Establishing Effective Online Learning Experiences: Best Practices For Good Beginnings

Establishing Effective Online Learning Experiences:
Best Practices For Good Beginnings

When setting up an online course, one way to establish best practices for course beginnings is to consider the importance of beginning themes. Boettcher and Donaldson ( 2010) state that the most important of these themes are instructor presence, a learning community, patience and clear expectations and guidelines ( (Boettcher and Donaldson, 2010). While an instructor’s presence in an online classroom may take a different a different form than their actual physical presence in a traditional classroom, their online presence is as important that classroom presence. Indeed, an instructor must take extra care and precautions to establish their presence so that online learners can begin to gain a sense of their instructors’ “voice” in the learning environment. When learners see and hear their instructor’s voice it can help become comfortable and at ease and begin to trust the instructor and learning experiences that lie ahead.

Instructor presence will allay uncertainties and early communications for good beginnings and best practices will include a class welcome and the instructor’s introduction. The instructor should also ask their students to post introductions and to share reasons for taking the course and may also include an icebreaker activity. I believe an instructor should always reply to a student by stating their name; we want out students to feel that we know and care about their contributions (Laureate, 2012). Moreover, it models an expectation that “we” address one another by name in the online classroom and this helps build a closer knit community of learners. These early activities are the beginning steps that will help ensure that you are doing everything you can to begin build a strong and active learning community.

An instructor should take care to communicate all course expectations to all their students. These guidelines may be listed along with the course details such as the syllabus or grading criteria and late submissions policies. However, just because these are listed in the course materials, an instructor can restate criteria that are especially important or be proactive and address common concerns of students based on past experiences with teaching. If an online classroom has a section for news or announcements, this can be utilized at the beginning on the course and will be especially helpful for students new to online learning of navigating new software. Instructors can also be open to questions and ask students to post their general questions to everyone in the class so that all learners can refer to that area before they email a question that may have already been answered.

Some additional points to consider in setting up an online class are that an instructor might continue many of these practices each week and not assume everyone gets it by the third week. For example, they can use the news and announcements section to discuss the upcoming week’s activities, sources, to give reminders of due dates or to introduce a new topic. This section can be also be used to encourage learners and commend their hard work. This communication activity is a best practices aspect of online teaching; we should be letting our students know how they are doing and that we appreciate their efforts and we can congratulate them on their progress or for their hard work on the prior week. My final comments are that the instructor must be prepared for the diversity of their students learning styles, prior experiences, perspectives and lifestyles or work habits. Instructors cannot assume everyone gets it right away or gets it the first time they run through something and this is where patience is essential. An instructor must be mindful of the themes for good beginnings and best practices and be prepared to practice and revisit various themes throughout the duration of an online course.

Conrad, R., & Donaldson, J. A. (2011). Engaging the Online Learner: Activities and Resources for Creative Instruction (Updated ed.). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2012). Launching the Online Learning Experience. Baltimore, MD: Author

2 thoughts on “Establishing Effective Online Learning Experiences: Best Practices For Good Beginnings

  1. Teri,
    You mentioned teacher presence in your post. I tooo believe that the right amount of teacher presence is definitely needed to establish an online community. The right amount is relative per student, but a techer with too much presence can be overbearing and a teacher with not enough presence could set a tone for studets to follow suit. I plan on being there for support, encouragement, and whatever is needed to ensure the success of my learners.
    Great post!
    REvonne

  2. Teri,

    The thing about online course is that information is all over the place not just in the syllabus. You have to have sharp navigtion skills are the course can be complicated. I agree instructor feedback is essential to student learning no one wants to get to the end of a course and then be told they were doing things wrong. Personally I’m ok with instructor feedback once a week I don’t have to have the everyday constant. Just tell me what I need to do, provide resources and some expamples from time to time and I’m ok.
    Aubrey

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