Communication

Get Your Students Talking with Yellowdig

Yellowdig is an online discussion platform that puts students in the driver’s seat. It’s designed according to the Community of Inquiry framework, which highlights the...

Use an Online Learning Expectations Template

Providing a course overview can help your students orient themselves to your course and connect with you as an inProviding online learning expectations will clearly...

Use a Syllabus Template

A clear and complete syllabus for your online course is the most important document you can provide for your students. This syllabus template provides example...

Use a Welcome Letter Template

Sending a welcome letter that gives students necessary information and resources to get started,  to students before class begins will help build a sense of...

Use a Course Overview Template

Providing a course overview can help your students orient themselves to your course and connect with you as an instructor. A course overview provides details...

Perusall

Perusall is a text-based social annotation/commenting/discussion tool. Instructors provide students with a text, and students use commenting to have an asynchronous discussion about the text....

Mid-Semester Check-Ins

What are mid-semester check-ins? Mid-semester is a great time to check in with your students in order to make any adjustments or course corrections based...

Humanizing Your Online Course

Humanizing your course means taking intentional steps to create a human connection with and between learners in your course. Contrast this to learners interacting only...

Digital Whiteboards for Teaching and Learning

Whiteboarding is a well-established active learning practice used in many classrooms. Students and instructors can use in-classroom whiteboards to brainstorm, create connections between ideas, draw...

Engagement in Synchronous and Asynchronous Environments

Students must engage in their courses in order to learn. But what, exactly, do we mean by “student engagement?” And what teaching practices and strategies...

Creating Student Learning Communities Online

Online courses offer great advantages, not the least of which is that they provide students flexibility in location and schedule of learning, thereby creating more...

Using Breakout Rooms in Zoom

Some types of active learning are far more effective and manageable in small groups: discussion, collaboration and problem-solving are just a few examples. Active learning...

Helping Students Get Started in an Online Class

First impressions make a big difference in the online classroom. How can you ensure that your online learners feel welcome in the class and that...

Leveraging Zoom Tools to Facilitate Engagement

What tools in Zoom promote active learning and help keep your students engaged during your synchronous classes? How do you use them? In this workshop,...

Communication

Communication is critical in any course. Students benefit greatly from regular interactions with instructors and other students. Establish your instructor presence in an online environment...

Real-time Assessments and Check-ins

Great teachers understand that learning is a conversation, not a monologue.  – Sir Ken Robinson Simple and quick, real-time assessments and check-ins are excellent tools...

Active Learning

Active learning is an approach that engages students in the learning process, and is often thought of as an alternative to conventional lectures. Commonly accepted...

Rubric Best Practices, Examples, and Templates

A rubric is a scoring tool that identifies the different criteria relevant to an assignment, assessment, or learning outcome and states the possible levels of...

Best Practices for Group Work Evaluation

NC State students report that one of the ways faculty could improve online courses is through building in more student-to-student activities (DELTA, 2015). Benefits of...

Providing Effective Feedback

Instructor and peer feedback have a profound effect on the quality of student learning. When teaching online, it is important to foster both learner-instructor interaction...

Netiquette—Or Best Practices for Interacting Online

Netiquette is the term used to describe the special set of rules for online communication. Because students in the online learning environment are unable to...

Group Work in Google Apps

NC State students report that one of the ways faculty could improve online courses is through building in more student-student activities (DELTA, 2015). While group...

Discussion Forum Best Practices

Discussion Forums play a key role in online learning. When used effectively, they can provide many learning benefits that do not always occur in the...