Engaging Students Taking Online Courses AURCO April 9, 2005 Joseph Cavanaugh

Workshop and Engage Who am I? What is required of you? Engage –to mesh –to hire –to involve or engross

Introduction In order to better understand who is attending this workshop, why are you here? What makes a bad online course very bad?

Good Courses Good practice in undergraduate education: 1.Encourages contacts between students and faculty. 2.Develops reciprocity and cooperation among students. 3.Uses active learning techniques. 4.Gives prompt feedback. 5.Emphasizes time on task. 6.Communicates high expectations. 7.Respects diverse talents and ways of learning. 8.*Provides an enjoyable experience to students and faculty. “The Seven Principles of Good Practice in Undergraduate Education.” These seven practices were revised in 2003 by David Brown

Course Set-Up What are the ground rules necessary to ensure a good online course? How do you communicate this to the students? What first impression will you make? Patti Shank provides a list of instructor competencies in, “Asynchronous Online Learning Instructor Competencies”. This article can be accessed at:

Administering and Facilitating the Course How do you ask good questions? How do you provide constructive and prompt feedback? Penn State University provides an excellent resource for developing questions for online courses. This site can be accessed at:

Wrap-Up What can you do to make sure you are doing a good job? THANK YOU for your work. Please feel free to contact me at