Teaching Strategies in the Online Environment (review)

Teaching Strategies in the Online Environment is directed toward individuals in adult education who are interested in teaching online. The chapters provide an overview of several useful issues, including the process by which courses are designed as well as specific online teaching strategies suited to the adult learner. For the newcomer to online learning, each chapter will provide some useful ways of thinking about teaching online and help with transferring instructional strategies from the face-to-face classroom to the online setting.

The text may not be appropriate for the total neophyte to technology or the very experienced online instructor, since the first needs much more help learning the basics of the technology and teaching online and the very experienced person has already perfected solutions to problems over many iterations of a course. But even a modestly experienced online instructor can find in the chapters a few tips worth exploring and testing out for him- or herself.

Garnet Grosjean and Thomas Sork's chapter, "Going Online: Uploading Learning to the Virtual Classroom," was an enlightening description of the authors' experience in putting courses online. While interesting, a neophyte to the online world would benefit from much more detail about this process or checklists to guide the process. Even after reading the chapter, the instructor would still need to figure out the issues or questions that need answers before successfully putting a specific course online. Bates and Poole (2003) provide a more detailed treatment of how to put courses online and Clark and Mayer (2003) cover instructional design theory and tactics that would help the online instructor.

"Using Consensus Groups in Online Learning" by Regina Smith and John Dirkx was especially intriguing and provided specific advice and tips for helping students cope with the demands of building on differences to achieve consensus. While challenging, the process of forming and operating consensus groups is worthwhile so that students learn class content and how to incorporate a diversity of perspectives.

"CmapTools: Integrating Teaching, Learning, and Evaluation in Online Courses" was written by Barbara Daley, Alberto Cañas, and Tracy Stark-Schweitzer. A short review of the theory and research on concept mapping was helpful as were the many visual examples and lesson ideas.

Kimberly Burgess's chapter on "Mentoring as Holistic Online Instruction" was an important reminder to online instructors that they can easily mentor students by using email or discussion boards to extend their knowledge to underrepresented, novice, and confused students. A little extra effort on the part of the instructor can make an enormous difference in how students feel about their online experience.

Rosemary Lehman's chapter on "Learning Object Repositories" (LORs) was an excellent description of the LOR world. It described types of learning objects (e.g., a paragraph, an online module, a movie, a simulation, online exercises—just about anything) and many major repositories where faculty can search for an object they can adapt for their class. But like many other articles about learning objects, the chapter fails to help the instructor know what to look for and how to incorporate the object once it is found. One drawback to LORs is the time it takes to seek, find, evaluate, and incorporate the object, which may explain why learning objects have not been widely adopted.

"The Online Discussion Board" by S. Joseph Levine provides a sound list of conditions for conducting online discussions that will help faculty think about how to initiate and conduct discussions so that learning is likely to occur. It does not, however, incorporate the research that has been done about online discussions which tends to provide a more nuanced view of the proposed conditions. For instance, instructors of some students, such as more insecure undergraduates, who intrude into discussions may close discussion rather than stimulate it. In other words, the conditions are good foundations, but the experienced online instructor would be wise to...