General Summary
The team of Boettcher and Conrad put together one of the most complete, single-source, guides to assist new online instructors succeed in their first classes. Upon further study, the book becomes truly great due to its ability to improve nearly any online instructor, regardless of experience or department. The approaches and insights gained from Boettcher's background in education and cognitive psychology, combined with Conrad's knowledge of instructional theory, design, and online learning, address most difficulties, fears, and challenges to online learning in an incredibly approachable manner. This book should be a touchstone for online training and digital teachers.
Many of the above citations below self-explanatory of the content. Additionally, Boettcher & Conrad categorize online courses into three types. A course where 1 to 29 percent of the content is delivered digitally is a Web Facilitated course. When a substantial proportion of the content, 30 to 79 percent, is delivered online, it is a Blended course. If 80 percent or more of the material and content are delivered electronically, the course is an Online course.
The authors instruct teachers the ark of on online course. They point out the heavy role instructors play at the beginning of a course exemplifying and leading students to understand the course expectations, policies, processes, practices, and interactive methods. In the second phase, the instructors maintain a heavy presence in the forum and classroom communication, but they begin to mold and mentor the students to take on additional responsibilities. Following this, in the third stage, they teach the instructor to shift responsibilities to the class community, allowing the students to become guides and experts on material and teach each other. Finally, they identify practices that teachers can use in the closing weeks of an online course to finish strong with activities like projects and team goals. Their constructivist learning perspective works incredibly well in this environment.
Starting a course, instructors should work on presences, community, patience, and clear expectations (Boettcher & Conrad, 2010, p. 53) in order to establish an online learning environment. Their course beginning tips begin by encouraging teachers to have a syllabus, weekly teaching guides, discussions and rubrics, and the course site set up prior to the week befor class. They then suggest teachers contact students before the class asking them to ensure they can log into the course site and have the necessary software, updates, materials, etc. to take the course. They then encourage instructors to help students understand their increased role in an online course. Then they suggest teachers work on establishing social presence and get to know the students. They encourage facilitators to encourage students to set goals and then establish a weekly rhythm of coursework. At this point instructors should ensure the use discussion boards and forums (with established policies and expectations) for classroom communication.
The authors work through other aspects of the course, providing guidelines and examples of student discussion expectations, characteristics of good discussions, developing effective online questions, evaluation, class management, and multiple rubrics to assist new teachers effectively administer and grade the course. Their work includes suggestions for various communication needs with students, what tools/products to use, how to manage projects, procuring feedback, working with teaching assistants, building collaborative environments, effective media use, helping students share their expertise and experience, team member evaluation, community empowerment and social networking, and how to impactfully wrap up a course.
Boettcher's and Conrad's book concludes by offering questions and considerations teachers may use to reflect on the course and improve it when they teach their next online course. The list is lengthy, addressing different aspects of the course, but each set of questions is well conceived and could improve various aspects of the course.
Citation-worthy
"Teachers who are effective in the face-to-face environment will be effective as online teachers, but it is not automatic and it will not happen overnight" (Boettcher & Conrad, 2010, p. 4).
"How are online courses unique? ... 1) The faculty role shifts to coaching and mentoring. ... 2) Meetings are asynchronous. ... 3) Learners are more active. ... 4) Learning resources and spaces are more flexible [and] ... increasingly mobile. ... 5) Assessment is continuous ... multiphased and often community based rather than concentrated, monitored, and primarily individual" (Boettcher & Conrad, 2010, p. 8).
"The goal of learning experiences is growth. ... It means that students should be encountering problems and concepts beyond that which they already know, which is their actual developmental level and helping them to work on their "potential development" (Boettcher & Conrad, 2010, p. 30).
"Ten Best Practices for Learning Online:
Best
Practice 1: Be Present at the Course Site.
Best Practice 2: Create a supportive
online course community.
Best Practice 3: Share a set of very clear
expectations for your students and for yourself as to (1) how you will
communicate and (2) how much time students should be working on the course each
week.
Best Practice 4: Use a variety of large group, small group, and individual
work experiences.
Best Practice 5: Use both synchronous and asynchronous
activities.
Best Practice 6: Early in the term - about week 3, ask for informal
feedback on "How is the course going?" and "Do you have any
suggestions?"
Best Practice 7: Prepare Discussion Posts that Invite
Questions, Discussions, Reflections and Responses.
Best Practice 8: Focus on
content resources and applications and links to current events and examples
that are easily accessed from learner's computers.
Best Practice 9: Combine
core concept learning with customized and personalized learning.
Best Practice
10: Plan a good closing and wrap activity for the course" (Boettcher &
Conrad, 2010, p. 37).
"One of the best ways to start an online course on the right foot is to focus on social presence activities for both learners and faculty. Social presence, that is, getting to know each other ... is the foundation of building trust and presence for the teaching and learning experiences (Boettcher & Conrad, 2010, p. 51).
"A good second question shifts from the social presence interaction to thinking and discussing the course content and personal learning goals. ... This ... heps to provide insights as to the state of the learner's knowledge, confidence, and experience with the content (Boettcher & Conrad, 2010, p. 52).
