Synthia Dabiri

When establishing a goal, make sure that the goal is detailed, measurable and realistic and achievable through measurable steps.  Teach Netiquette to your students!

Before starting a course, make sure that the students are familiar with the different communication tools used in the class - both asynchronous and synchronous. 

Online instructors need to ensure that their students have good reading and writing skills, are engaged and participate in class and have good communication skills. Moreover, it is crucial to define the class expectation at the start of the class such as the defining what Plagiarism is by including the Institution Academic Honesty Policy in the syllabus.  

Instructors in online environments have to ensure that their students succeed by motivating them using positive feedbacks, a positive learning environment, meaning behind their learning and making them feel like a valued member of the community. They should also provide appropriate accommodations to all students as needed. 

As instructors, we need to teach our students to become critical thinkers. We can promote critical thinking skills by asking open-ended questions, having students reflect on the topic, justify their position, find relationships between concepts, create test questions, participate in collaborate and cooperative learning and problem-based learning. 

Recently, classrooms have switched from the traditional classroom to the active classroom and instructors need to take the role of the "movie director" directing their students on how to learn, reflect and work together to maximize their learning. 

There are internal and external limitations to a successful online learning experience. Students need to let go of the misconceptions that the instructor need to teach them everything and they should just passively sit there. Another big limitation are technology issues. 

Our students tend to do better with active learning as they are actively involved in their own learning. As instructors, we need to transition to the role of provider of knowledge and lecturer to the one of facilitator and coach. We need to allow students to work together, self-reflect, do their own research and learning. 

As an online instructor, we will need to make sure that we are ready to face behavior, conflict and attrition issues. Students can often feel alienated, feel overwhelmed because of the excessive workload or their competing responsibilities or frustrated because of technical issues and it is our responsibilities to remind them of their commitment and provide them with tips and strategies to succeed in their program. 

Use asynchronous discussions for important course content and synchronous discussions for small groups.