Pedagogical Competencies for Online Instruction

Teaching online courses effectively requires faculty to have specific pedagogical, technical, and administrative skills. We offer this rubric for self-assessment of your pedagogical competency.

1. Address the challenges of online learning.

Attend to the unique challenges of distance learning where learners are separated by time and geographic proximity and interactions are primarily asynchronous in nature.

Online course content is typically developed in advance of the course’s start date. In effect, the “lecturing” has already been done! As a result, the role of the online instructor shifts from “the sage on the stage” to “the guide on the side.” Teaching online focuses one’s efforts on facilitating, guiding, and directing learning, as well as assessing progress.

Create a “start here” module to teach students how to navigate your course.
Provide multiple ways for students to access the content and demonstrate competency.
Create a pattern for recurring events or major deadlines. For example, discussions begin on Monday and end on Friday. Assignments are due on Wednesdays.
Set assignment deadlines during business so students can ask questions or seek tech support.
Define filename conventions.

2. Understand the needs of traditional and adult learners.

Be familiar with the unique learning needs and situations of both traditional age and adult learners, providing an educational experience that is appropriate for both.

Adult learners bring a different perspective, motivation, and set of experiences to the classroom than traditional college students. Online courses are apt to attract working adult professionals who need the flexibility that online learning can afford. Faculty may find, however, that traditional college students also populate their courses, so it is important to be aware of the learning needs of both audiences.

Encourage autonomous, self-directed learning.
Use authentic performance assessments, simulations, or problem-based learning. Link learning activities to student goals, outside events, or industry practices.
Respect prior knowledge and incorporate it into learning activities.
Create a safe space to fail or admit struggles. Celebrate small wins.
Provide regular, rapid feedback.
Create opportunities for students to work collaboratively or discuss the content. Teach students strategies for effective teamwork.

3. Communicate course goals and outcomes.

Students should clearly understand the specific knowledge, skills, and/or abilities they will develop through the work in your course. Clear and direct language will help them see the connections between learning activities, assessments, and the learning outcomes.

Before the course begins, design your course with learning objectives that use action verbs and measurable terms.
Post the course objectives and unit/module objectives in visible locations, such as Content or Announcements.
Make the connections between course activities, assessments, and learning objectives explicit to help students see the purpose and how elements build upon each other.
Connect course outcomes with program goals or outcomes to help students see the roles and relationships between courses in the academic program.

4. Review the course before every offering.

Before the course begins, review all course materials, the structure of the course content, and organization of D2L Brightspace to become comfortable with all aspects of the teaching and learning environment. Make sure the course content, structure, and organization are for functional and current.

Confirm that links work and external resources (e.g. videos, websites) still exist.
Identify new or changed features in D2L Brightspace. Seek assistance from IT Solutions Academic Technology staff if needed.
If new to online teaching, having an experience as an online student is recommended.

5. Be responsive to student inquiries.

Guide student inquiries towards a positive learning outcome.

Communicate normal response time to students. When possible, respond to student inquiries within 24 hours.
Create a Course Q&A thread in Discussions for general questions. (Direct personal questions to email.) Encourage students to answer each other’s questions when they can.

6. Provide detailed feedback on assignments and exams.

Facilitate student understanding and progress by providing students with timely, formative, and meaningful feedback that communicates areas of strength and areas for improvement.

Create holistic or analytic rubrics that define mastery, proficiency, and developing levels of performance.
Create “boilerplate” feedback for routine or universal comments. Focus your time during the live course on feedback about unique elements of the student’s performance.
Communicate expected turnaround times for assignments and exams. Help students improve on subsequent learning tasks.
Consider using audio feedback on some assignments to create social presence and personal connection in the online environment.

7. Inform students about course progress and changes.

Students studying online are typically juggling busy lives. A course schedule, regular announcements, updates on that status of your grading, and the online grade book can help students maintain progress toward personal goals and course outcomes.

Share the schedule for the entire term at the beginning of the course to help students plan and prioritize their time.
Use the calendar in D2L Brightspace to remind students of due dates.
Post weekly announcements, agendas, or lists of things to do to remind students of upcoming topics, discussions, or other activities.
If the schedule changes, give students plenty of warning.
When practical, invite students to vote on changes to the course schedule.

8. Monitor and manage student progress.

It's easy for students to slip through the cracks when we don't get a chance to see their faces every week.

By the end of the first week, contact any "no shows" to see if they are encountering problems with logging in and to encourage their participation.
Regularly use D2L Brightspace course “Student Progress” feature to monitor student who is accessing course materials, participating in discussion forums, etc. Contact low participation or “missing in action” students to encourage them to (re)engage in the course.

9. Be present in the course on a regular basis.

Ideally, instructors should be interacting with students in their class daily, but four times per week is probably a more realistic goal. Simple audio and video communications (e.g. podcast lectures) can significantly add to a sense of instructor presence.

Social presence: Present yourself as a “real person” and create a sense of belonging. Create a video to introduce yourself, describe the course, and offer advice for successful learning. Use personal examples or self-disclosure to connect content to everyday life. Hold regular online office hours with audio and/or videoconference options. Use intelligent agents to customize announcements or mass emails.
Cognitive presence: Use the community of inquiry model to be a supportive subject matter expert. Let the students work together to solve problems or answer questions. Monitor discussions but don’t dominate. Offer advice as needed.
Teaching presence: Guide students toward achieving the learning outcomes. Correct discussions when they misinterpret content or lose focus.

10. Create a positive environment.

Promote and encourage a learning environment that is safe and inviting and mutually respectful.

Students may have varying degrees of experience with online communications. They may also have culturally-influenced expectations about how to communicate with the instructor and fellow students. Giving clear guidelines and expectations for communication practices--and following those expectations in your own messages--sets a clear standard for positive behaviors.

Use a positive, encouraging tone in announcements or other messages. Remember that what may seem clear and concise to you may seem tense or abrupt to students who don’t know you in person.
Include a course policy on Netiquette on the syllabus. See University of Florida’s example to inspire your own.
Monitor online discussion boards for disruptive or disrespectful behavior. If it happens, address the situation to the individual and the entire group.

11. Create learning environment that includes all students.

Create an inclusive environment that demonstrates sensitivity to disabilities and diversities, including cultural, cognitive, emotional and physical differences.

Courses and programs should show a commitment to accessibility so that all learners can access course content, participate in learning activities and assessments, and easily navigate the course.

Include the University’s accessibility statement in your course syllabus.
Be aware of legal requirements regarding accommodations.
Use principles of Universal Design for Learning to create flexible approaches to content and materials that will give all students an opportunity to learn.
Use plain language and document design to create inclusive, accessible, attractive documents.
When creating your own audio/visual materials, upload the files to MediaSpace, request machine captioning (70-80% accurate), and copyedit the captions before using. When using audio/visual resources, seek out items with closed captioning or request captioning assistance.
Be sensitive to cultural and geographic perspectives.

Teaching Competencies for 100% Online Courses by the Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning at Minnesota State University, Mankato is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0. It is a derivative of the original work, Faculty Competencies for Online Teaching, developed by the Penn State Online Faculty Engagement Subcommittee (November 2011).