Today’s teachers face many challenges in the classroom. We live in an era where schools are accountable for the learning of all students (regardless of their background). Teachers are expected to provide a rigorous and relevant core program while also providing supplemental and intensive levels of support for students whose needs are not being met by core. This includes students who are struggling to meet minimum competencies as well as students who have instructional needs that extend beyond grade level expectations. To ensure that all students are receiving the instruction they need to be successful, it is important to consider the research and best practice regarding teaching for learner differences.

In my courses, this has been an essential part for maintaining active learning and student participation especially with students with special needs. In particular, I've used concepts maps and have lend feedback that relates to improvement. Instructors need to allow student to make personal meaning of their experiences and develop a further understanding of concepts.

I have taught online classes where students prepared marketing and business plans. Each week, they would prepare different portions of the plans, and each week I made individual and thorough comments regarding such, and checked the following week to see if my corrections and comments were incorporated in the plan. Very time consuming. Therefore, I can see why instructors shy away from portfolios and projects.

I have used white boards while lecturing and have been able to print out the notes from the white board and provide them to students. This has been useful because when reviewing concepts using the white board, students often understand the notes and explanations written on the board better than those in the book or in the lecture notes. Providing them with print outs of the information also lessens the amount of time they spend taking notes and redirects their attention to the topic being discussed.

It is true that many of those who take classes online use various online tools and are comfortable with them. However, I am now frequently encountering students who are going to school online because they cannot find time to do so on-ground, and they barely know how to save a computer file,perform tasks on computers one way, and do not understand simple functions such as uploading a document to the drop box, attaching a document to an email, chatting or instant messaging. Does anyone know best practices for getting these students where they need to be without scaring them off or overwhelming them?

With so many additional online tools to help facilitate online learning and hybrid learning and with greater awareness of the present generations regarding such, there are so many choices to help instructors better facilitate classes. I teach for more than one school and find that often the tools available in classrooms may need to be supplemented with adding learning tools that help students to learn. I think this is important when considering online learning.

I think it is important to provide the students the tools they need for success.

One of the most common reasons a test or assignment is missed is due to the internet. Some students wait until the last minute to complete work and if the internet fails, they miss the deadline. With some students this seems to be an ongoing problem. What solutions would you offer those students?

I really like the idea of the holistic approach. It really helps me understand my students' needs when I know a little something about what they are going through. Unfortunately, not all students will come out and discuss their issues with instructors. What type of questions do you feel are appropriate when attempting to reach out to failing students yet not crossing that line of privacy?

In one of my classes I teach a software program used for medical billing and coding. Some students have technical issues with this program. I have them contact technical support at our school, then the issue gets resolved, but in the meantime, the clock is ticking and students sometimes are late with their work because of this. What do you suggest I offer my students to overcome the technical issues (most are due because they don't follow instructions)?

Many of my students are limited when it comes to live labs because of the limited minutes on their phones. They miss out on valuable interaction with the instructor and classmates. What would you suggest I me to offer my students in lue of the live labs?

Humans are in part visual creatures. Graphics and visual imagery can really help in creating a good intellectual interactive environment.

I believe that on line class are good for those of us who work, have kids and have no time for a traditional school. There are far more many people that still want a traditional learning environment, to have interaction with an instructor and pears in a class room setting.

When replying to others, try and think of interesting questions you can ask them. This will help both you and the other person think (and learn!) about the subject you are discussing.

Socratic questions require you to listen very carefully to the other person to help you judge and phrase your question in a helpful, constructive, and hopefully non-confrontational way.

In the forums it will really help to keep your whole posts short and on-topic. Instead of one long rambling post that makes many different points, it may be better to write several shorter ones (they may even belong in separate forums).

When writing text for others to read, try and write directly to your audience.

While it may be a function of my primary teaching area (accounting, the provision of a model answer troubles me. Sad to say, but cheating appears to be rampant in the online environment. I know I cannot stop it, but I prefer not to be an enabler of the process. When it comes to accounting problems, while it does take more time, I think it makes more sense to assist the student by addressing the point at which s/he took a wrong turn rather than simply providing the model answer. I am pleased to see some universities using algorithmic based accounting problems so that each learner in a class is completing the same problem but with different numbers. This works well with my preference for explaining how to approach the problem correctly. While the learner may still relatively easily acquire "a" correct answer, it will not necessarily be "the" correct answer for his/her problem. S/he will still have to work through the steps thereby achieving, at the very least, some understanding of the underlying concepts. Does anyone else have thoughts about how to address model answers for classes that rely heavily on computational assignments?

The course syllabus if an important piece of information. I encourage my students to refer to it as necessary. I suggest they keep it handy throughout the entire marking period albeit a hard copy in their school bag or electronically on their laptop. I've had students ask random questions about when exams occur or when practical exams begin. While I'm happy to answer any and all questions I do expect them to be able to answer those questions responsibly on their own time by referring to the course syllabus. I take my time reviewing the course syllabus on the first day of every new resident course and point students toward the syllabus posted in the online portion of the course. Upon reviewing the sample course syllabus provided in this module, I also feel as though the syllabus I provide my students is very detailed in regards to all areas of the course expectations.

Why is Course Evaluation an ongoing process?