With the winter session well underway, keep in mind the following facilitation tips:
Be present and visible in your course per the expectations that you established in the first week of class.
Provide regular and responsive feedback to students. Do this on an ongoing basis, but especially early in the class so that under-performing students have the opportunity to improve their work. For example, grades and feedback should be provided to students as soon as possible so students can incorporate your suggestions into their next graded assignment to improve the result.
Participate in discussion activities with a balanced approach. Try to steer the conversation to keep it on task, yet not stifle it too early with authoritative or definitive posts that end the activity. Consider posting a ‘Summarizing Our Discussion’ thread at the conclusion of each discussion forum to highlight the connections students are making and to point out other connections the students may have missed.
Review student feedback on your “Initial Course Survey” (see Evaluating Teaching and Course Design using Surveys).
Undergraduate Courses – Provide a mid-term progress report to all students. Note: This is REQUIRED by the end of the sixth week of class per university policy for those students in 1000-level and 2000-level classes whose grade up to that point is a C-, D+, D, D-, F, U, or N. Instructors can optionally enter mid-term grades for 3000-level and 4000-classes. The Registrar’s academic calendar lists the due dates of such reports.
For more tips on facilitation of your online course, read the following article: Managing Your Online Course.
For more information, contact: eCampus at ecampus@uconn.edu