With the growing number of online courses readily available for students schools are beginning to suffer from the side effects; the major one being a decline in enrollment.

Dr. Andrea Harmer highlights 50 tips that can be useful K-12 educators to remedy the decline in enrollment by developing “in-house online courses” instead of looking to those competitors who can prove to be very costly.

“With a healthy dose of optimism and motivation to better serve their current,” says Harmer, “digitally-inclined students’ expectations, along with many excellent, free online tools for online and blended course development, K-16 educators are now able to master the task of online course content for blended learning models and/or 100 percent online course development using the following easily-implemented strategies.”

Harmer’s strategies are then outlined in steps starting with becoming familiar with the software or website you are using to develop your online course. For educators who choose not to use the software adopted by there school Harmer advises educators to begin by creating a Wiki page or web page that will hold all of the important contact information as well as resources for students.

The article also stresses the importance of a detailed syllabus complete with office hours, grading policies, assignments and the weight they hold, as well as course expectations and calendar dates.

“Support students with a strong teacher presence and timely feedback during student-led discussions (for example, check in and respond daily for K-6 and at least 2 times per week for grades 6-12). If not able to respond to all individually, stagger responses so that all students receive feedback as often as possible.”

During the course Harmer’s twelfth step highlighted above expresses the importance of feedback. Students need to have a way to track progression or regression in a course in order to tweak the way they learn furthering a positive performance in the classroom.

These tips along with plenty more are highlighted as useful tools to help immerse educators in the technological age in a successful and effective manner. 

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Article by Navindra Persaud, Education World contributor.