Teaching online is not that different….

The first question that people ask when they are new to online teaching and online learning is how you recreate the “traditional” teaching process and dynamic within this environment. A common question is how do I cover the same things that I do in my face-to-face class and how students participate in this online learning process. My answer has been that in online courses we try to cover the same things that we do in the classroom. A way to achieve this pedagogical goal is to design the class site and online coursework in a way that students do more or less the same things that they are expected to do in a traditional class. I have designed my online courses in a way that allow me to structure the course in a similar way I do in my face to face classes. The main difference is the pace and the timing for doing the work. I have weekly deadlines for the online assignments but students can do their coursework according to their own schedules and preferences.