Effective Teaching Strategies For Web-Based Learning

Barbra R. Kerns

Toward a Distinct Goal: Effective Teaching

In 1987, Art Chickering and Zelda Gamson, with the support of the American Association for Higher Education, published “Seven Principles of Good Practice in Undergraduate Education”, as a standard against which to measure desirable teaching methods for increasing student learning outcomes. It stated “good practice: 1) encourages contacts between students and faculty; 2) develops reciprocity and cooperation among students; 3) encourages active learning; 4) gives prompt feedback; 5) emphasizes time on task; 6) communicates high expectations: and 7) respects diverse talents and ways of learning” (1987).

Nine years after the Seven Principles were published, with the advances in technology, Chickering along with Stephen Ehrmann, published “Implementing the Seven Principles: Technology as a Lever” to compliment the original work, adding “cost-effective and appropriate ways to use computers, video, and telecommunications technologies to advance the Seven Principles” (1996). Specifically, the authors recommend that professors should use asynchronous communication such as email or discussion boards to encourage contact between students and faculty. Secondly, they state that co-operation among students can be enhanced through online group communication tools. Active learning is aided by stimulating communication, real-time interaction, as well as advanced software that help simulate real-world situations. Email aids prompt feedback. Time-on-task increases with broader access to materials. Peer evaluation in the form of online discussion and sharing of students’ materials over the web increases expectations. And the final principle, diverse talents can be shared through self reflection and self evaluation of the asynchronous communication tools, while ways of learning is aided by the abilities to deliver information in a variety of teaching methods and formats via computer (1996).

Teaching and Assessing Student Learning

Effective teaching can only be considered successful if the students are actually learning. In 1993, Thomas Angelo and Patricia Cross published a handbook of 50 classroom assessments as a way “to provide college teachers…with a compendium of good ideas developed by their colleagues for assessing and improving student learning” (1993, 105). Theses assessments were not created within the context of online learning, but as is mentioned later in this research, many have been adapted for use in a web-based learning environment. Table 1 is a list of the 50 techniques as found on page 109 of the handbook.

Table 1

These assessment tools help assess students in five major areas: 1) prior knowledge, recall and understanding; 2) skills in analysis and critical thinking; 3) skills in synthesis and creative thinking; 4) skills in problem solving; and 5) skills in application and performance (1993). The handbook further illustrates the pros and cons of each technique as well as how they can be adapted for different disciplines.

A number of people have taken these 50 assessment tools and adapted them for use over the Internet. David G. Brown has several examples of how he takes advantage of the convenience and time saving measures of the computer to make a positive impact on the amount and quality of learning in his courses. For the first suggestion, students email the instructor their “muddiest point”, or most confusing part of the readings or lesson, and the instructor will summarize and respond to the whole class with clarification. The instructor also uses that information to revise those aspects of the lesson for the next time the class is taught (2001).

Another technique of Brown’s is to use electronic chat for students to share a one-sentence summary of the most important concept of the lesson (2001). This provides him a view of the students’ knowledge base, from which he can direct the next learning element.

Brown gets students collaborating by dividing the class in half. Half of the students are asked to summarize the concept of the class lesson into one paragraph, apply it to a specific challenge, and share it with another member in the class. Then those two students are paired up with a volunteer off-campus alum with whom they must work over the Internet to agree on a single paragraph (2001).

A fourth example Brown offers is to have two students submit a ranked, annotated list of five internet sites designed to most aid their fellow students in understanding the next week’s lesson. He states that the authors of the list feel empowered from their ability to contribute to the education of their peers, and those students that review the students’ websites are more likely to challenge his lecture (2000).

Email can be a powerful, yet simple and convenient tool for inspiring active learning among students. Brown encourages students to email the rest of the class any references to newspaper articles on current topics relating to the course. He also has students email him a paragraph at the end of class that summarizes the key concept of the lecture. Likewise, at the beginning of the next class, he has students email him a brief paragraph on what they learned the previous class. (He teaches face-to-face in a classroom in which everyone is seated at a networked computer.) He uses email as a coaching tool, to give tips for success prior to a big assignment, and to provide personal encouragement or direction on a one-to-one level (2001).

Pitt and Clark (2001) described several strategies they found to be powerful tools in teaching. For discussion-led teaching online, they mention mailing lists (or listservs) and electronic discussion boards. Group discussion can also be used to get students collaborating and communicating on higher intellectual levels (Pitt & Clark, 2001).

The electronic discussion board is a commonly used tool for extending classroom interaction. Karayan and Crowe conducted a study to discover if student behaviors changed as a result of participating in an electronic discussion group. Their belief was that “the convenience of interaction, the provision for different kinds of learning, and the opportunity to ‘think through writing’ would be evidenced in changes in student behaviors” (1997, p. 70). Their findings indicated that roughly half of the students were more likely to exhibit desired behaviors, such as asking more questions, as a result of participating in the electronic discussion group. The authors asked students if their behavior changed as a result of instructors using electronic discussion groups. They asked the students to compare their own behavior after participating in the electronic discussion groups. They also asked the instructors to state their reasons for using the electronic discussion group and what their topics were. The authors stated four specific examples of how the electronic discussion board improved teaching and learning: 1) the electronic discussion board served to equalize responses of those students who are spontaneous and those who are reflective participants; 2) the electronic discussion board fostered a greater sense of community: 3) the electronic discussion board allowed students time to organize their thoughts; and 4) the electronic discussion board gave the students more practice writing their thoughts in a coherent manner.

Role playing can also be conducted in small groups (Pitt & Clark, 2001) online in a live chat environment. Each person in the group can act out a role in a simulated real-life situation. This exercise helps the students develop a better understanding of other people’s positions and how to handle those situations.

Other forms of group collaborations could include simulations, case studies, problem solving exercises, small group discussion and brainstorming (Pitt & Clark, 2001).

Paulsen described several online teaching techniques in his 1995 research based on different teaching scenarios, depending on whether learning was independent of a teacher, one-on-one with a teacher, or involving several students to one or several teachers. One person could successfully seek out and learn new material by studying topic-related online databases, online journals, online applications, software libraries, online interest groups and by conducting interviews (1995). Individualized teaching and learning in a one-on-one environment can take advantage of web-based techniques like learning contracts, apprenticeships, internships, and correspondence studies. A learning contract, as described by O’Donnell and Caffarella is a specific agreement written by the learner that outlines what will be learned, how it will be accomplished, the time frame, and the evaluation criteria (Paulsen, 1995).

Paulsen mentioned the “skit” as a technique that may be used with one teacher and several students when students are hesitant to participate. The teacher interacts in a discussion board or computer conference using more than one user ID. One of the ID’s is used to pose questions as the role of an anonymous student (1995).

A teaching and learning technique in getting students thinking creatively would be an adaptation of brainstorming called “brainwriting” (Paulsen, 1995). In the online discussion board environment, this would mean each person would post a unique comment or idea related to the problem or situation at hand.

Student collaboration and problem solving skills are the outcomes of the Delphi technique in which experts/participants are surveyed for their opinions. They then work toward consensus of the group. The online environment offers the chance to remotely collect and share opinions from which to then work toward a mutual synthesis of ideas (Paulsen, 1995).

References

Angelo, T. A., & Cross, K. P. (1993). Classroom assessment techniques: a handbook for college teachers. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Brown, D. G. (2000). It’s all about empowering students. Syllabus, 13, (3), 28.

Brown, D. G. (2001). The power of e-mail. Syllabus, 14, (12), 26.

Brown, D. G. (2001). Active learning: practice at retrieval. Syllabus, 15, (3), 18.

Brown, D. G. (2001). The muddiest point. Syllabus, 15, (4), 22.

Brown, D. G. (2002). Interactive teaching. Syllabus, 15 (6), 23.

Campus Computing Project Survey (2001). Encino, CA. www.campuscomputing.net (February 2002).

Chickering, A. W., & Ehrmann, S. C. (1996). Implementing the seven principles: technology as a lever. AAHE Bulletin, (October), 3-6.

Clark, R. (1994). Media will never influence learning. Educational Technology Research and Development, 42 (2), 21-29.

Ehrmann, S. C. (1999, October 29). What do we need to learn about technology uses in education? Retrieved April 8, 2000, from http://www.tltgroup.org/resources/fquestions.html

Green, K. (1996). The coming ubiquity of information technology. Change, 28 (2), 24-28.

Karayan, S. S., & Crowe, J. A. (1997). Student perceptions of electronic discussion groups.
Technological Horizons in Education Journal, 24 (9), 69-71.

Kerns, B. R. (2002). Teaching strategies possible with Blackboard features (unpublished).

Oliver, M., & Conole, G. (1998). Evaluating communication and information technologies: A toolkit for practitioners. Active Learning, 8 (July) Retrieved April 8, 2001, from http://www.unl.ac.uk/latid

Paulsen, M.F. (1995). The online report on pedagogical techniques for computer-mediated communication. Retrieved April 5, 2002, from http://www.emoderators.com/moderators/cmcped.html#8

Pitt, T.J. & Clark, A. (2001). Creating powerful online courses using multiple instructional strategies. Retrieved April 5, 2002, from http://www.emoderators.com/moderators/pitt.html

Smith, K. L. (1997). Preparing faculty for instructional technology: From education to development to creative independence. Cause/Effect, 20 (3), 36-44, 48.

Young, J. R. (1999). Students say they check courses' web pages before deciding to enroll. The Chronicle of Higher Education (May 27). Retrieved May 29, 1999, from http://chronicle.com/free/99/05/99052701t.htm