Best Practices for Distance Education

Introduction

Distance Education courses require that the faculty member rethink the way they present their material to the students. If a course is listed as an online course, it is not acceptable to simply make the Powerpoint slides available online and provide some online homework, quizzes and tests. The most effective distance education courses are those that have been redesigned to make use of all the technology available whether that is audio, video or printed material.

As an example, faculty may choose to search for relevent material on web sites such as You Tube that present the material in a manner that reaches a wide variety of students. Today's students have grown up with computers and technology and many of them are visual learners. This makes the Web the perfect medium through which to reach them. But, the faculty member has the responsibility to design the course in such a way that it makes good use of the technology.

For those who are not familiar with distance education, and in some cases for those who are, a few documents and web sites are included below that will shed some light on the best ways to reach students using online materials.

PNC Best Practices for Online Instruction

UCEA Best Practices

Distance Education Best Practices Manual

Higher Learning Commission Best Practices for Online Instruction

 

 

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