online interaction

Oct 24, 2024

Tips and Strategies for Successful Group Work

In this article Cultivate your course community early on If you are planning to assign group work, consider being very intentional and proactive about establishing a classroom community at the very start of the semester. If students have not interacted at all in your course prior to the group work assignment, they may lack a…

Jan 19, 2024

Student Blogging Assignments

In this article What is the difference between a blog and a website? While a website typically offers static content, a blog is dynamic and regularly updated with new material. Blogs are most often displayed in reverse chronological order, but they can just as easily be organized and displayed based on author, month, category, or…

Jun 13, 2023

Using Intelliboard Data to Improve Student Success

In this article Intelliboard Dashboard The Intelliboard Dashboard provides a snapshot of your courses. The default is set to show you data from the last week. You can change the time frame to meet your needs, but you will need to make this adjustment every time you want to review different information. Here’s how to…

Mar 20, 2023

Cognitive Load Essentials for Effective Instructional Videos

In this article Overview The main idea behind cognitive load theory is that there are limits to how much information the human brain can process at once. When presented with too much information, the brain becomes overwhelmed, and learning and comprehension suffer. Exactly, how does our brain process information? Watch this video that explains the…

Oct 25, 2022

Mid-Semester Check-Ins

In this article: Benefits of mid-semester check-ins Mid-semester is a great time to check in with your students – enough of the semester has passed that they will have some valuable insights, but enough is remaining that you can adjust course as needed in a meaningful way. By hearing from your students and responding, you…

Oct 25, 2022

Humanizing Your Online Course

In this article: Why “humanize” your course? Emotional engagement is essential student learning. If a student feels uncared-for, unsupported, isolated, neglected or in any way negative or apathetic about coming to class or about their relationship with you, those feelings can create barriers to both cognitive engagement and overall learning. Research underscores this connection between…

Sep 26, 2022

Digital Whiteboards for Teaching and Learning

In this article Accessibility Note Warning! Just like in-class whiteboards, doing an activity on a whiteboard exclusively means it will not be accessible to students using screenreaders. Find out more about accessibility and digital whiteboarding in this article. Getting Started There are many different digital tools available for online whiteboarding. To get started, determine your…

Jan 19, 2021

Engagement in Synchronous and Asynchronous Environments

Would you like to watch a video that covers the topics in this article? See DELTA’s video on Engagement in Online Courses (21 min 03 sec). In this article Introduction What is “student engagement?” Engagement include how students feel about the course, what do they do inside and outside of class, and how they think…

Nov 10, 2020

Helping Students Get Started in an Online Class

In this article: 1. Send a welcome letter before class starts You can begin connecting with students by sending a welcome letter a week or so before the first day of class. Include information that helps students know how to prepare for the start of class, such as: You can use a Welcome Letter template…

Nov 9, 2020

Leveraging Zoom Tools to Facilitate Engagement

In this article How to Get Started Step 1: Determine your goal(s). What engagement challenges would you like to solve in Zoom? Technology should follow pedagogy…in other words, use tools because they serve a teaching purpose. Zoom’s tools are especially good for: Additionally, activities using Zoom tools can help with building rapport and creating a…

Dec 28, 2019

Real-time Assessments and Check-ins

In this article Getting Started Determine your goal(s) for adding real-time assessments and/or check-ins to your course. What kinds of questions do you want to ask? Some of the most common categories of questions include: Consider the delivery of your course. Different tools are appropriate for synchronous in-person classes, synchronous online classes, and asynchronous use.…

Jul 14, 2016

Providing Effective Feedback

In this article How to Get Started Step 1: Review learning objectives and assignments and decide which need more feedback from you, and which would benefit from peer review. Step 2: Because a plethora of instructor- and peer-feedback mechanisms are available for online courses, explore different options to find the best fit for your content.…

Mar 26, 2016

Netiquette—Or Best Practices for Interacting Online

In this article How to Get Started Students in the online learning environment are unable to experience the body language, tone of voice, or facial expressions of their peers. It is important to make them aware of netiquette guidelines at the beginning of the course. Instructors can emphasize that netiquette will be useful not only…

Feb 26, 2016

Discussion Forum Best Practices

In this article To make the most of this tool, it helps to think about discussion forums across three key phases: Design and Development, Setting Expectations, and Launch and Management (Goldman, 2011). Each phase contributes to creating meaningful, engaging, and inclusive online dialogue. Designing and developing your discussion Writing your discussion prompts: Example discussion structures…