TEACHING ONLINE

‘Being a successful online teacher’ portfolio

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BEING A SUCCESSFUL ONLINE TEACHER: Introduction to this portfolio

Introduction to the ‘Being a successful online teacher’ portfolio

Welcome to the ‘Being a successful online teacher’ portfolio. This document accompanies the course on ‘Being a successful online teacher’ in the Teaching Online programme.


What is the portfolio?

This portfolio is intended to supplement and enhance your learning as you progress through this Teaching Online course in the following ways:

  • The portfolio draws together all of the documents and supplementary materials available to download throughout the main course, so that they are easily accessible from a single location.
  • Throughout the main course, you will be invited to undertake various reflective and supplementary activities (called ‘Portfolio activities’). These are accompanied by the portfolio icon, above. The portfolio provides a space for you to record your thoughts for each of these activities. You may like to return to these notes and extend or refine them as you progress through the programme.
  • Your portfolio should continue to prove an invaluable tool once you have completed the course, with summary sheets, templates, and your own notes and reflections providing a useful reference manual for your online teaching.

Your portfolio: How to use this document

How do I use my portfolio?

  • Save a copy of this document on your computer.
  • Keep the portfolio open as you work through this Teaching Online course.
  • Each time you undertake a ‘Portfolio activity’, or are asked to keep a note of the results of an in-course activity, you will find a corresponding page in this document for you to complete. (See ‘How do I navigate my portfolio?’ below for more details.)
  • Refer to, or complete, each portfolio document as instructed in the corresponding section of the main course.

How do I navigate my portfolio?

  • To navigate your portfolio easily, ensure that you have the ‘Document Map’ or ‘Navigation Pane’ feature in Microsoft Word enabled. To do this, go to ‘View’ and tick ‘Document Map’.
  • The titles in the ‘Document Map’ (to the left of your screen) correspond with the course screen titles to enable you to easily locate the desired document. The course and unit are also displayed at the top of each portfolio document for ease of use.
  • Click on a document name to jump to that section of the portfolio.
  • Where a section in the main course has more than one portfolio document associated with it, the documents are numbered in brackets in order of appearance in the corresponding section of the main course.

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Roles and responsibilities of an online teacher (1)

Roles, responsibilities and restrictions

Working with your supervisor, mentor or a peer, make a list of your institutional roles, responsibilities, and any challenges you may experience as an online teacher.

  • Be sure to also note any gaps or nuances that you want to explore in this course.

You may wish to record your thoughts in the table below.

Estimated duration: 20 minutes

My notes / Supervisor/peer notes / My personal development plan
My role as an online teacher
My responsibilities as an online teacher
Potential restrictions or challenges

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Roles and responsibilities of an online teacher (2)

What type of digital learner are you?

Visit the following link to complete a short quiz developed by the University of Exeter, designed to reveal your personal digital learner profile: bit.ly/learnerquiz.

The quiz will help you to reflect on your awareness of and attitude towards using digital technologies, and will highlight areas to consider developing in order to enhance your online teaching provision.

You may wish to record the results of the quiz and your thoughts on how the results could inform your future online teaching in the space below.

Estimated duration: 20 minutes

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The Community of Inquiry framework and teaching presence

Applying teaching presence

Write out your own definition of teaching presence and explain how you believe it will apply to your context as an online teacher. Refer back to these notes as you work through the course to remind yourself of your core goal.

You may wish to record your thoughts in the space below.

Estimated duration: 20 minutes

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An alternative framework: The Five Stage Model of Online Teaching and Learning

How would you use the Five Stage Model?

How might you apply Gilly Salmon’s Five Stage Model to your own teaching practice? Take a closer look at this copy of the Five Stage Model and the descriptions beneath. Then, in the space provided at the end of the section, write some notes about how you might apply this model to your own teaching.

Estimated duration: 40 minutes

© Gilly Salmon (2011)

Stage 1: Access and motivation

In stage one, the online teacher makes sure that students can access and use the digital technologies that will be used for the course as well as building student motivation and confidence in the online environment.

Welcoming and encouraging: Be sure to send a welcome message to all the students that clearly explains the purpose and the format of the online course.

Setting up system and accessing: Before an online course begins it is important that students are able to access and comfortably use the digital technologies in order to help them develop confidence.

Stage 2: Online socialisation

Stage two is about online socialisation and it builds on stage one. In this stage, the online teacher focuses on social processes and 'community building'.

Familiarising and providing bridges: The online teacher acts as a ‘host’, facilitating icebreaker activities that allow the students to get to know each other and also to emphasise the collaborative nature of the course.

Sending and receiving messages: The online teacher models and helps the students create guidelines for online communication in the course (e.g. netiquette).

Stage 3: Information exchange

For stage three, the online teacher facilitates exploration through information exchange and co-operative tasks. Interaction takes place with other students and course materials.

Facilitating tasks:Information starts to flow and students generally become excited about the immediate access and fast information exchange. They also express concern about the volume of information suddenly becoming available and the risk of potential information overload. In this stage, online teachers can help students to develop good time management and organisational skills.

Searching, personalising software: At this stage, many students are likely to need help from the online teacher in developing or refining their seeking, searching and selecting skills. Some students may be overwhelmed by the mass of content and may need help to focus on the essentials. You can expect many queries about where to find things online. Teachers need to provide guidance without inhibiting the free-flowing communication between students, as students derive an enormous amount of motivation and enjoyment from this personal communication.

Stage 4: Knowledge construction

During stage four, the online teacher focuses on knowledge development and discussion activities. Students recognise the value of text-based asynchronous interaction and take control of their own knowledge construction.

Facilitating process:As interactions unfold and expand, many (but not all) students engage in some active exploration, and in the process widen their own viewpoints and appreciate differing perspectives. By now, students should be interacting and starting to collaborate in their knowledge construction. Problem-based and practice-based tasks are appropriate at this stage. Online teachers have an important role to play in building and sustaining groups.

Conferencing:The online teacher needs to apply 'weaving' skills. Weaving involves pulling together the students’ contributions by, for example, collecting statements from a range of individual learners and relating them to concepts and theories from the course. The teacher enables development of ideas through discussion and collaboration, summarises from time to time, ensuring that diverse views are given consideration, and helps keep the discussion on track.

Stage 5: Development

Stage five is characterised by reflection and assessment. Students become responsible for their own learning and that of their peers. Ideas are applied to individual contexts.

Supporting, responding:Online teachers should encourage students to explore their own thinking and knowledge building processes. It is common at this stage for students to reflect on and discuss how they are networking, and to evaluate the digital technologies and the impact on their learning processes. These higher-level skills require the ability to reflect on, articulate and evaluate one’s own thinking. Students become responsible for their own learning and need little support beyond that which is already available.

Providing links outside of closed conferences:Students begin to discover and share resources and experiences beyond those found in the course learning management system/virtual learning environment.

Write your notes here:

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Establishing a social presence (1)

Sample online course introduction letter

Greetings!

My name is Dr. Althea Babington (), and I will be your teacher for this online course. I am a professor in the Department of Education. I would like to introduce myself and give you some important information about this class.

If you need technical assistance for any reason, you may submit an online request via HelpDesk Online at or contact the IT Service Desk at 0203 6754 2911.

This is a fully online course. There will be fixed weekly sessions and deadlines throughout the course, including discussion sessions, assignments, quizzes, etc. However, aside from the synchronous sessions, there is considerable flexibility in terms of how you organise your work for the class. You will be able to complete work largely in your own time (for example, some of you will work mainly at evenings and weekends, others during weekdays, etc.) but do pay attention to assignment deadlines. This letter is designed to help you organise your work and address common concerns and questions, so please do read it carefully.

  1. Contacting the teacher
  1. Course overview
  1. Orientation
  1. Practice class session
  1. Course materials

1. Contacting the teacher

You are welcome to contact me by email, chat or phone. I will be available for phone and chat conversations between 9am and 11am on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, and between 2pm and 5pm on Tuesday and Thursday (GMT).

Ask for Althea Babington at 0203 6754 44444ext. 6-444 or email

Skype name: althea_bab_fictional.

Please use your university email account to communicate with me and other students in the course.

I normally check email several times per day, and I will respond to your email as quickly as possible. I will, at a minimum, make every effort to respond to email within 24 hours.

2. Course overview

  • This course will last approximately 12 weeks – beginning in September and ending in December.
  • The course is 100% online. There are no on-campus meetings.
  • The class meets synchronously every Tuesday and Thursday from 4:30 – 6:00 PM (GMT). Please check your emails and course announcements regularly for any changes to this schedule.
  • The first synchronous session is on September 9th4:30 PM (GMT) at the synchronous space. The synchronous space is where the teachers and students are present at the same time. You can access this space by clicking the ‘Collaborate’ link on the left hand navigation bar of your course in the university LMS/VLE, TecBook.
  • Part of your course TecBook site will open on September 1st, so that you can become familiar with the navigation before classes start. I will continue to add course information and content throughout the course. Once the course begins, please focus on the material for your current week’s topic.

3. Orientation

We recommend that you carry out the following actions before the course begins to ensure that you are familiar with the instructional environment for this course:

  • Perform a ‘System Check’. The system check link is below the user name and password fields on the TecBook log-in page. The system check will make sure your computer and web browser meet the requirements for using TecBook and viewing course content.
  • Make sure you have a basic understanding of TecBook. If you have not previously used TecBook, please visit the following website and familiarise yourself with the information provided by the HelpDesk: fictionaluniversity.ac.uk/students
  • You may wish to take a look at the online demonstrations available from the above website. The demonstrations will show you examples of how to navigate through TecBook (

Even if you’re already familiar with some aspects of the online environment, we recommend that you carry out these orientation processes to eliminate potential technical problems and to let you focus more on the course content later on.

4. Practice class session

To help prepare you for the first synchronous session, we will conduct a practice session on September 1st 8:00 PM(GMT). This practice hour will provide us with the opportunity to meet each other. We will utilise the same technology for this practice session as we do for the delivery of all synchronous class sessions.

  • Please see the ‘Using Synchronous Space’ section of the orientation for more information on how to enter a synchronous class session:

6. Course materials

Most of the materials required for this course are available online, within the ‘Content’ section of the University’s LMS/VLE, TecBook.

Content will consist of:

  • PowerPoint lectures
  • Video lectures
  • Readings
  • Other online resources.

However we do require that you purchase one textbook:

Merriam, S. B., Baumgartner, L. M., & Caffarella, R. S. (2007) Learning in Adulthood: A Comprehensive Guide, 3rd ed.,London: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

This text is easily available at most book stores and online book retailers.

Welcome to the course!

Yours sincerely,

Dr. Althea Babington

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Establishing a social presence (2)

Icebreaker activities

Icebreaker activities can be implemented to encourage student-led discussion among the students, many of whom are more used to listening to classroom discussions or observing online discussions. Take a look at the following examples of icebreaker activities, which were written by Bill Pelz, Professor of Psychology and Internet Academy Coordinator at Herkimer County Community College, and recipient of the 2003 Sloan-C Award for Excellence in Online Teaching.

Icebreaker Activity 1:

Introduce the idea that ‘questions are a learning tool’. Refer your students to a website which they are to read and then discuss among themselves.

For example:

DOCUMENT by: William Pelz

Subject: The Role of Questions in Thinking, Teaching and Learning.

The primary teaching and learning activity in this class is active participation in the ‘Student Led Discussions’ on each chapter of the textbook. In these discussions, each student poses a ‘critical thinking’ question based on some important issue from the course readings, then facilitates a class discussion on that issue. For each chapter in the textbook, every student must facilitate a discussion based upon their question, and also participate in the discussions facilitated by other students. By being an active ‘discussant’ in a minimum of three content-related discussions per chapter, each student must engage in depth with the content of every chapter, although it is unlikely that any two students will participate in the same discussions in each chapter.

CLICK HERE to read a short paper on the role of questions in thinking, teaching and learning, then click on the RESPOND button below and state your reaction to the way this course uses student-generated questions and student-led discussions in the teaching/learning process. After you have stated your opinion, read and respond to the reaction posted by at least two other students.

Icebreaker Activity 2:

Introduce the idea of students as discussion facilitators.

For example:

DOCUMENT by: William Pelz

Subject: Facilitating an Online Discussion

In most of the modules, each student must facilitate several discussions: a website discussion and two or more chapter discussions. To prepare for this, I want you to read the information contained in the website I have linked below, and then, using GOOGLE or the web search engine of your choice, find a website that teaches something relevant about how to facilitate a discussion. Create a working link to the website, and give a brief overview of the information.

Read and respond to a few of the submissions, and reply to each student who responds to your post.

Start by visiting this site:

Submit a website you locate.

Respond to a few websites posted by other students.

When you are ready to submit your website, click on the RESPOND button below.

Icebreaker Activity 3:

Give detailed instructions to get the student-led discussions off on the right foot.

For example:

DOCUMENT by: William Pelz

Subject: Chapter 1

Write a discussion question from this chapter of the textbook. Read the questions already posted, and do not repeat a question asked by another student. Your question should relate directly to an issue discussed in the text, and should require a thoughtful response. Don’t ask a question which can be answered by looking the answer up. Attitude, opinion, and application questions usually get thoughtful responses.