In a classroom setting interaction among students is the norm. How do
you replicate that informality, spontaneity, and focus online? This book
provides you with a framework to think about the different kinds of
engagement you want to foster -- whether participation, collaboration,
or quick feedback -- and then introduces you to available online tools,
some of which may be in your LMS, offers practical tips, and guides you
to how make the most of commonly available technologies to achieve your
goals.
Within the context and progression of a course -- from developing a
welcome page, presenting yourself and the purpose of your course, to
icebreakers, assignments, and alternative forms of assessment -- the
authors introduce you to a range of easy-to-use online tools that they
have introduced to the faculty and teachers in their classes, and that
foster active learning and student engagement. In doing so they provide
a checklist that you can also access and print from the Web, to help you
review additional tools from the wide and ever-growing range of tools
that are available online and determine whether they are appropriate for
what you want to accomplish.
This book will help you connect with students, whether you're teaching
synchronously or asynchronously, regardless of the devices students may
be using; develop community; and introduce you to gamification to add
enjoyment and variety to your students' experience of your class.
Recognizing that using new tools with confidence requires practice, the
authors offer ideas for implementing them in private online spaces. Each
chapter concludes with reflection questions that can be addressed
individually by the reader or within a learning community to encourage
faculty to work together and support each other in virtual teaching and
learning. This book addresses the challenge of embracing new models of
course offerings to students in the evolving landscape of virtual
learning.
