Teaching an Online Course

This teaching toolkit was designed for faculty who are new to online teaching and for faculty who would like a refresher on best online teaching practices. Although there is far more written about online teaching than what we can cover in this brief training, we have chosen what we believe are the most important topics you’ll need to know to be successful in your online UMB classroom.

We will cover three main areas in this toolkit: how to establish your presence in your online course; how to grade and provide feedback; and, best practices for online course management.

At the end of this training, you will be able to do the following:

• Describe why your presence matters so much in the online classroom

• Engage with your students regularly using a number of tools and strategies

• Effectively use the discussion board to stimulate conversation and learning

• Create weekly announcements to summarize learning and keep your students on track

• Grade and provide feedback that enhances student learning and progression

• Skillfully manage your online classroom

To use this training toolkit, please click on each of the three modules below and read the material contained within that section.

After you have completed “How to Teach Online”, please have a look at the “Blackboard” section. There you will be oriented to your teaching environment. Whereas when you teach face-to-face you have a physical classroom, when you teach online, Blackboard becomes your classroom. It is important that you are very familiar with your online classroom and all of the tools available within it before your course begins.

If you have questions about any of the material in this toolkit, please contact your Program Director, Instructional Designer, or the Faculty Center for Teaching and Learning (facultycenter@umaryland.edu).

Sometimes you will be teaching a course that you did not develop yourself. We still think it is helpful to understand a little about what’s important to us when we create our courses. Please watch the following brief video, designed to orient new faculty to the online course development process at the UMB Graduate School.

In this section, you will learn the importance of grading in a timely manner, two types of feedback you should be providing your students regularly, and strategies for providing effective feedback to enhance learning. Please read through each of the articles and watch the videos before proceeding to the next section.

Section 1: It's Important to Grade Promptly

Section 2: Two Types of Feedback to Give Regularly

Section 3: Best Practices for Giving Feedback to Students