Research Guides: Teaching and Learning Online: Best practices

Best practices

Seven Principles for Good Practice in Undergraduate Education (Chickering & Gamson, 1987)	Online Teaching Adaptations
1. Encourages student-faculty contact	hold online office hours inform students when you will check email/online forums and/or what kind of turnaround time they can expect for emailed questions introduce yourself to students and give them an opportunity to introduce themselves to the class to encourage community-building send communications about deadlines, course topics, and other important information inform students of supports in place to help them (Accessibility Services, Library, Learning Centre)
2. Encourages cooperation among students	use discussion forums; try staggering due dates for initial and response postings to allow for more meaningful discussions assign group projects put opportunities for student-student interaction within each module/topic/week encourage students to make peer connections that can act as class supports
3. Encourages active learning	include authentic formative assessments so students can track their learning progress include active learning activities like case studies, debates, group projects, presentations, problem solving, peer reviewing, and self-reflection
4. Gives prompt feedback	give students clear timelines for when marked work will be returned use rubrics with clear assessment criteria
5. Emphasizes time on task	give clear deadlines for discussions, assignments, and other course work send reminders to students of deadlines give students guidelines for how much time each task should/could take
6. Communicates high expectations	communicate student learning outcomes that are specific, well-defined, and measurable organize the course around the student learning outcomes in a logical manner (by topic/module/chapter/week) provide students with sample assignments that meet rubric criteria incorporate information literacy, communication, and academic integrity skills into the curriculum
7. Respects diverse talents and ways of learning	use a variety of learning materials (videos, audio files, documents) use Universal Design for Learning principles to ensure that accommodations are in place for students (captioning videos, tagging pictures, making sure documents can be read with screen readers, providing transcripts for audio files)

Small Teaching Online by Flower Darby; James M. Lang
ISBN: 9781119544913
Publication Date: 2019-05-15
Find out how to apply learning science in online classes The concept of small teaching is simple: small and strategic changes have enormous power to improve student learning. Instructors face unique and specific challenges when teaching an online course. This book offers small teaching strategies that will positively impact the online classroom. This book outlines practical and feasible applications of theoretical principles to help your online students learn. It includes current best practices around educational technologies, strategies to build community and collaboration, and minor changes you can make in your online teaching practice, small but impactful adjustments that result in significant learning gains. Explains how you can support your online students Helps your students find success in this non-traditional learning environment Covers online and blended learning Addresses specific challenges that online instructors face in higher education Small Teaching Online presents research-based teaching techniques from an online instructional design expert and the bestselling author of Small Teaching.

How to Be a Better Online Teacher Advice Guide
From the Chronicle of Higher Education, a guide that details the terminology of online teaching, 10 essential principles and practices, some common misperceptions, and how to find help for the challenge of teaching online.
12 Best Practices in Online Teaching and Learning
An informative article on the best practices that come from transitioning face-to-face learning to the online classroom.
7 Guidelines for Effective Teaching Online
From Inside Higher Ed: 4 experts on online education weigh in on the differences of delivery for traditional, in-class instruction, and the digital classroom.
Best Practices for Teaching Online
A site from Guelph University which briefly outlines competencies and skills useful for online course teaching and facilitation, with additional resources.
Best Practices: Online Pedagogy | Teaching Remotely
Information "designed to help you think about how you’ll teach online" from Harvard University. General advice about the opportunities, expectations and accessibility challenges of online teaching, and tips for different course types in an online setting.
Videoconferencing Alternatives: How Low-Bandwidth Teaching Will Save Us All
Video conferencing is a go-to tool for instructors teaching online. However, considerations for students' technology resources and availability should be taken into account when choosing teaching tools
13 Differences Between Online and Face to Face Courses
A Miami University resource on the differences instructors will face moving to online instruction, including many advantages like allowing students the opportunity for more fulsome class discussions, the ability to personalize courses more, and increasing the opportunity to facilitate students' abilities to think critically and apply information.
Effective Online Teaching Practices (UBC)
This page from UBC's Centre for Teaching, Learning and Technology has links to articles and resources focused on effective pedagogical strategies, faculty and student wellness, as well as links to research on, and courses about, teaching and learning online.

Reach Everyone, Teach Everyone by Thomas J. Tobin; Kirsten T. Behling
ISBN: 9781946684615
Publication Date: 2018-11-01
Advocates for the rights of people with disabilities have worked hard to make universal design in the built environment "just part of what we do." We no longer see curb cuts, for instance, as accommodations for people with disabilities, but perceive their usefulness every time we ride our bikes or push our strollers through crosswalks. This is also a perfect model for Universal Design for Learning (UDL), a framework grounded in the neuroscience of why, what, and how people learn. Tobin and Behling show that, although it is often associated with students with disabilities, UDL can be profitably broadened toward a larger ease-of-use and general diversity framework. Captioned instructional videos, for example, benefit learners with hearing impairments but also the student who worries about waking her young children at night or those studying on a noisy team bus. Reach Everyone, Teach Everyone is aimed at faculty members, faculty-service staff, disability support providers, student-service staff, campus leaders, and graduate students who want to strengthen the engagement, interaction, and performance of all college students. It includes resources for readers who want to become UDL experts and advocates: real-world case studies, active-learning techniques, UDL coaching skills, micro- and macro-level UDL-adoption guidance, and use-them-now resources.

Douglas College Accessibility Services
The faculty and staff at Accessibility Services are a wealth of information and resources to help support students in their learning.
20 Tips for Teaching an Accessible Online Course
This is an easy-to-understand guide with 20 tips for making sure your online course is accessible to students with a "wide variety of characteristics. These characteristics may relate to gender, race, ethnicity, culture, marital status, age, communication skills, learning abilities, interests, physical abilities, social skills, sensory abilities, values, learning preferences, socioeconomic status, religious beliefs, etc."
Online Course Quality Checklist
A checklist from Cornell University of things to do to ensure your online course is successful. Includes important accessibility features that should be accommodated.
Accessible Design for Classrooms
This resource from the iSchool at Syracuse University discusses how technology is typically integrated into the classroom and how educators can take steps to make sure that digital assessments are accessible for all students.
UDL & Accessibility Checklist
Use this checklist to see if your course meets Universal Design for Learning (UDL) and Accessibility guidelines.

The Facilitating Faculty Online (FFO) group is a Douglas-centred group that aims to bring together pedagogical/andragogical knowledge, technical knowledge, and key support services to assist faculty with transitioning to online course delivery.

The FFO team is composed of multiple faculty members from each academic division, Learning Designers from Academic Technology Services (ATS), learning resources including the Library and Learning Centre, Accessibility Services, and a resource person from the Training Group.

More information about the FFO can be found on DC Connect under Teaching Online. You can also check out the FFO website.