List of Student and Teacher Expectations for Online Courses
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Updated 6/8/20
What you can expect from your Instructor:
- I’ll reply to your questions within 24-48 hours except during holidays or weekends.
- I’ll provide clear and concise instructions and exercises for you to follow.
- I’ll return graded assignments within two weeks from the due date.
- I’ll monitor discussions to clarify students’ postings, highlight good or interesting comments and ideas, provide insight, and ensure every voice is heard.
- I’ll provide the necessary components of successful interaction: explanation, demonstration, practice, feedback, and assessment.
- I’ll provide a range of practice opportunities–from self-corrected multiple-choice items to free form expression on a concept.
- I’ll provide metacognitive, cognitive, and social strategies for learning.
- I know the platform you’re using very thoroughly so that I can anticipate and make good guesses about the origins of any problems you’re likely to have and some answers for them.
What I expect from my Students:
- You’ll learn what the minimum technical requirements of the course include. Take the student orientation tutorial for this learning management system before getting started. Read the information in the Help tab (online manual) to learn how to use a tool. Seek other training services for basic computer and word processing skills.
- Your discussion posts will be consequential and full of content. For example, simply responding “me too,” or “thanks,” doesn’t include content. Use good grammar and spelling when posting online. Use the spell check feature.
- You’ll follow the rules of Netiquette as we establish our community in the course. For example, no bullying online.
- You’ll complete required tasks in a timely manner. Be proactive with a back-up plan in case you’re unable to access the Internet in your regular place of study.
- You’ll preplan for testing situations to ensure uninterrupted span of time. For example, you won’t be able to access the Internet in remote locations such as on a cruise.
- You won’t plagiarize the work of others and claim it as your own. Cite sources using the writing style guide required for your field of study (e.g., American Psychological Association’s manual for social science). Use the latest edition.
Protocol for resolving technical issues:
- First, make sure it’s not a browser issue (e.g., Google Chrome), and try a different browser to see if this solves the problem. If so, then you need either to update your regular browser or clear its history, cookies, and cache.
- If after updating your browser or other browsers don’t work, make sure it isn’t your computer. Restart your computer. If the error persists, try logging in from a different computer to see if you receive the same error message.
- Read log error messages and record problem specifics and forward this to tech support and your instructor. Take a screenshot, if possible, to illustrate the exact problem.
- Remember that your peers can help you, too!
- Last, after someone (or you) fixes the problem, make sure you refresh/reload the Web page, as the system will remember and display the exact same page (with errors) you were looking at the last time you logged in.
Sandra Annette Rogers, Ph.D.
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So happy that this is still my most popular post! Thank you to the 20K visitors.
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Extremely interesting. Thank you for giving such an informative blog.
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I’m glad you found it helpful!
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Great ideas! Thank you very much for the useful information!
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You’re welcome! Thanks for the positive feedback.
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agree : i agree with this response “I’ll provide clear and concise instructions and exercises for you to follow.” because this would help students with having a better understanding of new things their learning in class.
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Thanks, Ramya. Feel free to use or modify this list for your online classes.
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This is great information that speaks volumes for all instructors. Thank you for this resource.
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You’re welcome, Melanie. I’m glad that I can help you and your students in some way.
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Hello, this is a VERY helpful guide for me as a lecturer now required to teach fully online at the second largest university in Georgia. Thank you!
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Anita, I wish you success in your efforts. Invite your students’ input in the structure and strategies in your course midway through for course design feedback to ensure their achievement and satisfaction.
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Wow! Thank you for this! Your list of student and teacher expectations has inspired me to create my own list to post in my Google Classrooms. The one thing you mentioned that really caught my attention, under the teacher expectations, was “I’ll return graded assignments within two weeks from the due date.” This really hit home for me because I struggle to balance my workload with my personal life. I find myself working at least 12 hour days 6 days a week, trying to grade assignments ASAP. I need to allow myself more time to complete these tasks so that I don’t get burned out. I also like the idea of posting this for the students to see so that they understand that I will not be up until all hours of the night grading their work and that they need to give me time to grade their work. Thank you for this realization!
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Allissa, Thank you for your feedback. Make sure you return the work in a timely manner meaning that you provide just-in-time learning before they have to submit the next related task.
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Thanks for this write-up. I was looking for some suggestions and I got it right.
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Thank you, Dr. Varia. The expectations I outlined are based on my training in Quality Matters for providing quality online courses and learning theories from my doctoral studies in instructional design.
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As someone who is taking online courses and is looking into teaching classes in the near future this was a really good point to jump off from. Thanks, I will be using this again.
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Thank you for your feedback. I’d love to know how you used this info in your course.
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Thanks, John. I decided to add this list to my Online Course Design Guide for SHC.
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Nicely done, Sandra. Thanks!
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