We are happy to publish this incredible article by Andrea Giordano. Andrea is the creator of ESL Basics, a popular destination for online English learners and teachers.
There’s a mad dash to move face-to-face courses to online. It can feel overwhelming and unnatural for those faculty members who have never taught online. Even if you have taught online before, it can feel dizzying to move every single course online, when your courses were created with physical classrooms in mind.
That’s why it’s important to have an efficient plan when moving courses online. Let’s walk step-by-step through what you need to do to move your courses online.
#1 – ANALYZE YOUR CURRENT COURSE
Before you move everything online, you want to analyze your current face-to-face class. Look at all the components of the course: The objectives, the textbook, major assignments, assessments, and activities. Don’t instantly jump to how you’re going to translate each activity word-for-word to the online environment. Instead, consider the big picture of the topics you’re presenting. If there ever was a time to re-evaluate what you’ve been teaching semester after semester, now is the time. Feel empowered to leave behind what didn’t work well. Just keep that big picture in mind: the course objectives or standards that have been set by your department. Anything else is negotiable.
#2 – DETERMINE WHETHER YOUR CLASS WILL BE SYNCHRONOUS, ASYNCHRONOUS, OR A HYBRID
Synchronous classes are most like traditional face-to-face classes. Everyone meets online at the same time, and the teacher leads the class virtually. Synchronous classes are great for classes that require group work, or for full-time students in the same time zone. Synchronous elements include listening to live lectures, live chatting, and participating in breakout rooms.
Pros: You can do real-time monitoring of your students’ engagement. Synchronous sessions provide the energy of a live class, and students feel less isolated.
Cons: Student schedules vary, and it may put a hurdle in front of a student with a busy work or family schedule. Also, if your student population has students from around the world, this will likely not work, due to time zone differences. If you or a student run into technology issues for a live session, it’s difficult to reconstruct that experience.
Asynchronous classes are most flexible. Students can log on any time and complete work on their own, without having to attend class at a specific time. Asynchronous classes work great when you have students from several different time zones, or when you’re working with adult populations who have jobs and families. Asynchronous activities include watching video lectures, contributing to discussion boards, and submitting assignments online.
Pros: Anyone can take the course at any time. Students can watch or read course content at their own speed, and as many times as they want to.
Cons: Some students may flounder without the real-time guidance of an instructor. Students also may feel isolated as they work alone.
Hybrid courses blend synchronous and asynchronous elements so that students have to both log in at specific times, and also log in on their own to interact with the course.
Whether you choose a synchronous, asynchronous, or hybrid format, your learning objectives should not change. Your delivery will change, but what won’t change is what you want your students to be able to do upon completion of the course.
#3 – CHOOSE AN ONLINE PLATFORM
If you haven’t already, you need to choose an online platform that will work for you and your students. You want to think about the following considerations:
- Ease of use for both the teacher and the student
- Level of interaction the platform provides
- Synchronous vs. Asynchronous capabilities
- Grade tracking
- Integration with existing websites
- Pricing per student
Here are a few of my favorite online learning platforms and Learning Management Systems (LMS):
Teachable
If you want a reliable, and internationally friendly tool, look no further than Teachable. They were recently acquired, but since then, they’ve released a major update to their tool where you can sell coaching/tutoring subscriptions. So, if you plan on selling synchronous lessons in addition to your courses, Teachable is likely a good fit for you.
Pros
- Teachable is easy to use
- Friendly for international students
- You can sell coaching / tutoring
- They have a free version of their tool, so it’s low cost to get started
Cons
- They are focused on courses, so if you want to sell ebooks, audio files, etc. you’ll need another tool. (See Podia if you need a tool that sells courses, subscriptions, and digital products)
Pricing – Plans for Teachable start for free and go up to $249/mo. The lower priced plans take a larger percentage of each sale if you are making sales. They also come with fewer tools out of the box.
Thinkific
Thinkific is another wonderful tool with free pricing plans. I actually prefer Thinkific over Teachable unless you’re selling coaching / tutoring programs. So, if you are just looking for a great tool to sell your courses and you have no plans to provide tutoring or coaching, I highly recommend Thinkific. Part of the reason I like them so much is the amount of control you have over what your course landing page looks like.
Pros
- Thinkific is easy to use and you can get started with a FREE plan
- Friendly for international students
- Highly customizable landing pages
- Drip content over time for your students
- Sell memberships
- Cohorts of learners going through your course
- Perfect for institutions with multiple instructors
- Private & hidden courses
Cons
- No simple way to accomplish synchronous coaching or tutoring like Teachable.
- No way of selling stand alone products like Podia.
Pricing – Plans for Thinkific start for free and go up to $399/mo. The higher priced plans are focused on helping people manage multiple instructors.
LearnWorlds
I included LearnWorlds because they are the clear winner if you need a tool that also provides video editing. That’s right! If you want to put your course online, but you’re not sure how to edit video, LearnWorlds has you covered. This is extremely powerful if you need to overlay vocabulary words, definitions, or other items while you are teaching. The other magic sauce for LearnWorlds is that they will automatically create a transcript of your video.
I would advocate that this tool really is the best experience for the students as well. The platform allows your students to highlight sections of copy and take notes on what they’re learning. Furthermore, they have a bunch of testing options, like informal quizzes, formal tests, assignments for critical thinking and certificates for verifying knowledge.
Pros
- Video editing included in the tool!
- Automatic transcription of your video
- Interactive videos (add questions, titles, overlay images, links & more to your videos)
- Flexible video hosting (they will host it, or you can plug in videos from other places)
- Note taking and highlighting for your students
- Robust testing
- Automatic certifications
Cons
- There isn’t a free version
- No simple way to accomplish synchronous coaching or tutoring like Teachable.
- No way of selling stand alone products like Podia.
Pricing – Pricing with LearnWorlds starts at $24/mo and goes up to $249/mo.
Podia
So, now finally we’re onto Podia, the tool that I use for all of the courses, products, and subscriptions I sell on Study with Andrea. Although I think there are better tools if you only need to sell and manage courses, I need to be able to sell ebooks, audio files, courses, and memberships. All of those are made possible to sell through Podia.
Pros
- Simple and easy to use
- Sell memberships
- Build a group of affiliates to sell your content for you
- Flexible designs for landing pages
- Free migration for certain plans
- Great customer support
Cons
- Only works for individual class sessions.
- Not an LMS (Learning Management System)
- Free version has limitations on length and number of participants
- Although they support 11 languages and 22 currencies, they’re not as internationally friendly as Thinkific.
Pricing – They have two pricing options, $39/mo and $79/mo. They don’t take a percentage of your sales.
MY RECOMMENDATIONS
If you need it to be low cost, I recommend, Thinkific.
If you’re a tutor and need to sell live courses through Zoom, you should use Podia.
If you need to manage multiple teachers, I recommend, Thinkific.
#4 – SOURCE YOUR DREAM CONTENT FROM THE INTERNET
One of the biggest benefits of teaching online is that you are able to bring in speakers and articles from reputable sources. When a class is face-to-face, there is often the pressure to be the one-person show – the sole lecturer and source of information. You don’t want to appear like you’re phoning it in for your class, so you avoid showing too many videos in class. Leave those insecurities behind when teaching online. You want to bring in as many great thinkers and well-produced videos as possible. Keeping your students’ attention and reaching those learning objectives is top priority – not just re-creating your lectures online.
Have you ever wanted a top Johns Hopkins doctor to explain the nervous system to your Intro to Biology class? You can. Ever wanted linguist Noam Chomsky to teach your students about universal grammar? It’s a click away. In the online classroom, you are curating the very best online content for your students. That goes far beyond lectures. You can also find learning games, flashcards, and interactive sites for your students to engage with.
#5 – BREAK UP YOUR COURSE INTO SMALLER CHUNKS
If you’re used to lecturing for the majority of your class time, you will likely want to re-format your delivery. Attention spans are limited when we have devices in front of us. Instead of a 45-minute lecture, you may want to consider two videos from outside sources, the outline of your notes, and a two 10-minute lectures covering the material that remains. Break up your content into digestible pieces so that your students don’t just open their social media while they listen.
#6 – LOAD YOUR COURSE CONTENT INTO YOUR LMS
Tools like Podia, Thinkific, Teachable, and LearnWorlds all have similar ways of uploading your course outline, video content, and written materials as well. Keep in mind that if you’re uploading large video files, you’re going to want to be on the fastest internet connection you can find.
If you already have your content on an existing tool, Podia will move the content over for you so you don’t have to do it.
#7 – CLEARLY DEFINE TECHNOLOGY
Clearly lay out your minimum technology requirements so students know what resources they need to succeed in your class. Make a clear list of hardware (i.e. laptop, headphones) and software (i.e. Blackboard, campus email, etc…) that students are required to have access to. Don’t take anything for granted.
#8 – CLEARLY DEFINE ENGAGEMENT
You also want to set clear expectations of how frequently students should be interacting online. Students may not know that they need to check their school email address daily, or contribute to a discussion board twice a week. It’s obvious in a face-to-face class that students need to show up every time class is scheduled. However, when you’re teaching online, it’s not as obvious. Lay out what the minimum requirements are, and also lay out how not meeting those minimum requirements would impact their grade.
You also want to clearly define how quickly you will be interacting with the students. You want this schedule to be as consistent as possible. That way students know when they will receive feedback and grades. You also want to be clear about your online response time to messages or e-mails. You may include a response time expectation such as, “I will be sure to respond to any e-mails or messages within 24 hours, Monday-Friday.”
Then it’s paramount that you follow through on the guidelines you set for yourself. No student wants to be left hanging for days on end when there is not physical way to drop by the office.
#9 – MAKE DEADLINES CLEAR AND SIMPLE
Asynchronous and hybrid courses have quite a few more deadlines than a traditional face-to-face or synchronous class. Students may need to contribute to multiple discussion boards or provide reading responses on a weekly basis. Because of the number of deadlines, you want to streamline them as much as possible. For example, you could make all discussion boards due on Tuesday, and all reading responses due on Thursday. That way, from week-to-week, students don’t get confused about when to complete their repeated tasks.
#10 – EVALUATE WHAT WORKS AND WHAT DOESN’T
Throughout the course, you’re going to find out what works in the online environment and what doesn’t. Be sure to take regular notes about what you want to tweak for next time. You also want to conduct a survey of the students, asking them questions not only about course content, but also about how the technology supported their learning experience.
CONCLUSION
You can do this! The majority of courses can be moved online successfully. You may even find that your students are even more engaged than they normally would be sitting in a classroom. Take it step-by-step, and be sure to give yourself the time and grace you need to tackle this learning curve.