Online Teaching: Introduction

This is an Online Lesson

This short introduction to basic online course organization and operation is itself a simple website that functions as course content - the substance of a weekly lesson.  There are five lessons or modules in total, that serve both as the course "text" for the Online Faculty Development Course, as well as a standalone guide.  Notice a few features:

• Navigate between pages using the buttons at the bottom of the page, or the page numbers in the upper right.

• Play audio or video clips, and interact with diagrams and other resources.  

• Below most audio or video clips you'll see a button labeled "Transcript."  This has the text transcript for the audio or video clip.  Some video clips may have closed captions as well or instead, accessible by clicking the "CC" button within the video frame after clicking the video to play.

• Some of the tutorial videos here are drawn from COLI's self-paced training series.  You can access additional COLI video tutorials at COLI's website.

There's plenty to interact with in these lessons, and that's important for engaging students.  But notice that, compared to other websites, this is a no-frills, simple presentation.  That's by design - Google Sites, used to construct this resource, is a great blend of powerful web-building tools, and easy-to-learn simplicity.  

You can find plenty of fancy, feature-rich tools and resources with which to teach, and we encourage you to evaluate and adopt newer applications or tools in your teaching.  But new technology, be it paperback books or Google Earth, doesn't change the fact that skilled and dedicated faculty are crucial in higher education. Educational technology is only as good as the teacher using it.  And online teaching, just like classroom teaching, is properly built around providing the best learning experience for students, rather than adopting the Next Big Thing for its own sake. 

We'll revisit Google Sites as a toolset later, but for now, click "Next Page" below!