Organizing - promising practices - getting organized

Success in the distance education classroom is greatly enhanced if you are familiar with the structure and management of the course environment. All of you know what a F2F classroom looks like because you have sat in many of these classrooms as a student or taught in these environments. You know you will find some type of board (remember the old days when Blackboards were really black?), a lectern or some equivalent, maybe a projector, maybe a computer, etc. You probably won't need to unduly familiarize yourself with a new classroom because you already carry understanding because of past experiences in a classroom. In a distance classroom, you may not be as familiar with the environment. Spending time prior to the course in the online classroom to familiarize yourself with its features and management aspects will create a smoother transition for you and your students.

Even if you have taught online before, you may have used another Learning Management System. Although you will find many similarities between the various systems, each has its own unique features. To complicate this even more, all of these systems are updated on a regular basis so features and functionality changes. Traditional classrooms are more alike than different. In the online world, you are always learning new ways of teaching and managing students due to changes in the system. At this time, TWU uses Blackboard for a Learning Management System. It is used by 100% online courses and by 100% face-to-face courses. Each course you teach will have a Blackboard shell for your use.

You will also want to think about what you want students to take from the course. What do you want students to know and what do you want students to do as a result of the course? One approach that we find very promising is to deconstruct the course to the essential skills and knowledge you believe most important for your course. Using this approach, key skills and concepts are emphasized, practiced, and assessed throughout the course. The course looks pretty much the same but the careful identification of the essential elements focuses instruction and assessment on those areas you believe must be mastered to some degree.

You'll also want to review the navigation needed to move from location to location to create the materials for the course. You'll need to learn how to upload materials you create to the course. You'll need to become familiar with the discussion board area. You will need to think about the sequence of instruction and assessment. Contact your instructional designer and work to gain understanding of the distance environment so you can create the best learning environment for your students.