Online Course Delivery, Tips and Techniques That Really Work
By Dick Cassle

Before Classes Begin ...

Email.  Before the course begins I ask the students to send me an email from their school email account indicating when they ordered their textbook and to provide me with contact phone numbers. This does several things. It gets the students actively communicating with the instructor and it insures they know how to use the school email system. It also improves the chances that they will have their textbook before the class starts and provides the instructor with up-to-date contact information for the students.

Pseudo Student.  I add a pseudo student into my course Blackboard shell. This allows me to view all aspects of the course just like the students see it. An example of this is the grades screen. It is much easier to answer student’s questions and help them resolve problems when you are able to see exactly what they see.

Course Calendar.  I use an Excel file to generate a calendar that shows assignment due dates, chat sessions, and exam dates all on one page. The students can print the calendar and use it to stay on top of the course requirements. The calendar can be easily modified for the next semester’s course.

How Will I Do? I have a simple two-question survey to help the students determine how well they can expect to do in the online quantitative analysis course. The two questions are:

1. If you are a self-starter and a team player with good time management and communication skills – give yourself one point. Otherwise, give yourself a zero.
2. If you are comfortable solving story problems and have a good grasp of algebra and statistics – give yourself one point. Otherwise, give yourself a zero.

This is how the students evaluate their score:

1. If your total is two points you SHOULD do very well in this course, probably even better than you would in an on-site class.
2. If your total is one point you CAN do well in this course but you will have to work hard and stay on top of the assignments.
3. If your total is zero you MAY do well in this course but it will take a lot of hard work on your part. Staying on top of the assignments is a must. If possible, you may want to consider taking this course on-site, especially if this is going to be your first online course.

During Classes . . .

Chat Sessions.  I believe that holding weekly chat sessions is a key element of any online course. It is important to understand what you can and can’t do in chat sessions.

1. Don’t use chat sessions to lecture. Weekly course notes work best to present lecture material.
2. Don’t use chat sessions for long questions or questions with long answers. Refer these types of questions to the discussion board.
3. Do use chat sessions to connect with your students. Use chat sessions to answer short questions and to ask questions with short answers. Chat sessions are also a good time to ask questions of your students as a check for understanding. Finally, you can encourage students to answer other student’s questions.

Here are some chat tips I distribute to my students. When these tips are followed, the chats run very smoothly:

1. Log on to the chat early so you can say your hellos and talk about the weather before the chat starts. Start the chat promptly at the designated time. When someone logs on late they should not greet the other participants.
2. If there is not a natural leader (instructor or subject expert), designate one before the chat begins
3. Agree on a technique for indicating when you have entered your last line and the chat is open to others for their input.
   • If you want to continue entering your thought on a new line, input ...... before you hit enter. It is a good idea to do this in the middle of a sentence so it will be obvious that you plan to continue.
   • If you are done with you thought and want to allow others to input their thoughts, input a . or ? or :-) or nothing at all. This will be the signal for others to go ahead. 
4. Enter a few words at a time, even if it takes several lines to complete your thought. This is especially important for your first line of a new thought. This will keep the chat moving more smoothly.
5. Try not to enter your input when there is a ..... at the end of the last line on the screen. This will keep from having several overlapping conversations going at the same time, which is hard to follow.
6. Enter the word 'question' or 'comment' or 'answer' (or Q, C, or A) as a way of 'raising your hand' and asking the chat leader if you can 'have the floor.' At the appropriate time the chat leader will give you the go ahead. If the chat leader asks a question that can be answered with one word or a number (7.3, Yes, False, Higher), answer the question briefly and without additional comment.
7. Do not worry about spelling or punctuation. It is more important to keep the chat moving!

Online Testing. My class has two online exams and one proctored final exam. The students have a twenty four hour window to complete the online exam. They have three hours to complete the exam within that window. I use the feedback feature so the students know how they did and know how they should have answered the problems they missed as soon as they submit their exam. I think the immediate feedback is very important in an eight-week class. The biggest problem with online testing is when the student looses their computer connection the instructor must reset the exam. This means the instructor must be near a computer all the while the exam is available to the students. [Editor’s note: It is a good practice to define a schedule within your course syllabus for checking email and Blackboard during an open test interval.]

Dick Cassle has taught at the University level for over 35 years. He currently teaches Quantitative Analysis online for CMU’s ProfEd department. The material in this article is based heavily on his  Lilly North Conference on College and University teaching presentation delivered September 14, 2006, in Traverse City, MI..

If you have any questions regarding these topics please feel free to contact Dick Cassle at dick.cassle@cmich.edu.