The practice of virtual teaching: school leaders who want to teach an online college course need to be mindful of effective tricks

School Administrator, April, 2004 by William Brown, Philip M. Corkill

Another example of a negative experience regarding inadequate class instructions involved a student who, in the fifth week of the course, informed the instructor she wanted to drop the course. She stated there was no way she could keep up with the reading. The instructor had not made it clear the difference between required and supplemental readings. The student had tried to read two additional books and 18 additional articles, assuming all were required.

Instructors should require students to verify via e-mail they fully understand the expectations.

* Video and audio links. The use of video and audio in an online class promotes several modalities. Learners can see, hear and touch the information being presented. The curriculum must be interactive with learners being able to log on to video presentations, pictures, articles, lectures from experts and other available media sources.

In a Capella course on school law, learners must "visit" the Cornell University Law Library, through its website, to access legal cases. The website is listed in the links to the course in the media center, which is part of the platform for each course.

One problem of using links in an online classroom is that sometimes the links become inactive and the learner might not be able to access them. Consequently, the instructor must examine all links before and during the class.

* Chat rooms. The Internet gives instructors numerous opportunities to create chat rooms in real time that present issues warranting immediate attention. Chat rooms also encourage a free flow of dialogue where questions and expectations may be discussed among teachers and students in an open environment.

For example, last fall in an online course that one of us taught on school law, a chat room was set up to discuss recent Supreme Court decisions involving the University of Michigan's affirmative action case and the various pledge decisions. This chat room soon evolved into a debate among learners regarding the current issues that were analyzed.

* Projects. An online classroom allows teachers to devise hands-on projects. Students may produce PowerPoint presentations, portfolios, graphs, spreadsheets and other products for an authentic assessment of what they've learned. Students could use a digital camera to document completion of their work and a scanner to e-mail the project results. Such assignments offer a genuine alternative to traditional assessments for demonstrating knowledge.

* Competencies. Online courses should be based on competencies that can be demonstrated through assessment. Using a competency approach to design the curriculum helps the learner establish goals and objectives.

The assessment instruments for such a competency-based curriculum must not be limited to the traditional multiple-choice, essay-type answers. It is preferable to measure the students' learning of the competencies through portfolios, PowerPoint presentations and other types of authentic tools.

In the curriculum supervision course that Capella offers, a PowerPoint presentation is required from learners assessing the supervisory/evaluation model that is used in their district or one that is discussed in the course. Another example of an assessment strategy uses a rubric to analyze the processes a superintendent used to pass a tax levy.