Key Information
About the content
This course will help you ‘up’ your game and develop the advanced level skills and techniques that elude even some of the most experienced virtual teachers. We will examine the pitfalls beginning teachers run into and learn how to overcome them by focusing on the fundamentals that have the greatest impact on student learning in a blended or online environment. Throughout the course, you will be challenged to assess your own skills and apply what you are learning by creating a guide, assignment, or resource that you will be able to use in a class that you teach or hope to teach someday soon. By the end of the course, you will not only have a better understanding of the basics, you will be able to put them together like a pro and empower your future students to be voracious learners who are ready to go out and make the world a better place to live. Upon completing this course, you will be able to: 1. Meet your students' needs and craft a better virtual learning experience for them 2. Set up the learning environment so you get to know your students and they get to know each other 3. Personalize learning by providing feedback using a variety of online tools 5. Identify at-risk students and employ effective strategies for teaching them 6. Compare and contrast online and face-to-face learning communities 7. Apply strategies to make virtual courses more human
Syllabus
- Week 1 - Week 1: Handling Direct Instruction
Welcome! This week you will begin by familiarizing yourself with the course. Then, we'll examine the role direct instruction plays in a virtual course. I will clarify what I mean by direct instruction and we will look at ways teachers can use some of the lates... - Week 2 - Week 2: Passing with Communication and Building Relationships
Welcome to Week 2! In this module, we will focus on what we do as virtual teachers to establish clear and open lines of communication and how we use that to build relationships with our students. In some ways, it’s no different than a traditional face-to-face ... - Week 3 - Week 3: Swishing Assignments and Assessments
Our goal as teachers is to get our students to take a shot and improve their techniques, so that over time we see their "shooting percentage" go up! In order to do this, we must design assignments and assessments that engage our students and challenge them to ... - Week 4 - Week 4: Rebounding for At-Risk and Underperforming Students
Your course is underway, the discussion boards are buzzing with activity and your students are working diligently to produce some exceptional work. Watch out! If you are not actively searching for students hanging out on the sidelines or hiding under the bleac... - Week 5 - Week 5: Your Best Defense is a Good Community
Welcome to our final week of class. We will finish our course by going back to one of the basics: Community. How can a virtual teacher build an inclusive and thriving community with their students, parents and other teachers and why is that vital to a successf...
Instructors
Chris Long
Instructor
UC Irvine Extension
Content Designer
The University of California, Irvine (commonly known as UC Irvine) is a campus of the University of California, founded in 1965 and located in Irvine.
Located in the centre of Orange County, UC Irvine serves the five most populated regions in the United States.
Platform
Coursera is a digital company offering massive open online course founded by computer teachers Andrew Ng and Daphne Koller Stanford University, located in Mountain View, California.
Coursera works with top universities and organizations to make some of their courses available online, and offers courses in many subjects, including: physics, engineering, humanities, medicine, biology, social sciences, mathematics, business, computer science, digital marketing, data science, and other subjects.
