Onlne Teaching Tips

The CELT web page now features a collection of video links that present some favorite teaching tips of 11 instructors at IPFW who use technology in their classrooms or who teach online.

The short video clips, which play with QuickTime or iTunes, provide commentary by:

• Adam Dirksen, from the Department of Communications, who explains he spends the first week of his online classes going over the mechanics of the course. A quiz at the end of the week ensures the students have read the syllabus and know what’s expected of them.
• Dr. Stella Batagiannis, from the School of Education, who uses Blackboard in her face to face classes to foster more discussion as well as to host supplemental learning material.
• Dr. Romesh Narang, from the School of Engineering, who uses Blackboard to provide class documents and supplemental materials.
• Cathleen Carosella, Reading and Learning Skills Coordinator, who feels that discussion boards, with active involvement from the instructor, are the key for student success in an online class.
• Dr. Rochelle Darabi, Associate Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs, who notes that online students need a lot of self motivation; she sends letters to students before class begins warning them that keeping up with an online class is often not easy without the two or three times a week motivation that teachers routinely give in face to face classes.
• Dr. Benton Gates, from the History Department, who feels that establishing “community” early in an online class is critical.
• Dr. Solomon Isiorho, from the Department of Geosciences, who asks his students to post portraits and bios to improve interactivity in an online class.
• Dr. Carolyn Stumph, from the Department of Economics, who uses Blackboard discussions to cause students to interact with each other “in a scholarly way.”
• Eric Vitz, from the Department of Communications, who provides a quiz about the syllabus which the students must complete successfully before they can access the rest of the course.
• Scott Vitz, from the Department of Communications, who advises that instructors keep in mind that students take Internet courses for their flexibility.
• Worth Weller, from the Department of English and Linguistics, who uses a simple form of podcasting to make global comments to his classes’ weekly discussion topics. “This saves a lot of time yet provides some interactivity that the students find really cool,” he reports.

The video links may be accessed at:

http://www.ipfw.edu/celt/technology/quicktips.shtml