How To Be Successful

Teaching eLearning courses requires additional skills beyond those needed in teaching F2F courses. It's not enough to know the content; in order to be a successful online instructor, these are some of the other necessary skills:

• Being formally trained in online-specific pedagogy and relevant technology
• Willingness to engage continual training and learning
• Being disciplined and able to organize and manage time well
• Feeling comfortable communicating in writing or in video conferencing
• Being willing to compensate for the lack of a physical presence by creating a supportive virtual environment where students feel that the instructor is sensitive, flexible, open, accessible and responsive
• Believing in and enacting student-centeredness
• Believing in and infusing critical thinking skills into the learning process
• Having keen awareness of the differences and needs when communicating online
• Being interested in online delivery of courses with no extra monetary rewards
• Understanding that the virtual classroom is different from the F2f classroom
• Knowing that instruction needs to be converted/re-envisioned--that F2F instructions can't be simply duplicated 
• Knowing that the major role of an online instructor is to facilitate and guide students in their learning process
• Understanding that in the virtual classroom the exchange between the instructor and students requires more participation from both
• Knowing that the degree of interactivity created by the instructor correlates directly with the success in the class  
• Knowing that the virtual classroom requires being present almost every day
• Knowing that the instructor's consistent presence needs to be engaging and interactive
• Creating and communicating specific, clear and reasonable expectations for completing assignments, interactions and conduct
• Promoting the building of community, collaboration and peer support
• Providing examples, logical organization, easy navigation, markers of success, self-assessments, timely feedback, and continual re-iteration/reinforcement of course content
• Encouraging an exploratory attitude that privileges experimentation and problem-solving
• Applying thorough knowledge about students' learning styles to the design and delivery of the course