Best Practices for Faculty Using Instructional Technology

1.      Understand Your Students

Students have varying levels of comfort and facility with instructional technologies, and they enroll in courses for a variety of reasons.  Finding out who your students are and what their previous experiences have been could save hours of frustration later in the quarter.

2.      Recognize Your Students’ Technology Learning Curve

Students find online learning daunting in the first few weeks of a course, especially if the course is primarily or entirely online.  Reassure students that they can handle the technical problems that will arise.  Provide detailed instructions and support for the first activity using any technology.

3.      Recognize Your Own Technology Learning Curve

Remember that you, too, will face new challenges as you adopt new instructional technologies.  Realize that there are resources available within the SON (e.g., Cliff Solomon) and around the UW (e.g., the Center for Instructional Development and Research) to help you adopt new strategies.  You can handle the problems that will arise, but the first implementation of a new technology is bound to pose unexpected challenges.

4.      Know Where to Go for Technical Support

Be sure that both you and your students know what forms of technical support are available (including those listed above).  Be sure to let students know who is available to answer software, hardware, and other technical questions.  Recognize that every student will have a technical problem at one time or another (and so will you).

5.      Define Expectations

As with traditional classroom instruction, establishing expectations – both yours and your students’ – at the beginning of the course is essential.  What tools will students be expected to use?  What will students gain/learn from using those tools?  What are your responsibilities as the instructor?

6.      Set Ground Rules

Establish clear ground rules as early as possible.  This includes modes of interaction (e.g., email etiquette and online discussion courtesy) as well as practicalities like when and how often you will be checking email and updating the course web site.  Be sure that students understand and agree to these rules early in the quarter to avoid having to revisit them throughout the course.

7.      Encourage Different Modes of Learning

One of the most exciting things about instructional technology is the flexibility it offers for different kinds of information presentation.  Take advantage of the visual, audio, and other capabilities of the web for students who learn in different ways.

8.      Provide a Clear Structure for Learning

Students can easily become overwhelmed by online technologies – be sure to make it clear how the various components of your course fit together.  This may include simplifying your web site and/or providing a means of prioritizing supplementary links.

9.      Provide Appropriate Credit for Workload

Instructional technologies can often add to the workload of students in unexpected ways.  Online discussion adds a tremendous reading load; web research projects involve not only accessing but evaluating information; checking email for course updates requires internet access at home.  Be sure that students are doing an appropriate level of work for the credits they are earning.

10.  Be Accessible

Students need to know that you are accessible – which can be difficult in a largely online course.  Signals of accessibility include: providing prompt responses to questions and emails, asking interesting questions and engaging with online discussions, providing clear and coherent web materials, and checking in with students on their progress and use of the technologies.