Remote Learning Lesson Design

Online teaching changes teachers and the way they teach, requiring even the best to rethink their teaching practices. In fact, many online instructors report that online teaching improves their face-to-face teaching with their new understandings of how to teach with technology, support individualized instruction, increase student engagement and/or facilitate deeper discussions with more effective questioning techniques. Some "big ideas" to think about as you prepare for teaching online include the following:

Lesson Design

Conceptualizing what your instruction will look like and how students will interact with the content is key to online lesson design. It is essential to plan with the end in mind as you organize content, learning activities, and assessments. It is also critical that you communicate the learning objectives with students clearly and consistently. 

Interaction and Collaboration

Teaching and learning online can cause both teachers and students to feel isolated. It is important for the instructor to establish a sense of community among all learners and to foster interaction and collaboration that supports the objectives and student learning.

Assessment

Assessing student learning in an online environment can be very different from evaluating their work in a face-to-face setting. It is important to create assessments that are measurable and authentic.

Learner Support

Successful online teaching should be "high-tech and high-touch." Students should feel welcomed and have access to all course materials to ensure their potential for success.

As we move forward with Remote Learning, I'd like to share a graphic I found on Twitter from Katherine Goyette, author of the WonderExploreLearn blog. Scroll to the bottom for a HyperDoc that combines Katherine's Remote Learning Lesson Design graphic with some concrete strategies, tools, and tutorials for each quadrant on the graphic. Click here to make a copy of the HyperDoc.

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