E-Coaching Tip 42 Seven Strategies that Work in Online Courses

Seven Strategy Checklist for Your Summer Course

Here are seven tips from online faculty who teach using the WebCT CMS. http://www.itrc.wvu.edu/webct/faq20.html You may want to review how many of these you have used in designing your current course. You may notice that all these strategies are ways of enhancing the communication and dialogue in the course community. For example, Tip number 5, that "Success is in the details" suggests that it is almost impossible to be too explicit and clear about expectations. This hint has been popping up quite frequently of late and we are sure to hear more of that variable in upcoming research.

How many of these strategies do you use?

Role-playing exercises engage students (this might translate into "what if scenarios")
Peer review of work provides authentic audience and valuable feedback
Assigned discussion questions focuses the discussion and requires student participation
Frequent quizzes and short answer essays keeps students engaged and reduces procrastination
Success is in the details (provide lots of directions and be very explicit)
Student partners (allow students to guide direction of some course elements)
Control pace (close units after allotted time, make quizzes available/unavailable, require completion of one unit before going on to the next, etc.)

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