9 Things I've Learned Lately About Teaching Online

In conjunction with my role teaching synchronous (live) courses on strategic communication for leaders for the Naval Postgraduate School (NPS) (NPS), I recently completed an AACSB (Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business) course devoted to online teaching.  

I delivered a talk today to NPS faculty summarizing what I learned and identifying 9 ways I plan to modify my course this fall (when I teach it again online). In summary, they are:

1. Be more explicit about the details of in-class activities
2. Grade all required activities to ensure students complete them
3. Extend my presence as an instructor to the asynchronous (non-real time) aspects of the course by using any one of a number of tools
4. Move discussion of assigned readings to discussion boards on online learning platform to free up class time for other learning activities
5. Transform syllabus from being instructor-centered to learner-centered
6. Consider publishing course in wiki-like format including different reading options 
7. Use emoticons to enhance teaching presence
8. Provide more options for students to show (and not just talk about) their work
9. Establish set groups for the entire course as "learning laboratories" for students.

Listen to a recording of my talk.