Top Ten Things I learned about Online Education at AMATYC

10-You need a policy/syllabus contract or quiz (or both)
9-Set due dates on weekdays (or every Sunday of your semester is ruined)
8-Build a good course slowly. Incrementally improve your course or you will quickly become overwhelmed.
7-There Is much more prep work at the beginning of the semester—preparation is everything
6-Have students teach themselves. This provides the content of your discussion, and reinforces concepts. Any teacher will tell you, you really come to know a subject when you can teach it.
5-Establish rules and expectations for communication
4-Don’t use a drop box. If you have a lot of assignments you’ll never find anything.
3-Let IT be IT. Don’t get caught up trouble-shooting every student’s tech setup
2-The Rule of 3: Have all the key info in the course in at least three places and everything in the course should be within three clicks of the homepage.
And the number 1 thing I learned about Online Education at AMATYC…
Don’t email angry.

photo: Mr. Stein on flickr