Welcome Teachers!Did you know research indicates teaching an online course improves your face-to-face teaching? Are you curious about teaching an online class? Teaching online may be a scary thought at first. For this reason, we have compiled a few resources to inform you about the online teaching and learning environment. We hope you find the resources valuable. Enjoy exploring and perhaps we will see you inside the online world soon.
|
Summer Teaching OpportunitiesIf you are interested in teaching over the summer, we recommend you do the following three actions:
|
What Should I Know About Teaching Over the Summer?We offer seven courses during the summer term. Staff may choose to teach a course in one or both sessions. For a yearlong class, students complete semester one during the June session and semester two during the July session. Teachers interested in facilitating a yearlong course such as U.S. History or Geometry must teach both sessions.
|
Learning how to teach onlineWe require teachers who have not previously taught an eLo class to successfully complete our Fundamentals of Online Teaching training class. Think of the training course as the driver's license you need to be authorized to teach an online class. We deliver the training inside the same learning management system you will use with your students, Canvas. As a result, not only will you learn the qualities needed to deliver an effective online class; you will also become familiar with the student experience in our learning management system. Here are other details:
|
How do we support Teachers?
We have a strong support system in place. We encourage all teachers to lean on the support system and never work in isolation. Your supports include:
Finally, we deliver a pre-course survey to all students. It is important for an online teacher to understand why their student enrolled, the type of device they plan to use, when and where they plan to access the class along with your learner's interests, passions, hobbies and course goals. The information we collect will help you engage and support each student in a targeted manner. |
What Are The Teaching Expectations?
|
KNow your studentsNo typical profile of our online learners exist. We have had thousands of students enroll for many different reasons. Every home has a unique and different door that people enter. Inside the home there are varying backgrounds, needs, and wants of the residents. Think of your online learners as these diverse doors and homes. It is critical for online teachers to become familiar with the characteristics of their students. Here are a few examples of the types of students we have served:
Our courses are not for credit recovery and match the same quality of their face-to-face counterpart. |
How Do We Support The Learners?We have multiple layers of support in place to help our students navigate the online environment. Below you will find a summary of the supports. Our full list of supports may be accessed here.
Before Students Learn
While Students Learn
|
Course Design and DeliveryWe use a consistent and standardized instructional design format across the program. Each course has a similar landing page. A landing page is the first screen a learner views when they log into the class. We created the consistent landing pages to ensure students have access to pertinent course information in a user-friendly, welcoming, and intuitive fashion, regardless of the course or instructor assigned. The landing page contains four main sections depicted in a visual format:
A consistent designs help students spend less time on learning how to navigate the online platform and more time learning the content. |
Do I Develop the Course Content?You will not have to design the course content. Everything will be available to you. Although you might not have had the opportunity to author the course content, there are plenty of opportunities for you to have ownership of your course and share your teaching personality with students such as through your announcements or weekly messages, emails, discussion boards, and feedback. We also encourage you to raise awareness toward the current events that align with your course and use supplemental resources to remediate or enrich your student learning.
|
How Do I Communicate With My Learners?Communication is one of the most important areas for online instructors to focus. To develop your online instructor presence, you have to communicate proactively and consistently with your students. The lack of communication in an online course is actually a form of communication. It informs students the instructor is not engaged or is not interested in student learning. The special part about teaching online is you have a multitude of fun, interactive ways to collaborate with your class.
The Canvas inbox messaging system is the primary mode of communication between your students and you. If you have a smartphone, we encourage teachers to download the Canvas app to stay connected to your students regardless of your location. Instructors have the ability to create personalized notification preferences that alert you when certain actions inside the course occur. Many teachers choose to widen their communication toolbox by utilizing instant chat, phone calls, or video conferencing. The instant chat and video conferencing tools may be accessed freely inside Canvas. Each teacher also has access to the eSchool Dashboard inside Canvas. The dashboard encompasses parent contact information, the name of the student's counselor among other information for you to use. We want to strive for multiple interactions in our courses:
Teachers should regularly communicate with all learners not only the ones who struggle. Teachers should purposefully contact students even if a student does not request the communication. |
Teaching online compared to Brick and MortarTeaching online is not easier or harder than teaching a brick and mortar class. Teaching online is simply different. The online learning space is elusive and separates the teacher from their students. For this reason, online teachers need to be cognizant of these differences to appeal to the psychological, cognitive, and emotional senses of their learners.
Please take a moment and familiarize yourself with a few differences outlined in the table below. |
Brick and Mortar |
Comparison Term |
Online |
The teacher may remind |
Communication |
The teacher needs to take focused steps to remind their students through consistent means. |
The teacher can easily involve learners through hands-on activities.
|
Interaction
|
The teacher needs to take intentional actions to engage learners through anticipation and pre-planning. |
The teacher can make adjustments on the fly. |
Planning
|
The teacher can’t make adjustments in real time and needs to have an astute focus on pre-planning. |
The teacher is in exact proximity to learners and can observe non-verbal body language. The teacher can use this information to adjust their approach while also recognizing if their words had a positive or negative impact. |
Sense
|
The teacher must purposefully insert instructional activities that appeal to all senses. The teacher must leverage analytics to monitor the progress of their student along with direct 1:1 communication. The teacher needs to pay careful attention to their electronic words because they can't observe whether the language had a positive or negative impact. |
The teacher is in the same space as the learners. |
Space
|
The teacher is separated by their students geographically. |
The teacher is available before or after school for help. |
Supports
|
The teacher is available through email, instant chat, phone, or video conference. |
A clear sense of time exists for teachers to plan—bell periods. |
Time
|
Concept of time is flexible because learners access their course at different intervals throughout the week. |
What do our Online teachers say? |