Participating in your own courses

One of the challenges for instructors is deciding the correct amount of participation in their online classrooms. Too much participation can make it seem the instructor is dominating the interaction. Too little and it can seem that they are not attending to what happens there.

Here are some tips and strategies that have come out of recent workshops on teaching and learning:

  • Schedule in your week to participate in your online classes. Spend this time answering questions, responding to discussions (or other interactions), and adding or revising content (I am constantly finding spelling mistakes in mine!).

  • Schedule time as well to grade work that has been handed in.
Every evening Sunday though Thursday, I schedule time to log on to my courses. I grade work and answer questions that need details.

  • Be responsive without answering immediately. When I get "I need help" messages from students during my workday or on the weekend, I respond to students that I have the message and give them a time when they can expect an answer.

  • When it comes to responding adopt a 1-2-3 approach. Give one long response (1-2 paragraph) answer to one student in each interactive activity, give 2 short (2-3 sentence) response to two students, and brief (1-sentence) responses to three students.

    Keep track of your students so that everyone sees a long response during the course.

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