As a new online instructor, you may have many questions about online learning and how it will function. At ION, we feel that taking an online course as a student will help to make you a better online instructor. Thinking through your answers to the questions below will help you begin to think through the dynamics of an online course. Completing this exercise with another instructor will hopefully generate a lot of thought provoking discussion since there are many right answers to each question.

  1. In the online classroom, lectures are short and few. With this being the case, how will information be disseminated to students so they get the information they need in obtaining the learning objectives?
  2. Since we cannot see each other in the online classroom, it is hard to tell if you are bashful, bored, sarcastic, or just kidding. What would you recommend as an approach to successfully communicate online?
  3. What do you think about taking the physical presence of an instructor out of the classroom? What contributed value is gained by a physical presence vs. a virtual one?
  4. What reasons do you see for a person wanting to teach in an online environment? Why would a student want to attend an online class?
  5. Does synergy exist in the traditional classroom? To what degree?
  6. What do you see as the primary difference in the curriculum used on-ground and the curriculum used in the online model?
  7. What role does the student play in defining the learning outcomes in the on-ground learning model? How does this change with the online learning model?
  8. Identify two tools utilized in the online environment and describe how you would use them in enhancing the learning process.
  9. Identify two means of measuring learning outcomes in the VC.
  10. Identify what you believe to be the first step in converting an on-ground curriculum to an online curriculum. Why?
  11. Many institutions want to replicate the on-ground classroom online. Can and should this be done?
  12. Why is lecturing the least productive method of teaching in the Virtual Classroom™? Lecturing plays a major role in the traditional classroom, what does this say about the traditional classroom?
  13. Subjecting students to memorization testing in the Virtual Classroom™ should be minimized, if not eliminated as an assessment tool. Why? (hint, think about the context in which the learning process takes place).
  14. If you teach a subject where memorization is necessary to achieve the course objectives (i.e. Chemistry), how can discussion contribute to your course materials? What tools cold you use to facilitate the learning process, and how would you measure the success of the learning process?
  15. Discuss the idea of “value added” in terms of adding video, audio, and real-time activities to a text-based asynchronous online learning program.
  16. The statement has been made that “text-based systems do not remove bias, they merely shift it around” What does this mean?
  17. What do you believe to be the appropriate level of computer knowledge/experience for a beginning online student? Why? What should the student’s attitude towards the technology be? Why?
  18. Your online student calls and says, “my computer has broken down, I have lost all of my notes and will not have another system to use for a week. What should I do?” Oh, yeah, it is the fourth week of the course and the student is one of the worst. What action will you recommend? Why?
  19. What value does synchronous activity have in the online learning process, Why?
  20. What are some cultural concerns in implementing an online program in terms of the student, the institution, and the faculty?