The Technology and Philosophy of Teaching Online

I had the pleasure of presenting at the 2008 UNC-TLT Conference in Raleigh (March 12-14, 2008). Dr. Dwedor Ford and I gave a presentation on "The Technology and Philosophy of Teaching Online". The presentation was unique in several areas. First, Dr. Ford and I had online experience in different fields (English and physics/physical science). Second, we used our TurningPoint "clickers" to get immediate feedback from our audience.

Our audience had a wide range of experiences. Approximately 40% had no previous online teaching experience, 20% taught once, 20% taught 2-5 courses, and 20% had "considerable" experience (more than 5 courses presented online). Seventy percent were interested in learning about methods they could use for online teaching. However, the inexperienced audience members were also equally interested in how to get started with an online course and how they could assess their students' work. Finally, 73% represented areas other than English or the physical sciences.

Our presentation began with a brief discussion of technology use in online teaching. It then proceeded onto the philosophy of online teaching. We discussed traits that students need to succeed in an online course, and how the instructor can best prepare students to succeed. We included comparisons of various topics as they are encountered in a traditional (face-to-face) vs. online course [sensory cues, synchronous vs. asynchronous learning, instructor accessibility, and other topics]. Finally, we discussed some of our experiences in course planning, content creation, testing, and student problems with accessing the coursework.

In conclusion, we had a small but diverse audience attend our presentation. Several of the "experienced" attendees added valuable insights from their own experiences. Almost everyone indicated that they had learned something that would help them as they plan for their next online course.