Publication Date
January 2018
Abstract
Online teaching is promising to expand more in the future, as it meets student demands and provides more profit to the institutions of higher education offering it. However, it has two main challenges, represented by the physical absence of instructors and the perception that it’s easier to pass online courses than face-to-face courses. Using my ten-year experience in online teaching, I describe my best practices, offering solutions to these challenges and other problems. To engage students, I use a variety of course activities, such as chapter online tests, papers, structured discussion posts, substantive responses to classmates, as well as timely and frequent communication with students. The accusation leveled against online courses as easier to pass than face-to-face courses can be refuted by requiring two proctored unit exams, with considerable weight, as credible measures of the student learning of the course content.