Cliff Taylor

I am amazed at how unprepared or should I say administratively resistant to transition or use the free offers from commercial online course offerings such as iCEV, NCCER, AWS, etc. if it gets us through the end of the year, a free pilot program with proven and excellent online platforms is a no brainer to me.  

I teach in a small rural area.  Many of our students lack the technical hardware and knowledge to initially succeed in online education.  They will need support and encouragement to continue.  

Setting guidelines and posting rules and agenda information before the meetings is a real take away.  Encouragement throughout the process for every student is vital to student success. 

Developing relationships is very important at many levels.  Learning and teaching others the relationship is vital regardless if it is online or in the classroom.  Great advice on bio's and short introductions provide a bridge to those opportunities to make those relational connections.  

Well structured platform, clear instruction and open orientation, optimize feedback, provide supports and quick and continual feedback to students.  As I went through this, I remembered some of the online courses taken in the past...the good ones and the bad.