Instant messaging can be an effective online learning tool that can build community and foster collaborative learning. The following are some suggestions from Debby Kilburn, computer science professor at Cero Coso Community College, for making the most of this tool.

Students’ satisfaction with the online learning environment is an important part of their success. In a survey of students at Westmoreland County Community College (WCCC), Vickie Fry, division secretary in technologies/culinary art/mathematics/sciences, found that online students want the following:

Are you having trouble getting your online students to contribute equally to team projects? If so, perhaps you should try varying the membership of these teams because, according to a study by Brian Dineen (see reference below), doing so can reduce social loafing and improve online collaboration.

In a previous post, we talked about the challenges of teaching our first online course, and the miraculous transformation of switching to a hybrid offering. If you’re new to the online teaching experience, especially if you’re considering a hybrid course, here are some tips you might find helpful.

A few years ago, our university started accelerating its distance learning program. Some professors designed courses that worked well, while others found that 100 percent Web delivery wasn’t effective for them.

Well, it’s a new year, and with it comes new hopes, new dreams, new possibilities…and, for online teachers, new courses and/or continuation of existing courses. While we can certainly do course adjustments any time during the year, the beginning of a new year is always a great time to do this, if only because it’s a psychological kickoff to doing things different and better.

In asynchronous discussion forums, participants usually come from diverse backgrounds, including gender and culture, and the textual cues they post online are usually reflections of their own diversity. How you handle equity and diversity issues can be a key to online course retention.

Conventional wisdom about synchronous vs. asynchronous communication says that while they both have their places in the online classroom, adult learners prefer asynchronous communication for its flexibility and that asynchronous communication allows more time for reflective thinking. However, a paper presented at the 2004 meeting of the American Educational Research Association (AERA) contradicts these notions.

Alex Halavais, assistant professor of communication and graduate director of informatics at the University at Buffalo, has incorporated blogs in his courses to encourage students to think beyond a single course, to integrate their learning across the curriculum, and to provide opportunities for feedback as students' work evolves. Halavais has written a chapter on this topic for the forthcoming book International Handbook of Virtual Learning Environments (Kluwer Academic Publishers). Online Classroom recently spoke with Halavais the evolving pedagogical uses of blogs.