Online Facilitation Tips and Strategies

Once you have the technical aspects of the online course set up, you may be wondering what to do next and how do you manage this monster you have created. There are myriad resources available to guide you through how to manage and facilitate these new online courses. We have provided a number of our favorites here and tried to organize them by topic to make it easier for you to find what you might need. However, our best suggestion is to not try to do everything at once. Focus on one or two areas and get comfortable there before adding on. Think about these strategies and what ones make sense for you to start with based on how you have organized your course. Again, don't try to do everything; start small and keep it simple.

One important aspect of online learning that is rarely considered by traditionally face-to-face faculty is the federal requirement for regular and substantive interaction. While the federal Department of Education (ED) has relaxed some rules for distance learning in this Covid-19 environment, ensuring that faculty regularly and substantially interact with students is still of primary concern to them. As you read through the articles below, many of them focus on interaction with students, which will help you identify the ways you will interact with your classes. We suggest modifying your syllabus or adding an addendum that explains how you will regularly interact with your students and any changes you are making to your original assignments. Institutions may be asked to provide such documentation in the future so having this ready will be useful for that, but it will also be good to provide to your students now so they know what to expect and how you will be adapting class to this new environment.

In addition to the resources below, you can find more resources about facilitating online learning and other aspects of teaching and learning on the OTTL Faculty Resources site.

How to be a Better Online Teacher - a great first read on the topic, very comprehensive.

7 Tips on How to Prepare for Online Teaching

Ten Online Teaching Tips You May Not Have Heard

10 Tips for Success from New Online Teachers

Recommendations for Effective Course Moderation

Instructor Presence in the Online Environment

Time Management Strategies

4 Lessons from Moving a Face-to-Face Course Online

ACUEs Online Teaching Toolkit - consists of a variety of videos and templates, tips and strategies for setting up your new online course, facilitation, and overall course management. Very comprehensive but concise.

5 Tips for Teaching Live Online

Start by reading this excellent article about The Secret Weapon of Good Online Teaching: Discussion Forums

How to Help Struggling Students Online

Facilitating Online Discussions

Tips for Enhancing Online Discussion

Enhancing the Online Class: Transitioning from Discussion to Engagement

10 Ways You Can Use Video to Enhance Your Digital Learning Content

Video Length in Online Courses: What the Research Says

Teaching in Times of Crisis discusses how to support students who may be struggling during this difficult time.

Leading Our Classes Through Times of Crisis with Engagement PEACE

Helping Students to be Successful (Resilient) Online and Hybrid Learners During COVID Transitions provides lots of useful tips and strategies as well as some useful references/resources. Some are campus-based but many are instructor-based and some for students too.

Supporting Online Student Success from our friends at SUNY Online provides tips to support students and self-regulated learning strategies you can encourage.

Inclusive Teaching Practices Toolkit

5 Principles as Pathways to Inclusive Teaching