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Writer's pictureJessica B

Making a Meaningful Online Course


Online (or distance learning) courses have been and continue to become increasingly popular as each year passes. Especially since the pandemic in 2020, more students are requesting online classes to complement their already busy lives.


The biggest complaint I've heard from students about their online classes is that most teachers expect them to "read the book and answer questions." On top of their work load, family, and personal lives, they are now expected to read an entire educational textbook without guidance or a facilitator...? Doesn't sound fun to me.


Here's my advice to you if you're teaching an online course: build the course exactly the way you would want it if you were a full-time student. Build it as if the student knows NOTHING about what you're teaching. What would make navigation easier? Which resources would help in your learning? Who would you want contact with as you learn on your own? And how much grace would you need on assignments?


From my online teaching experience, here are my top tips to help you build an online course.


1. Make meaningful assessments and assignments: Stop giving busy work for the sake of giving students more grades. Instead, give something meaningful that will incite more thought than a "drill and kill."

  1. For example, instead of requiring students to respond to 25 of their classmates, ask them to write meaningful, well-written responses to two of their classmates. These two assignments might take up the same amount of time but one of them requires more thought. Provide a rubric for them that they can follow as they form responses (complete sentences, two quotes/ two sources, etc).

    1. If discussions or essays aren't something you do (like in math), then try creating assessments that require more than recall. Give questions that require students to extend their learning through application.

2. Get organized and make content easy to navigate and find:

  1. If you're students are emailing you because they can't find something, then you need to make your content more accessible. Sure, students might have a tendency to overlook some obvious things. But hear me out: build your course anticipating human nature. Rename your course links with obvious names and don't hide content under layers of clicks. I literally have a link in my course called "COURSE CONTENT - everything you need is here."

  2. In addition to content that is easy to find, you might consider making a welcome video they view on the first day of school. In this video I'd recommend doing a virtual walk-through of the course to show them where everything is.

  3. Additionally, create weekly announcements to REMIND THEM of assignments due each week and tasks that need to be completed. I understand it's their adult responsibility to keep up with the course they signed up for, but at the same time, it wouldn't hurt to gently remind them that they have work to do. Lastly, to go along with your weekly announcements, it might be helpful to arrange your content by week. So when you make an announcement about week x, the student knows exactly where to go.

3. Have videos for every. single. assignment! I cannot stress enough the importance of video. Just because a student is taking an online course doesn't mean he/she doesn't deserve the same exact attention your in-person students get. If your in-person students receive lessons for every assignment, then so should your online students. Maybe you're overloaded and have no time to make your own videos...THEN GO FIND SOME! YouTube has millions of videos and a large portion of them are educational. I'm sure you can find one close to your teaching style. Be a nice person and link it to your course.

  1. I will say that there's a large body of research showing the instructor-made videos are preferred by students over some random YouTuber. There's just something about being able to see the teacher that you signed up for and getting to know that teacher through video. Your students are helping to contribute to your paycheck, so you might as well give them what they paid for - YOU.

4. ANSWER YOUR EMAIL: Online students have questions too. Don't put them off to the side because you never see them. Instead, prioritize them and be open to the idea of answering some emails after hours.

  1. Definitely set boundaries for yourself so you can have a life, but consider answering emails until 6 or 7 pm to accommodate working students. I'll usually answer emails until 8 pm but I do not answer on Sundays.

5. Provide zoom office hours based on when most students are available: Use a free app or website to poll students about when they are available and set hours to the most popular time. Post your zoom number and be available for tutoring sessions.

  1. If that sounds like too much, then have a pinned announcement stating that you are available for appointments and to email you to set one up. That way you aren't sitting around for hours waiting for people to MAYBE join your tutoring session (been there).

6. Grant grace through allowing late work with a penalty and multiple attempts on a major grade: I've found this to be a little unpopular among other teachers, but think about yourself as a student for a minute. If you were working full-time and enrolled as a full-time student, don't you think you might forget an assignment or two? I've been both of those while I was in grad school and it was HARD to keep up with my to-do list. Having a teacher that understood and allowed several late assignments with no penalty was a saving grace. We should offer that same opportunity to our students even if they aren't employed (they could be athletes, parents, care-givers, etc).

  1. I set due dates but leave all assignments open for a late penalty. Assignments close the Monday before finals and never open again. This has saved me so much time trying to decide whether I should open assignments for specific students. It's a blanket statement and every student has the opportunity to turn assignments in at any time.

  2. I always allow multiple attempts on major tests (except the final) in case something unexpected goes wrong or in case they just had a bad attempt. I feel like the second attempt provides a second learning opportunity to get things right (we all need that sometimes!)

I hope that you are able to get some inspiration from this post and feel encouraged about building your course. If you have other ideas that might help ME build a better course, please share with me! :) May you be blessed in your teaching journey.


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