From Inside Higher Ed, Rob Weir offers advice on teaching online in “Take a walk on the wired side.” I think his advice is reasonably accurate, and it contains some good links to other sources on advice for online teaching. I especially agree with what Weir says at the beginning of the article. Even though online teaching is being sold to “young people” as another “cool” thing they can do with the internet and as “fun” way to learn in your pajamas, the reality is that those who succeed best in in online classes tend to be older students who are organized and highly self-motivated.
The only thing he doesn’t cover in this article that I would have brought up had someone asked me for advice about teaching online has to do with course size. Basically, I think the rule of thumb is to keep the numbers low, lower than you would in a comparable face to face class. Anyway, potentially some good reading for English 516 next year.
So far, my online class this term is going reasonably well, though it is tough to get the work all done in such a short term….