Field-Specific

As Rena Paloff and Keith Pratt point out, when designing a course, the course learning goals are the primary focus, rather than merely adding neat technologies for their own sake. Especially when you're just beginning to teach online, simpler, more common technology might be better than the most sophisticated gizmos. As with face-to-face courses, you can incrementally introduce and experiment with new methods each semester. And consider whether you need to deliver a lot of content to students, or your course is more of a process involving student composition and professor mentorship.

When you do select technologies, another important consideration is what students already regularly use, or what they might commonly use after graduation. Despite it's popularity, (as we've said) social media may or may not be appropriate. But what kinds of applications are common in professions related to your field of study?

For example, cloud storage is increasingly used in government, business, and educational institutions, so Google Drive and related apps are relevant to your students outside of their schoolwork. Social science and marketing often use survey toolsets like Qualtrics. Youtube is an enormous resource for entertainment, education, and professional development. Reinforcing technical and soft skills (sharing files via cloud storage, beginning an email with "Professor Smith," instead of "Hey," or editing video productions for clarity, and so forth) of these common tools can be an added benefit of your course.