9 Practices for Teaching Online

Martin Schedlbauer
Khoury College of Computer Sciences
Northeastern University
m.schedlbauer@northeastern.edu

This document is an excerpt from Building and Teaching Online Courses by Martin Schedlbauer and is still in draft form. The full handbook with many additional practices can be found on bookdown.org.

These practices are intended for courses that are taught asynchronously without dedicated class time and for which materials have been pre-developed. Hopefully, many of the listed practices prove useful for other online teaching modalities, including flipped, remote instruction, and NUflex. New courses, advanced graduate courses, and courses taught for the first time will certainly require more time than allotted for the activities listed in this chapter.

9.1 Motivation

Your students associate their experience at Northeastern with you and their experience in your course. Your efforts not only reflect on you but on everyone in Khoury and on Northeastern as a whole. The student’s perceived value that they receive for their tuition is directly related to your work as an instructor – be respectful of their tuition payments and their time commitment to us. Whether students continue with a major or their degree at Northeastern depends to a large extent on your efforts, the quality of your course and instruction, and the relationship you build with students.

This guide lays out best practices and expectations for teaching an online course. Adapt and adjust them for your course and let us know which practices work and which may not work as well. The practices are based more than ten years of experience in teaching online.

In addition to this guide, there are numerous excellent resources that can help if you are new to online teaching. One such resource is Small Teaching Online by James Lang (Lang 2016).

Effectively teaching online is difficult and requires dedication, attention to detail, and substantial effort. Through surveys and focus groups with students we have found that students find purely online classes (asynchronous learning) without any live lectures, classes, labs, or recitations very difficult and hard to engage in. Staying motivated was reported to be a real issue. Students like live classes or recitations, although those should not be repetitions of already recorded lessons. They like having their courses in one place: all materials and submissions with due dates on Canvas and perhaps an external question-and-answer and live interaction platform like Microsoft Teams. Students also reported that they like when instructors send daily or at least weekly summaries of all work to be done so they can schedule their work in their calendars. Courses need to be well organized. Instructors and teaching assistants need to be accessible. Group work in virtual meeting spaces helps students stay accountable and helps them make or maintain social connections.

Instructors might be well served in reminding students that an online course at Khoury is not a MOOC and is not the same as taking a course on Udemy or Coursera. It is a personal learning experience. Naturally, you need to earn their trust and ensure that they have a positive, rewarding, and valuable learning experience.

9.2 Expectations

Below are the minimum effort expected when teaching an online course in Khoury and those expectations are reflected in the per course stipend that is paid and that is significantly above that of most other universities. While these practices should be considered strongly recommended by all faculty, they are required of adjunct faculty.

A course is expected to be a commitment of 16.5 weeks: a short week to prepare prior to the start of the term, 14 weeks of instruction, one week of final exams, projects, and grading, and a short week to calculate and post grades. This estimate is based on the assumption that course materials have already been developed and deployed in the LMS.

9.2.1 Activity Summary

The tables below summarize the activities that are generally done daily, weekly, prior to the start of the term and to close out a term. The total weekly time commitment is about 13 to 17 hours on average for the 14 weeks when classes are in session, plus about 8 hours prior to the start of the term, five to ten hours for grading after the term, two to three hours for post-term wrap-up, and five to ten hours of miscellaneous work during the term. This works out to a time commitment of about 237 hours for the typical course. Some faculty might want to calculate the per-hour rate so they can see the required effort in context6.

Faculty who teach more than one course per term can economize by combining office hours and other weekly activities and thus the time spent on each course is less. The averages are likely higher when a course is taught for the first time and lower when it has been taught several times in a row. Some courses may requires slightly more work, while others may requires less.

Programming intensive courses, first year courses, and ALIGN courses generally require more work but are typically supported by an increased allocation of teaching assistants.

Some faculty may choose to spend additional time creating new material to support their teaching and with that increase their quality ratings, write recommendations for a few students, participate in professional development activities, or learn new technologies, tools, and material.

The time estimates are based on over five years of experience teaching online at Khoury and other institutions as well as for corporations. Activities are divided into those that are done weekly or bi-weekly (Intra-Term Weekly Activities), those that are meant to be done prior to the start of the term (Pre-Term Activities) and those that are done when classes end (Post-Term Activities).

9.2.1.1 Intra-Term Weekly Activities

The table below (in the form of a checklist) summarizes activities that are done weekly or bi-weekly during weeks when classes are in session. Some activities do not actually occur weekly, so time is divided over the term, e.g.,, creating and grading exams.

Table 9.1: Common Weekly Activities.
Activity Time Frequency Support
review upcoming week’s material7 0.75 weekly required
meet with TA staff 0.5 weekly required
teach live recitation at fixed time once weekly 1.25 weekly required
develop assignments 1.5 weekly required
write exams 1 weekly required
create grading rubrics and/or guidelines for TAs 1 weekly required
grade exams 1 weekly required
join bi-weekly faculty meeting 0.25 weekly required
provide 1-on-1 student support 2 weekly required
hold live drop-in office hours at fixed times 3 days per week8 3.75 weekly required
monitor Q&A forum 6 days per week 2 weekly required
TOTAL AVERAGE TIME PER WEEK 15

Many online instructors, particularly full-time faculty, spend significantly more time on office hours than what is indicated in the table above. Students value your presence and your timely answers.

9.2.1.2 Pre-Term Activities

The table below summarizes activities that are done prior to the first week of classes.

Table 9.2: Common Pre-Term Activities.
Activity Time Frequency Support
review TRACE from prior term 0.5 pre-term required
record welcome video and announcement 1 pre-term required
review TA applications and select TA staff 1 pre-term required
copy prior course in LMS 0.5 pre-term required
configure LMS due dates & announcements 2 pre-term required
contact students via e-mail (not LMS) and explain how to find course 0.5 pre-term required
meet with TA staff and define responsibilities 0.5 pre-term required
verify links to external resources 1 pre-term required
add TAs and backup instructor(s) to LMS 0.25 pre-term required
select and send pre-course work to students 0.5 pre-term required
set Q&A forum monitoring schedule for TA staff 0.5 pre-term required
TOTAL AVERAGE TIME PRIOR TO TERM 8.25

9.2.1.3 Post-Term Activities

The table below summarizes activities that are done after classes end and generally prior to the end of the term. For example, mining the discussion board for common questions and patterns can also be done between terms or at the start of a new term.

Table 9.3: Common Post-Term Activities.
Activity Time Frequency Support
grade final exams and/or projects 10 post-term required
post and then announce tentative grades in LMS 0.5 post-term required
enter or transfer final grades to Banner 0.5 post-term required
provide reviews of TAs and students 0.5 post-term required
mine discussion board for course updates 1 post-term suggested
TOTAL AVERAGE TIME POST TERM 12.5

9.2.1.4 Evaluations & Adjustment Actions

There are two evaluations that take place: a post-course evaluation conducted by the University (TRACE) and a mid-term survey conducted by either the instructor or Khoury. The mid-term evaluation is purely formative while TRACE is both summative and formative. The results of TRACE are considered when making staffing decisions.

Strive to get 100% participation in TRACE. You can view the current participation rate by visiting the TRACE Reports portal. Remind students of the importance of TRACE numerous times; four or five reminders via email, forum posts, announcements, and announcements in class is not too much. Consider adding a question to the final exam that asks students to confirm that they have completed TRACE.

We strongly recommend conducting mid-term evaluations. For many courses, the University or the College will independently conduct mid-term evaluations and share those results with the instructors. In those instances, instructors are expected to review the feedback and make appropriate adjustments to the course delivery.

At the end of the course, we urge a review of the TRACE evaluation with the instructor’s faculty mentor or supervisor and determine what specific actions can be taken to improve the next iteration of the course, including changes to material, LMS organization of the course materials, changes in teaching style, adjustments to office hours or other support activities, coordination with teaching assistants, and overall communication with students.

9.2.1.5 Other Activities

There are some additional activities that some instructor may want to do, although many are not required. Many will undoubtedly make the experience better for students and provide additional value. They may also, in many cases, improve course and instructor ratings.

Table 9.4: Common Other Activities.
Activity Time Frequency Support
meet with student groups one or twice per term 5 hrs other required
review mid-term evaluations 1 hrs other required
identify and schedule guest speakers 2 to 5 hrs other suggested
create new material varies other suggested
record new lessons varies other suggested
write recommendations and provide references varies other suggested
attend professional development events varies other suggested

9.2.2 Activities

The sections below provides additional guidance and best practices on the activities summarized in the prior section. Be sure to state all policies in the syllabus and ensure that students are aware.

9.2.2.1 Welcome Message

At the outset of a course, during the first week or the week prior to the start, the instructor should welcome the students and familiarize them with the course. We strongly recommend that instructors record a personal welcome video, provide a brief course overview that summarizes what is and is not covered in the course, what expectations there are for the course, how to navigate LMS and where to find resources, how to ask questions, what needs to be done, where to find help, where to find syllabus, and roles of TAs, peer groups, and the instructor.

Be welcoming as for many students it may be their first course at Northeastern or in Khoury.

The welcome message should be in two phases: first contact all students via email and let them know in which LMS the course can be found. Provide a URL and instructions on how to log in as not all students may be familiar with the process – students may be new to the University and new online graduate students may not have had a chance to attend a virtual orientation. An announcement via the LMS should not be the first way to contact students as they may not be able to log on to the LMS. A second announcement should be made via the LMS and include more details on the course, how to navigate the course in the LMS, where to get help, the instructional mode for the course, where to find help, summary of learning objectives, prerequisites that are assumed and how to make them up if a student does not have them, and a welcome message in the form of a video.

9.2.2.2 Weekly Preparation

Instructors must be fully prepared each week and be familiar with all material assigned to students, including video lessons, curated content, required and optional readings, and assignments. Students must have confidence that instructors know and understand the material.

9.2.2.3 Announcements

Weekly announcements that are posted on the LMS at the beginning of the week (which is generally Mondays). These should be posted on Monday even when that day is a holiday in order to keep the weekly candence. In addition to work due for the week and associated due dates, a short summary of the topic plus a look ahead to the following week is helpful. In addition, reminding students of the overall course’s flow is helpful in putting the weekly topics in context.

9.2.2.4 Office Hours

Instructors are required to keep regular office hours at fixed times and location each week on at least three different days. The office hours should not be on the same day as the live recitation. Ideally, you should hold office hours Tuesday through Friday for an hour each day. The virtual office location (Zoom or Teams) in addition to the times must be posted on the LMS and announced in the weekly announcements. In addition, a message posted on the morning of the day of the office hours to remind students is helpful in establishing an online presence.

9.2.2.5 Student Support

A key component of teaching online is supporting the students in their (somewhat) independent learning endeveour. Remember that students should never feel alone, neglected, or unsure of what to do or where to turn for help. Supporting students, along with the other practices, helps establish an instructor’s online presence.

Among the key practices for student support are monitoring the discussion or Q&A board. Discussions should be in one place, e.g., a Microsoft Teams class with channels for each topic or week, the LMS discussions facility, or Piazza. Instructors should coordinate with TAs so that there’s a time each day that questions are answered and no questions remains unanswered for more than 12 hours. The quicker you or your staff answer (or at least respond indicating that you have seen the question and will get back at a later point in time or need to find the answer). We recommend that you create a schedule that shows who will visit the Q&A board at which time each day.

In addition to fixed office hours where students can drop in without an appointment, instructors must be available for one-on-one help via email, chat, and video. Teaching assistants must also keep weekly office hours (5 hours per week on different days and, whenever possible, on weekends and evenings), TAs must also support students one-on-one within reason. On occasion, some students may “abuse” the support system and expect instructors or teaching assistants to be personal tutors. In such cases, instructor should remind students – in a diplomatic way – of their responsibilities and that in a graduate course independent work is not only expected, it is a critical part of learning. Learning how to learn and learning how to find answers is a key skill they learn in a graduate course. Some students may take this as an indication that an instructor is skirting their responsibility to teach, so this must be done cautiously.

While assignments are generally graded by graders or teaching assistants, students may seek clarification on their grade. Explain that they should seek clarification first from the grader (ensure that all graders mark their feedback with their name or initials) before they see you if no adequate resolution can be found.

Assignments, exams, and other learning assessments must be returned to students in a timely fashion, generally within five to seven days.

Instructor and teaching assistants must respond to queries, questions, posts, voice mails, and emails in a timely fashion. This generally means that an instructor should respond to a message within an hour during the work day, otherwise by the next morning but never more than 12 hours during the week and no more than 24 hours during weekend. Most instructors, particularly those that are full-time faculty, strive to have response times of less than 15 minutes for remote students. Quick response time is seen as “value for their tuition” by many students.

At the outset of the course and in the syllabus, instructors should state their response times. It is best if instructors remind students of their response times several times during the term. For example, when you get to your office or start your day, post a message of the discussions board; do the same when you leave the office and then set your status, if possible, to unavailable. Of course, some deviation from these response times is expected during holidays, illness, or when an instructor is teaching or in meetings. Instructors who work full-time and teach part-time should appropriate adjust their schedule and communicate it to students.

While we generally do not expect instructors to work on the weekend, instructors who teach part-time may find that additional support on weekend and during holidays is welcome by students who also may often take courses on a part-time basis.

9.2.2.6 Live Recitation or Lecture

Instructors are required to hold a weekly live session, generally a one to one-and-half hour recitation where the instructor reviews key aspects of the material, provides demonstrations or worked examples, addresses common mistakes in assignments, reviews assignment solutions, and provides practical examples and context for the materials based on their experience.

If a course does not have pre-recorded lessons, then there must be a lecture in addition to recitation that explains the materials.

All live sessions must be recorded and the recordings must be published in the weekly folder or the module folder on the LMS, followed by an announcement to the students of its availability.

9.2.2.7 Instructor Perspective

While most courses have pre-developed learning assets in the form of videos, lecture notes, and readings, instructors are required to provide their own perspective. This can be done through the live recitation (see Live Recitation or Lecture) plus a weekly video recording of an instructor’s take on the material.

9.2.2.8 Worked Examples

Instructors should provide worked examples based on their experience and use the examples to explain concepts that are misunderstood by students. This can be done through recorded chalk-talks or code walks or during the live recitation (see Live Recitation or Lecture).

9.2.2.9 Assignments, Exams, and Rubrics

Instructors are expected to update all assignments and exams each term to avoid copying and submission by students of old assignments. Assume that all solutions are published on sharing sites such as CourseHero.

For each assignment, set due dates in the LMS and communicate the due in the weekly announcement. Assist students in managing deadlines by sending reminders before assignments, discussion posts, or other assessments are due. Instructors are well advised to have some kind of late submission without penalty policy to accommodate different schedules and difficulties in student’s “life”, particularly during times of upheaval like the recent COVID-19 pandemic or the civil rights protests of 2020.

Find ways to economize your time. For example, create mid-term and final exams that have an auto-graded component in addition to shorter manually graded components.

Create rubrics (in the LMS not external) for TAs to use during grading.

9.2.2.10 Peer Group Meetings

Encourage students to work in groups for assignments. In addition, build group breakouts into live sessions. For example, pose a question, ask for some research or a quick lookup, solve a problem, debug some code. The key is to do the work in small groups (breakouts). Students have reported in numerous focus groups that this keeps them engaged in the course, keeps them coming to the live sessions, and helps forms social bonds among their peers – which is particularly important to undergraduate and foreign graduate students. Breakouts must have a defined purpose though and a set time blocks (10-15 minutes) otherwise students might feel lost.

9.2.2.11 Curation of Content

There is a plethora of content available to students via subscription services such as LinkedIn Learning and O’Reilly Learning – both of which are available at no extra cost to Northeastern students. Incorporate them into your course or at least recommend them to students to acquire additional practical skills. Use them to prepare students for certain aspects of your course where some students might lack prerequisites.

9.2.2.12 New Content

Create new content in the form of readings, video tutorials, chalk-talks where necessary to support learning.

9.2.2.13 Syllabus

Every course must have a detailed and up-to-date syllabus. The syllabus is specific to a term and must carry the term dates. All policies must be stated in the syllabus and no changes should be make to the syllabus during a term. If changes or adjustments are necessary, instructors must use all communication channels to ensure that eveyr student is aware of the changes.

Instructor may find it helpful to create a syllabus quiz with a minimum passing grade (e.g., 90% or higher) before the course material is revealed. That way instructors can be certain that students have read the syllabus and are familiar with key provisions.

At the end of each term, be sure to update the syllabus and add additional guidelines, policies, and sections.

9.2.2.14 Online Presence

Establishing an online presence is more difficult in an online course than in an onground course where instructors meet with students weekly or bi-weekly. Online instructor must find new practices for creating an online presence, particularly if the course is taught asynchronously and with only a short weekly virtual but live recitation.

Aside from the live (virtual and recorded) recitation, one good practice is to meet once or twice per term, particularly early in the term, with groups of 4 to 6 students. During these informal meetings, ask them about their major or studies, their background, and prior coops or work experiences. During the meeting tell them more about yourself and elicit feedback on your teaching by asking what they like and dislike about the course. One way to get useful feedback is to ask each person for one specific change they would make if they could in the course and one things they really like and do not want to change. These meetings are helpful in establishing an online presence and creating a more personal relationship between your students and you.

Additional practices and suggestions can be found in the book Creating a sense of presence in online teaching: How to" be there" for distance learners by Lehman and Conceicao (Lehman and Conceição 2010).

9.2.2.15 Guest Speakers

Some instructors have found it useful to include external and practical perspectives in their courses. One way to do this is to schedule guest talks by former or current colleagues who can provide a “practical” perspective on topics you are teaching. This could also be a guest lecture or talk by a faculty member at another university, another department or college at Northeastern, or a collague withing Khoury. Again, this can help provide additional “value” to students.

Recording these guest talks is strongly encouraged for those students who cannot attend. In addition, opening them to students in other courses is suggested.

9.2.2.16 TA Management

All courses over a certain enrollment threshold receive teaching assistant support. Generally, courses are assigned one “full TA”" for every 25 students, although programming intensive courses may receive additional help. A “full TA” can work up to 15 hours per week.

Instructors are expected to review TA applications, conduct hiring interviews, and to make hiring suggestions. Upon hiring, instructors must conduct training sessions for the TAs, add them to all platforms (discussion board, LMS, Teams, Zoom, etc.), introduce them to the students, and post contact information and office hours on the LMS.

Each week, the College will send a summary of hours each TA spends in support of a course. Instructors must review the hours for accuracy and let the administrators know when there are discrepencies. Note that practices such as “overtime” or “pushing hours into the following” week are not allowed and can cause visa-eligibility problems for international students.

It is recommended that instructors meet weekly for 15-30 minutes to review issues, make TAs aware of assignments or grading expectations, and to address issues. TAs should be encouraged to track who contacts them, what issues they find students are struggling with, and updates to materials or assignments.

At the end of a course, instructors are expected to provide short reviews or their TAs as well as provide recommendations for students who would make good TAs in future courses. This is done in the Khoury Admin Tool and is very quick.

9.2.2.17 Recommendations

On occasion, students may ask for letters of recommendation or references for employment. While we generally do not expect part-time instructors to write of letters of recommendations, we do encourage providing references to the extent possible. A reasonable number is two to four references per term).

Instructors may state in the syllabus that references or recommendations are only for students that the instructor knows, so students who expect to ask for a recommendation or reference should frequently come to office hours, introduce themselves in person, and ensure that the instructor knows their capabilities.

9.2.2.18 Mine Discussions

At the end of a term, the discussion board posts can be useful in knowing where students may have faced difficulty or have had misunderstandings. Mining the posts can be beneficial when preparing new supporting learning assets, update assignments, and adjust teaching practices.

9.2.2.19 Post-Term Grade Changes

Sometimes grades were calculated incorrectly or an items was overlooked during the term. In such cases, a grade change must be filed by the instructor using either a paper form or sending an email to the registrar’s office.

Instructors should generally refrain from “upgrading” a student’s grade because of personal pleas or because a student might lose a scholarship or coop privilege. Remind students that as an instructor you report their grade and not “give a grade” and that their grade is a reflection of their cumulative work during a term.

9.2.2.20 Professional Development

Part-time, like full-time, instructors are eligible to participate in professional development events conducted by CATLR – the Northeastern Center for Advancing Teaching and Learning Through Research. In addition to live onground and virtual events, CATLR has numerous asynchronous resources that can help improve teaching. Furthermore, CATLR, in conjuction with ITS (Information Technology Services) and ATS (Academic Technology Services) can provide assistance with learning design, academic tools, and pedagogy.

Assistance with the LMS and other general academic platforms, including Microsoft Teams, Panopto, Canvas, etc. should be directed to ITS via help@northeastern.edu.

Instructors are expected to improve their craft, understand new pedagogical methods, and develop professionally. That includes learning new tools and attending relevant CATLR or other professional development events that improve pedagogy and teaching.

9.3 What to Avoid

There are a few specific things that instructors should avoid doing, including sharing private student information, taking a long time to respond to students, sharing screens with private, confidential, or questionable tabs or windows.

Always check first before sharing a screen. Avoid sharing the entire screen; instead share only specific apps, windows, or browser tabs. There have been instances in the past where instructors mistakenly shared grade books, private emails and chats, personal calendars, bank account information, non-course related websites, and personal correspondance. Remember that sessions are recorded and students can take frame grabs and share causing professional or personal embarrassment.

Avoid using an external grade book. Instead use the grade book facility built into the LMS. This is critical in case an instructor falls ill and someone else needs to take over a class.

Do not create private content that requires a unique access method. Be sure that all learning assets, videos, etc. are accessible to everyone in Khoury or at least a few colleagues in case of illness or departure from the university.

Check all posts, assignments, communication, learning materials, learning assets for spelling errors, grammatical mistakes, and aestetic issues. Your assets should use proper fonts, proper coloring, clean layout, and “look good” – it is a measure of quality and poor quality materials reflect poorly on you, on Khoury, and on Northeastern.

When creating learning assets or in communication with students, eliminate and avoid, whenever possible, idioms and Americanisms that may make it hard to understand for foreign students. Likewise, avoid references to popular American culture, movies, TV shows, historical events, localisms that may not be meaningful to foreign speakers and foreign students.

9.4 Practices to Communicate to Students

Students need to own their learning experience and as an instructor you should teach and guide them in how to succeed in an online course. It is a different learning experience for them and they may not realize that until well into the course when it may be too late. So, communicate these suggestions and best practices at the start of the course and then repeat a few times during the first third of the term:

9.4.1 Sample Announcements

Below are some samples of announcements. The key is to be specific. Undergraduate students generally need more reminders. For full term courses a weekly announcements with occasional reminders

9.4.1.1 Week 13 At-a-Glance

Good Morning Everyone,

This week we will take a look at strategies for evaluating models and various approaches for improving model performance. In particular, we will look at AUC and the Receiver Operating Characteristics (ROC) technique, hold-out evaluation, k-fold cross-validation, and ensembles, among a few other techniques. We will revisit several of the data mining and machine learning techniques as part of this week.

Here’s what you need to do this (abbreviated) week:

  • Review and complete the lessons for Unit 10 on the course website
  • Join the live recitation on Wednesday
  • Complete Review Exam 3 if you haven’t yet done so
  • Complete TRACE as soon as it’s open
  • Start working on the term project but you’ll have all of next week too

As always, come see me or the TAs during office hours either in person or online – just book a slot in my calendar. This week is a holiday week; the University is on recess from Wednesday through Sunday, so plan your work accordingly. We will not be available for questions or appointments during recess.

Next week is all about the project. Remember that you must get a 70% on the project to pass the course and create a video plus provide peer feedback! Once the project is complete there’s a final exam very similar to the review exams you have done throughout the term. So, use this week to catch up on all of the outstanding work and get a strong jump on the project – remember that your other classes will also have work due before the end of the term.

Best, Prof. S

9.4.1.2 May 06 / Total Time: 2.25 hrs

  • (10 min) | read announcements, catch up on Teams, view due dates on upcoming work
  • (15 min) | attend topic overview from 11:30am - 11:45pm ET via Teams (Recitation Channel) or watch the recorded session at a later time
  • (65 min) | work through required lessons on Information Modeling, Ontologies, and UML
  • (15 min) | get together with your group in the assigned Teams channel from 1:00pm - 1:15pm or another time that works for everyone (schedule this yourselves)
  • (30 min) | work individually on Assignment 3 and complete by 05/06 11:59pm ET

9.4.1.3 Pre-Course Announcement

This section of DA5030 is an online class. That means that all lessons will be done through pre-recorded lectures and explanations, and supplemented with carefully curated content from other sources. That way, you can learn at your own pace and when it fits your schedule.

In addition, to aid learning and to build peer connections, we will meet once per week online to do code walks and cover key topics as selected by the students – those recitation sessions are recorded if you cannot attend live.

We also rely on peer group discussions for learning. Most weeks you will be presented with practice problems that will help you apply the material learned that week and to learn programming in R. The practice problems are “formative” which means they are there to help you learn and therefore they are not graded; after all, you likely haven’t mastered the material yet. You are expected to discuss your code with an assigned peer group – that discussion will be graded (a kind of “participation grade”, if you will). Take this seriously (obviously because it’s graded) as it really helps your learning.

Learning doesn’t just come from listening to an instructor. It occurs in many other ways: exploring, trying to solve a problem, reading, listening to a lecture, working with peers, seeing work done by a peer, reading other people’s code, and so forth.

If there are other ways you think that I can improve your learning, please let us know.

9.4.2 Online Presence & Pedagogy

In an online course it is more difficult to establish a presence and a relationship with your students. It requires effort. Here are some tips that can help establish your online presence and ensure your student’s success in an online course:

  • Check in daily with your students. Post a short summary of the day on your discussion board or perhaps even a short video message.
  • Always post a message when your office hours start and when they end – that way students know that you are there.
  • Tell your students to add a fixed time slot into their calendar that is at least 60 minutes and during that time avoid all interruptions and work on the course. The key is to work on the course daily.
  • Tell your students to do all work on time even if there is a late submission deadline.
  • Remind them daily that you are here to help and ask your student to seek help as soon as they get stuck for more than 30 minutes.
  • Provide them with a process on how to seek help: start by posting a message on the Q&A board, then go to TA office hours, followed by making an appointment with a TA. Only if it’s a deeper problem should they come to you. Remind them that you have a TA staff to help with problems.
  • Encourage students to try to resolve the problem yourself first because that’s how we learn but the instructor and teaching assistants are here to help so they don’t waste their time.
  • Remind students to actively participate in the discussion board and to use their fellow students as resources.
  • Ask student to form local study groups or create peer groups of students (randomly assign names rather than alphabetic).
  • As an instructor, meet one or twice per term with each peer/study group or, if the class is mall enough, one-on-one with every student – get to know your students. This is particularly important early in the course.
  • During live recitations or live meetings, ask students to turn on their cameras; even just for a few minutes in the beginning of class. Always turn on your camera to create a virtual presence (be sure to mind your environment, background clutter, and ambient sound). Note that some students may not feel comfortable turning on their camera for religious or other reasons, so do make it optional.
  • Tell your students to not just read code or listen to code being explained but to type it in themselves, duplicate it, modify it, play with it, explore.
  • Realize that students will find programming frustrating at first so keep encouraging them. Avoid “learned helplessness” by not providing answers to questions right away but by showing them how or where to find the solution.
  • Share videos of yourself solving a problem – along with how you think through the problem – use the “think-aloud” method.
  • Always let students know to come to office hours and engage with you, the TAs, and their peers.
  • Remind your students that learning doesn’t just come from listening to an instructor. It occurs in many other ways: exploring, trying to solve a problem, reading, listening to a lecture, working with peers, seeing work done by a peer, reading other people’s code, teaching peers, among others.

9.5 Teaching Technology

Teaching live sessions and recording lessons, tutorials, demonstrations, worked examples, and messages requires appropriate technology. The quality and professionalism of the technology that is used affects the “value perception” of students – pay attention to it as it matters.

The following are some considerations:

  • Microphone. A good quality boom microphone with USB connection (e.g., Blu Yeti) is recommended, although many USB microphone/headset combinations work as well. Do not use laptop microphones as they pick up ambient sound and create an echo. Likewise, Bluetooth headsets are not recommended as they have poor audio sampling and very “tinny” sound.

  • Headset. A headset is required. Do not use external speakers as they create an echo or feedback. A bluetooth in-ear headset works well and is less obvious and more comfortable when teaching or recording.

  • Webcam. Use an external, high-resolution (4k recommended) web-cam rather than laptop built-in cameras. If you use a laptop camera, be sure to adjust the height of the laptop to create a better and more realistic angle. Reduce direct light behind you and be sure that the work area of proper lit.

  • Office Area. Teach and record in an area that has minimal echo, ambient sound, and a proper backdrop. Inspect your backdrop for clutter or other items that you do not want to record. If teaching in Zoom or Teams, consider using a custom Northeastern Logo background.

  • Whiteboard. Annotations and ad-hoc writing are essential when teaching online just as they are when teaching in a classroom on campus. Instructors need an electronic whiteboard or at least an inking and screen or slide annotation facility. Teaching using a computer with a digital pen such as Microsoft Surface makes this simple. Using an iPad Pro with a whiteboard app as a second screen also works. Alternatively, an iPad Pro with the Scribble whiteboard app that is projected into the shared screen of the instructor’s laptop also works well. For simpler and less expensive inking on a non-touchscreen laptop or desktop, a Wacom touchpad can work as well. In a pinch, a webcam pointed at an actual whiteboard (or perhaps an old-school chalkboard) or even a sheet of paper can serve as a whiteboard. The ReMarkable e-ink tablet is a high-tech alternative to a sheet of paper.

  • Video Hosting. Instructors should no longer use Youtube to post or share lessons or other instructional videos; instead use Panopto. Panopto has many benefits over Youtube or Vimeo, including being able to embed quizzes within videos, downloading of videos for offline viewing, and automatic transcription. It is also accessible in all countries, including China (Youtube is not available in China). Panopto has permissions which makes sharing across courses and instructors much easier. Lastly, Panopto allows better organization of videos using folders. It is the Northeastern standard for video content distribution.

9.6 What Makes an Online Course Effective

From “What Makes an Online Course Effective?” (June 11, 2020) by George Veletsianos (Veletsianos 2020):

  • A good online course is interactive. Courses are much more than placeholders for students to access information. A good online course provides information such as readings or lecture videos, but also involves interactions between professor and students and between students and students. Interactions between professor and students may involve students receiving personalized feedback, support and guidance. Interactions among students may include such things as debating various issues or collaborating with peers to solve a problem. A good online course often becomes a social learning environment and provides opportunities for the development of a vibrant learning community.

  • A good online course is engaging and challenging. It invites students to participate, motivates them to contribute and captures their interest and attention. It capitalizes on the joy of learning and challenges students to enhance their skills, abilities and knowledge. A good online course is cognitively challenging.

  • A good online course involves practice. Good courses involve students in “doing” — not just watching and reading — “doing again” and in applying what they learned. In a creative writing class, students may write a short story, receive feedback, revise it and then write a different story. In a computer programming class, they may write a block of code, test it and then use it in a larger program that they wrote. In an econometrics class, they might examine relationships between different variables, explain the meaning of their findings and then be asked to apply those methods in novel situations.

  • A good online course is effective. Such a course identifies the skills, abilities and knowledge that students will gain by the end of it, provides activities developed to acquire them and assesses whether students were successful.

  • A good online course includes an instructor who is visible and active, and who exhibits care, empathy and trust for students. This individual understands that their students may have a life beyond their course. Not only do many students take other courses, but they may be primary caretakers, have a job or be struggling to make ends meet. Good online courses often include instructors who are approachable and responsive, and who work with students to address problems and concerns as they arise.

  • A good online course promotes student agency. It gives students autonomy to enable opportunities for relevant and meaningful learning. Such a course redistributes power - to the extent that is possible - in the classroom. Again, this may take many forms in the online classroom. In the culinary arts, it may mean making baking choices relevant to students’ professional aspirations. In an accounting course, students could analyze the financial statements of a company they’re interested in rather than one selected by the instructor. Such flexibility not only accommodates students’ backgrounds and interests, it provides space for students to make the course their own. In some cases it might even mean that you - the student - co-designs the course with your instructor. This is the kind of flexibility higher education systems need.

  • Physical proximity isn’t a precondition for good education. Comparing one form of education to another distracts us from the fact that all forms of education can — and should — be made better.

9.7 Conclusion

In conclusion, the practices laid out in this guide are intended to improve our student’s experience. Be mindful that you are the face of our university and of our college.

Your students associate their experience at Northeastern with you and their experience in your course. Your efforts not only reflect on you but on everyone in Khoury and on Northeastern as a whole. The student’s perceived value that they receive for their tuition is directly related to your work as an instructor – be respectful of their tuition payments and their time commitment to us. Whether students continue with a major or their degree at Northeastern depends to a large extent on your efforts, the quality of your course and instruction, and the relationship you build with students.

References

References & Bibliography

Lang, James M. 2016. Small Teaching: Everyday Lessons from the Science of Learning. John Wiley & Sons.

Lehman, Rosemary M, and Simone Conceição. 2010. Creating a Sense of Presence in Online Teaching: How to" Be There" for Distance Learners. Vol. 18. John Wiley & Sons.

Veletsianos, George. 2020. “What Makes an Online Course Effective?” Available at http://

  1. \(HourlyRate \approx \frac{CourseStipend}{(p + (14 \times w) + o}\), where \(p\) is pre-course preparation time, \(w\) is average weekly time, \(o\) is post-course time, and \(m\) is miscellaneous time.↩︎

  2. It is assumed that course materials exist and that they do not have to be created.↩︎

  3. during the week only; not expected to be done when university is on recess or closed; on days where there is no live recitation or other live session where students can ask questions↩︎