UW Instructional Computing Services

How Supplemental Online Courses Can Enhance Your Teaching

Last Update: 27 February 2008; RKH

You're meeting in a classroom, on the regular academic schedule. Why would you need an online course shell?  Using a series of versions of the same example course, on our platform WyoSakai (or WebCT or eCompanion), let's consider a variety of answers to that question.

  1. You don't.

    --> No-Tech

    Your class is going fine, you carry on lectures and discussion in the classroom, students are interested in the material, and work is done on paper and on the chalkboard.

    Example: COSC/MATH/PHIL 2010-01, on paper only.  Materials and records kept in notebook.

    Notes on Pedagogy: We have little reason to believe that learning is carried on more productively over the Internet. (Classroom instructors should, of course, take full advantage of a face-to-face setting, fomenting interaction, monitoring and measuring student learning, devoting attention to issues as they arise.)  In short, you never need an online supplement for its own sake.

  2. You want to give students permanent access to the syllabus, or lectures, or summary materials.

    --> Cornerstones

    You can get an online course for display purposes only, and let students see the syllabus, the critical definitions, your periodic reviews of the material, and even some of your lecture notes, online. You can set up these materials well in advance, and open them at the start of the term, or on a predetermined schedule, or manually, as necessary.

    Example: COSC/MATH/PHIL 2010-02 in WebCT and COSC/MATH/PHIL 2010-02 in eCompanion, with syllabus, "Representations" lesson, and "Definitions and Notations."

    Notes on Pedagogy: Beware putting all lecture materials online, subverting motivation for class attendance. And refrain from changing the online documents without warning (in spite of the ease of doing so).

  3. You want reliable, preserved communication from you to your students throughout the semester, or controlled submission of student work.

    --> Paper Trail

    You can post announcements prominently in an online course, and also use the e-mail tool provided. Grades can be entered and distributed to students through that venue, as well. Students can submit assignments to the instructor, as files of various formats, stored in the course space for your retrieval.

    Example: COSC/MATH/PHIL 2010-03 in eCompanion, with Announcements, an assignment with a Dropbox, and an active Gradebook.

    Notes on Pedagogy: Plan the administrative message location (course e-mail or course announcement?), and deliver consistently. Archive old e-mail and announcements, and figure out how to do so before the class starts.

  4. You want to provide extra materials, including websites, pictures, audio files, and references for further exploration of the subject.

    --> Features

    An online course can host pages of tangential notes from you, written, audio, and visual, and also makes a convenient place to put links to interesting websites that expand upon the subjects of the course.

    Example: COSC/MATH/PHIL 2010-04 in WebCT, with Representations lesson, links to ancient numbers systems websites, and "Infinity" materials concerning "Amazing Grace" (text and audio).

    Notes on Pedagogy: Use authoritative websites, of course; organize them into groups and provide annotations. Limit the sizes of media and image files, especially if they are used for required work. Ask students for suggestions and assessments gleaned from their own web surfing.

  5. You want to increase participation and interaction.

    --> Buy-In

    To foster more collaboration in and out of the classroom, you can set up discussions in an online course, for students, and you, to share reflections n topics. Online course platforms also provide mechanisms for the definition of groups for collaborative projects, including exchange of documents.

    Example: COSC/MATH/PHIL 2010-05 in eCompanion, with a Discussion on everyday computation, a Research Project assignment grid, and groups defined for Discussion and Doc Sharing.

    Notes on Pedagogy: Cultivate discussion as an intermediate between talk and writing; it's more contemplative than classroom discussion but less so than formal composition. Ask "intermediate-level" questions with some structure, not open-ended questions; provide example answers. Consider requiring discussion (by factoring it into the grade), with more than one contribution, at different times. Try out collaborative document development with some trivial task, so that your students can practice the procedure.

  6. You want better assessment of student learning.

    For formative assessment, use an online course to give ungraded quizzes, where you can view the results and some statistics, and students can see feedback from you on both correct and incorrect answers. For summative assessments, such as exams that count toward the grade, online courses can score the multiple-choice and other machine-gradable questions.

    --> Progress-Tracking

    Example: COSC/MATH/PHIL 2010-06 in WebCT, with "Representations" lesson, links to ancient numbers websites, and ancient numbers self-assessment quiz.

    Notes on Pedagogy: Online quizzes, taken outside class, are best used for self-assessment.  If the system allows it, grade one question at a time, across all quizzes.  Make use of the feedback options to explain common misconceptions and to redirect study.  If you give graded exams online, provide a practice exam first.

  7. You want to off-load some administrative details, with a TA to do some of the work.

    Add an assistant in the Teaching Assistant or designer role, for such tasks as entering grades and monitoring discussion. Use the online gradebook to display student grades and current standing.

    --> Off-Loading

    Example: COSC/MATH/PHIL 2010-06 (as above); note that Velma Dinkley is a TA.

    Notes on Pedagogy: Do not use the online course to keep your students at a distance.  Encourage face-to-face discussion of grades. Check records regularly so that you don't inadvertently lose touch with your students' performance.

In the design of your online course, let the teaching drive the technology!

Although the implementation details differ, as seen already in our examples, these options are available in most online course platforms, along with other tools and facilities.  For help with the mechanics of online course setup and management, come to a workshop or peruse the workshop notes and the other documentation on the "Faculty Help" page.