Compared to the traditional classroom, teaching an online course is a whole new world—and the more involved the course is, the more different it is for instructors with little or no experience in this environment. In fact, some of the students may be more experienced in online courses than the instructor is.
Whether instructors develop their own courses or adapt one that's already been created, teaching online for the first time is difficult. But, there are ways to minimize the pitfalls.
This "how-to" teleconference will use scenarios based on the real-world problems instructors typically encounter when teaching online. Experienced instructors will offer valuable insights into
- avoiding many of the problems in the first place
- handling them effectively when they occur
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Whether an instructor is considering teaching online for the first time or is looking for better ways to handle problems encountered in current or past courses, this teleconference will provide the "how-tos" which can make the difference between merely surviving and effectively thriving in an online course.
Panelists
Gemmy Allen has a well-earned reputation as a "teacher's teacher" for online faculty as she has both modeled online teaching and recruited, trained, and then mentored classroom instructors during their first online courses. A user of the Internet in her courses since 1992, she began teaching marketing and management online in 1995 at Mountain View College of the Dallas County Community College District. She is also one of the founding instructors of the Virtual College of Texas project for teaching community college instructors how to put their courses on the Internet. She has co-authored several discipline-specific Internet-related books, and her online courses are often cited as examples for others to follow. She has also taught online teaching skills by satellite in the highly popular DALLAS Teleconferences' "Putting Your Course Online" in 1997 and "Online Testing" in 1999.
Susan Ko has spent a large portion of her professional life dealing with "how to" and "What should I do now?" questions from online faculty. In 1997, she assumed her present position as Director of Online Curriculum and Instructor Development with OnlineLearning.net. In that capacity, she designs customized training programs and oversees curriculum conversion for client institutions and associations. She is the co-author of Teaching Online: A Practical Guide (Houghton Mifflin, Oct. 2000), which draws heavily on her experiences and insights from years of helping professors learn to teach online. She previously developed and taught courses in the humanities and interdisciplinary studies within the California State University system and has been teaching online since 1997, including several years with UCLA Extension's Online Teaching Program.
David Wissore has probably dealt with every imaginable technical question from online faculty and students at one time or another. He is the Manager of Application Development for the Tarrant County College District's Center for Distance Learning. As the technical administrator for one of the largest distance learning programs in Texas, he is also responsible for planning, developing, and maintaining the virtual classroom web sites for online courses and for providing technical support to online faculty and students enrolled in TCCD online courses. Also, David oversees the staff members who provide instructional design and other course development to help online faculty. David also teaches an online Web Page Design course. He has developed materials on faculty training, and he is a frequent presenter at professional conferences on online learning.