it is not very good”, or that “my friend took a course and didn't like it”. As a student and as a working professional, I have literally taken hundreds of in-person courses.Guess what? Some of them weren’t very good either. I don’t think that e-learning has a corner on the market on low-quality courses.

Sound critical thinking tells us to try to get objective information about a topic. It tells us to ask questions to get to the heart of the matter. I find it interesting that in higher education some highly educated professionals who embrace the use of critical thinking, throw it out when it comes to eLearning. For some unknown reason anecdotal information seems to be good enough for some people when it comes to assessing the effectiveness of e-learning.

Let’s face it. eLearning is not for every instructor, nor is it for every student. What I do feel confident about is that e-learning will not be going away anytime soon. At some point the “e” will be dropped from the term “e-learning” and we will simply focus on what is important….the "learning" itself.