ONLINE ADJUNCT FACULTY TIP #15 - Guidelines for posting announcements

Any online teaching medium will have some type of ANNOUNCEMENT feature. I've established a few rules about posting announcements. First, I never have more than 5 announcements viewable at any time. Once you produce a grocery list of announcements - the students tune out - and information that you felt was important is simply unread. Typically, these are the only types of announcements that I will post, (A) when graded assignments have been returned, (B) when course grades have been updated - and I also direct students to review their grades for accuracy, (C) if the instructor will be gone for 1-2 days -- and the way that students can contact me in an emergency. I recall one time when I went on a 2 day vacation and my students went into panic mode as I wasn't posting the classroom! (D) make students aware of learning team rosters, and (E) to note any correction of an error in the syllabus or global problem with the online classroom. Attached is a screen shot of the ANNOUNCEMENTS page from my current course (I also like to use different colored text for each announcement). Oh, one more thing - make sure to program your Announcements to sunset (if you have a medium such as Blackboard) - if not, be sure to review your announcements weekly and cull any that are no longer relevant. I'm not a fan of the "permanent" announcement - if you want to make your confidentiality post permanent - then put it up for 5 days, give it a 3 day rest, and then bring it back so it's fresh.

ONLINE ADJUNCT FACULTY TIP #14 - Low tech approach to tracking each week of a course

Let's face it, sometimes low-tech is the best tech. For that reason, whenever I start a course, I take a simple legal pad and jot down the course assignment week-by-week. This notepad is portable, of course, so I can grab it and take it with me if I'm grading papers away from my office. If you're tech savvy and love to use Excel, you could certainly re-create this approach in an Excel spreadsheet. However, there's nothing as simple as picking up a pen and making a few notes on a notepad. Please view the scan of a notepad I assembled for a class I'm currently instructing. You'll note that some check boxes are highlighted in yellow - I do that when a student is overdue on a post or submission of an assignment - and quick visual to remind me which student(s) I need to email and remind to turn in work (although this doesn't happen often).

ONLINE ADJUNCT FACULTY TIP #13 - First day confidentiality post

I've mentioned it before - and I'm going to mention it again - always be certain to make a first-day post about confidentiality. I'm posting my standard blurb about confidential information. Furthermore, if a student posts anything with confidential information make sure to remove the entire post and privately email the student with a reminder to avoid future posts with confidential content. Why remove the entire post ?? -- if you only remove the name, there might be enough residual contextual information to still identify the person.

ONLINE ADJUNCT FACULTY TIP #12 - How to create course folders on your computer

There's much prep work before the first day of a course. To help organize a course "behind the scenes" I always create a Course Folder on my computer (via Windows Explorer - for Vista) and then several subfolders. Titles of the subfolders include: First Day Posting, Course Rubrics, Week # Graded Items, Week # Items to Post, etc. Here's a screen shot of the fodlers I created for my current Pupil Services course. You'll note the arhived ZIP file folders. This course is being instructed in Blackboard - which allows the instructor to arhive the class template and again archive the completed course. If able, always archive the course after you've set it up and before students post to it. You'll be able to use that fresh archive in the future - just import it (in Blackboard) and you'll be all set for your next course.

ONLINE ADJUNCT FACULTY TIP #11 - Why to use case studies

I admit it - I'm a fan of case studies. I love to write case studies as I feel engage the student in a close-to-life simulation. A word of advice, avoid the uni-case study - the one case study that you feel applies to each student. I typically will post 3 case studies and allow the student to pick from that array. For example, I teach a course in Educational Administration - Special Education. I allow students to respond to one of the following 3 case studies (A) Student with food allergy, (B) Ice-covered sidewalks and ADA accessibility, (C) Elementary child with severe behavioral outbursts and single mother who pleads with school not to shorten her son's day as she can't provide for daycare. Hey, all are challenging - and all are different. As a student, having the right to choose is empowering. Remember, learning is about discovery - so fight the urge to "standardize" every part of your course.

ONLINE ADJUNCT FACULTY TIP #10 - External links

If you're teaching online, you've probably posted a working link for one course only to find that it is no longer operation the next time you instruct the class. Instead of having a student point out that you posted a dead link, always run a quick check of your links before each class. I can't tell you how many times I've found that link has been moved or is no longer valid. Also, post you links so they are live when clicked - and not simply entered into your syllabus.

ONLINE ADJUNCT FACULTY TIP #9 - Posting rubrics at the start of the class

All assignments should be graded via a grade rubric that is provided to students the first day of the course. Having a detailed course rubric

at the start of the course not only provides students with a clear set of expectations for each assignment, but provides the instructor a defensible position when grading assignment. While most students will preview the rubric before tackling an assignment, some go forth without ever really knowing how their work will be assessed. When a student disputes a poor grade, I always return them back to the rubric that was posted the first day of course - and that extinguishes any claim of "I never knew what you wanted for this assignment."

ONLINE ADJUNCT FACULTY TIP #8 - Setting up learning teams

Most online courses include learning teams. When I began teaching online, I randomly assigned students to learning teams at the end of the first week. However, I suggest that you include both in the syllabus and in a first day post that students have the right to contact you to request being assigned to the same learning team as another student(s). I will almost always honor those requests - especially if students request each other.

ONLINE ADJUNCT FACULTY TIP #7 - My thoughts on extra credit

I've never been a fan of extra credit at the college level and discourage faculty from including extra credit options in their syllabus.

I've never heard a compelling reason to offer extra credit to adults - and I usually build my courses so the student would earn 140 total points in a perfect world - so they can forfeit 7 points and still earn an "A" - and it's doubtful that student would lose 7 points on a single assignment.

Instead of offering extra credit, I'm flexible with deadlines - and will often allow a 24 hour grace period before assigning a late penalty. I'm not going to "drop the hammer" on a student who didn't post by 12:01 PM CDT because he was late returning from a weekend at his relatives.

Finally, as an adjunct faculty member - why would you want to add the time commitment of grading extra credit? I pour hours into my courses - and don't feel allocating additional time to EC is efficient.

ONLINE ADJUNCT FACULTY TIP #6 - PDF or Word?

A few months ago, I engaged an adjunct collegue in a discussion regarding the best format for posting course items, such as the syllabus, calendar and rubrics, to the online classroom. I post everything in (Portable Document Format) PDF files. I also post a link to a free PDF reader and free PDF creator at the start of the class. I've found that PDF files are univeral and often take less bandwith than Word documents or other Office documents with embedded images.

My counterpart disagreed, and stated that he posts everything in Word 97-2003 or the new version of Word. He understands that some students don't have the "compatible" version of Office installed on their computers, but posts downloadable readers.

Personally, I still advocate for a full PDF-based online environment. However, students can post in any version of Word of PDF as I have the software to view either program.

However, as an instructor, I'm all about using Adobe's PDF!

ONLINE ADJUNCT FACULTY TIP #5 - Syllabus content & participation considerations

When building your online syllabus, avoid creating a course that a student can pass simply by turning in the assignments and skipping the class discussion. I design my courses to require classroom participation and discussion - to the tune of 42% of the overall course grade.