Topics Map > Services > Teaching, Learning and Classrooms > Services for Faculty
Online Instructor Guide
Online Instructor Guide
Are you new to teaching online, or just looking for ideas to refresh your course and teaching strategies? These are some questions that are very common when teaching online:
- How is online teaching different from face-to-face teaching?
- What are examples of assignments that could be aligned with my objectives?
- Are there technology tools to help students with their work?
- How do we keep students engaged and motivated to learn in an asynchronous course?
- What does an accessible course look like?
- Does my course meet the RSI (Regular and Substantive Interaction) guidelines for online course accreditation?
These are just the types of questions our IDC team is ready to help you with ideas and suggestions.
Many resources are available, including professional development opportunities, knowledge base articles, and one-on-one instructional design consultations.
Online courses can increase educational opportunities for students. Students are able to collaborate with others from a distance while continuing to meet their family and/or job responsibilities. Though the online environment can provide many opportunities for students, it does take more preparation time for instructors to develop a quality course. The online environment interaction, engagement, and community fellowship does not happen organically. All of that takes planning.
As a foundation, the principles identified by 50 years of research by A. Chickering and Z. Gamson in Seven Principles for Good Practice in Undergraduate Education are still identified as the most frequently referenced by course designers as best practices (AAHE Bulletin, March 1987).
- Encourage faculty-to-student interaction
- Encourage student-to-student interaction
- Promote active learning
- Communicate high expectations
- Facilitate time on task
- Provide rich, rapid feedback
- Respect diverse learning
To start learning more about teaching online, begin with Course Design.
Online Course Checklist
The Online Course Checklist is a final check, before making the course available, to ensure you have the key components of your course ready for students. Download the Online Course Checklist before activating your course.
Online Instructional Strategies
Teaching in an online environment changes how we interact with students, design assignments, work in groups, collaborate on projects, assess learning, and provide feedback. Below is a listing of instructional strategies and tips to help teach and facilitate online.
- Assessments - strategies for formative and summative assessments.
- Alternative & Authentic Assessment Strategies - assessments that connect to and make sense to students are key components of successful learners.
- Anthology Ally - an accessibility tool built into all Blackboard courses for instructors and students.
- Collaboration groups, projects, and presentations
- Designing and Using Group Work in Courses - knowledge base article sharing group work ideas.
- Nine Strategies to Promote Collaborative Online Learning - University of South Florida provides easy-to-implement strategies for successful collaborative experiences
- Communication discussion, blog, announcements
- Discussion Boards - Vanderbilt University Strategies and Techniques.
- Discussions in Online Courses - an extensive article on best practices in designing online discussions by Johns Hopkins Whiting School of Engineering.
- Digital Accessibility - a collection of digital accessibility resources and tools.
- Rubrics - knowledge base article guiding the use of rubrics for assessments in courses.
- Universal Design for Learning - UDL is an educational framework for designing and teaching courses.
Professional Development
- Faculty Development Opportunities - workshops, webinars, book discussions, and special events.
- Instructional Design Services - Instructional Design Center services and resources.
- Recorded Resources: Faculty Presentations, Panel Discussions, Webinars - recording on YouTube and Zoom of IDC faculty development events.
Additional Resources
- Library NDSU - the Main Library supports the learning and research needs of the students and faculty of North Dakota State University.
- Office of Teaching & Learning (OTL) at NDSU
- Online Teaching Guide, Duke University
- Open Education Resources
- MERLOT - provides access to curated online learning and support materials and content creation tools, led by an international community of educators, learners and researchers.
- OER Commons - public digital library of open educational resources.
- Open Textbook Library - open textbooks are licensed by authors and publishers to be freely used and adapted.
- Teaching Technology Hub - technology tools for teaching online.
Related Resources
- Online Teaching and Learning - main knowledge base page providing resources and services for instructors teaching and designing online courses.