It Works for Me, Online! Shared Tips for Online and Web-Enhanced Teaching

Author: Blythe, Hal and Charlie Sweet
Publisher: New Forums Press, Stillwater, OK
ISBN: 1581070926
Table of Contents: INTRODUCTION

ch. I - PREPARATION
A. Web-Enhanced Courses
1. Know the Limitations of Your Technology
2. Email Rules
3. Create a Listserv
4. Develop Partnerships
5. Virtual Office Hours
6. Always Have Backup
B. Online Courses
1. Using a Textbook as a Course Guide
2. Examine and Acknowledge
3. Divide and Conquer: Create Small Learning Communities in Your Web-Based Classrooms
4. There Are Some Things You Just Can’t Do Online
5. Increase Interaction in Online Courses By Establishing a Community of Online Learners
6. Read
7. Break It Down
8. Who Are You?
9. Course Development
10. Making Online Content User-Friendly
11. Hardware Versus Software
12. Promoting Better Learning Through Online Course Organization
13. Find Your Back-Up
14. Embedding Copyright Awareness
15. Getting Organized, Or How to Avoid Asking, "Where in Cyberspace Is It?"
16. Instructional Design Models in Online Environments
17. You Can’t Call 911 When the Computer Chokes
18. Assist New Online Students By Increasing Their Technological Literacy, As Well As Your Own
19. Prepare to Have Fun!

ch. 2 - PRESENTATION
A. Web-Enhanced Courses
1. I Can See Clearly Now
2. Lectures Using the Internet
3. Introducing Humor Using the Internet
4. Online Music in the Classroom
B. Online Courses
1. Handling the First Week of Classes
2. Connection Week
3. Your Availability
4. Grouping Students
5. Lectures on CD
6. Computer Literate?
7. Formatting the Content for Online Lectures
8. 3 Then Me
9. Limiting Email Access in the Online Classroom
10. The Power of Inspirational and Motivational Quotations in Online Teaching
11. Be Sensitive, Be Flexible
12. Changes in Latitudes, Changes in Attitudes: Reorganizing Class Material for Online Teaching

ch. 3 - DISCUSSION BOARDS
A. Web-Enhanced Courses
1. Student-led Discussion Boards
2. What’s on Your Mind? Responding to the Events of September 11th
3. Discussion Board As Aid to Effective Reading
B. Online Courses
1. Those Awful "Uh-oh" Moments—Online
2. Discussion Board Postings and Assessment
3. Organizing Online Discussion
4. How to Mentor Teachers Online
5. Sex, Politics, Religion—Dealing With Controversial Topics
6. Discussion Threads for Improved Style and Grammar
7. Chatting About Children’s Literature
8. The Missing Link in the Online Classroom
9. Midweek Deadlines for Discussions
10. Discussion Boards to Improve Student
Response to Material
11. Suggestions to Facilitate Your Learning
12. Timing Is Everything
13. Online Isn’t the Only Line
14. Reflective Observations and Critiques:
Using Discussion Boards As a Tool

ch. 4 - ASSIGNMENTS AND EXERCISES
A. Web-Enhanced Courses
1. Primary vs. Secondary Sources
2. What a Difference One Letter Makes!
3. Educational Television
4. Activities and Demonstrations Using the Internet
5. Debating Online Research
6. Group It
7. Web-based Surveys
8. Preparation for Class
9. Speak Out!
10. Student Construction of Class Agenda
11. The Virtual Scavenger Hunt
12. Teaching Technical Document Production Using Microsoft Publisher
13. Nine Internet Research Guidelines
B. Online Courses
1. Increasing Learner Involvement By Using Critiques
2. Involving Online Students With Assigned Reading
3. Integrating Library Resources into Online Courses Using Course Management Software Packages
4. Who’s on First?
5. Explain, Explain
6. Meet Me Next Week Was Last Week

ch. 5 - GRADING
A. Web-Enhanced Courses
1. Online Reading Quizzes
2. Quiz Grading Problems
B. Online Courses
1. Online Testing Format
2. Student-submitted Exam Questions Also Function As a Study Guide
3. Grading Online Discussion Forums
4. Using Portfolios
5. Grading Online Participation—Negotiating Quantity and Quality

ch. 6 - SPECIAL CONSIDERATIONS
A. Using Blackboard As an Administrative Tool
B. Avoiding Teacher Overload by Using Web-Based Tools

AFTERWORD
Solomon, Paradox, and Web-based Teaching Tool

It Works For Me, Online is designed primarily to aid instructors in two major types of classes: fully online and web-enhanced/hybrid courses. Those who teach fully online classes will find tips on such things as tricks you can use with synchronous chats, how to use blogging in your classroom to replace traditional chat-rooms (talk about your superannuation), and even ways of adapting Blackboard to meet administrative needs. Those who prefer web enhancements to the traditional classroom will find advice to navigate between the virtual and real world. And, truthfully, we are hopeful that even dyed-in-the-wool, card-carrying Luddites will skim through these pages and realize it is possible for old dogs to learn new tricks (we and many of our contributors are either retiring or nearing retirement, yet found the brave new world of technology as exciting as we did our Erector Sets as kids or learning to beat our own kids at Pac-Man).

Use It Works For Me, Online both as a handy desk companion filled with practical strategies and as a springboard for generating your own strategies for making your classes as effective as possible. Like the first two books in this series, It Works For Me and It Works For Me, Too, this handbook runs the gamut from short to long pieces, from very course-specific suggestions to general pieces, from some theoretical applications to down-to-earth tactics.

But the following tips share one important common characteristic–they all work. (From the Publisher)