At The University of Toledo, Online Learning is committed to removing technological barriers, allowing faculty to focus on learning outcomes, effective teaching and online interaction.
Research suggests faculty plan classroom management according to the nature of instructional delivery. To support faculty in this endeavor, the Design Center suggests several methods in managing the online classroom. Some of those methods include:
Office Hours
Distance Learning -- While on-campus office hours are important, many online students are place and time bound and cannot "walk-in" during an instructor's office hours. Therefore, we suggest faculty create a virtual office within Blackboard (Bb) that will allow students to communicate with their instructor electronically. The Design Center will be glad to help in this regard.
Web-Assisted -- Faculty enhancing their face-to-face classrooms with a Web component include their office hours within their Syllabus that is typically handed out in class and posted on the Online Learning Web site.
Being Present in the Classroom
Online Learning -- Like many institutions, The University of Toledo recommends both students and faculty respond to electronic communication in the classroom in a timely manner. The perception and reality of response time in the fully online virtual classroom are vastly different from Web-assisted and face-to-face instruction. Therefore, it is important that faculty provide a minimum time frame for when students can expect asynchronous responses.
Web-Assisted -- The instructional integrity of a Web-assisted course is designed to enhance - not to replace - the face-to-face meetings of a class. In Bb courses, students and faculty continue to meet in classrooms as scheduled. Faculty enhance their face-to-face class by providing a syllabus, worksheets, links, self-tests and case studies via their Web portion of the course. In class, lectures are often enhanced using the Web site to show other dimensions of a concept (e.g., 3D Modeling, Flash, PowerPoint, dynamic pages). This allows faculty to engage students with various learning styles in the lecture that is not typically possible with static text. Students can later review the multimedia component of the lecture to reinforce what they learned - all within a secure course portal.
Have Students Contact Online Learning for Services -- If you are teaching an online or Web-assisted course, your students can contact Online Learning student services at 419-530-8835 or by email at UTDL@utoledo.edu.
For additional information please call Peter You, at 419.530.8835.