Teaching in the Digital World

At most community colleges, teaching has historically occurred within the four walls of a classroom. As colleges adapt to the complex demands on students’ time and their comfort with technology, more and more learning is occurring online within asynchronous and/or synchronous environments. Online learning is the method of designing courses, learning experiences and delivery from the outset to take full advantage of the affordances of digital technologies and the online modality. Online learning implies there has been an intentional development process with design decisions based on content, audience, learning outcomes, etc.

As a faculty member teaching online classes, you have been tasked with creating an online learning environment that meets the same course standards and outcomes as a traditional classroom, without the ability to rely on your in-person facilitation tools. This does not imply that all of the teaching skills you bring to an in-person classroom are not necessary in the digital environment. It is the nuances of how those skills appear in a digital environment that is the ubique challenge. Indeed, a review of the tool found in the section of this book ‘Navigating the Teaching Journey’ with the lens of your digital classroom may be a useful reflection.

This self-reflective tool is based on eCampus Alberta’s eLearning Rubric. Its intended use is to guide the creation of online courses. It will, however, provide you with some well researched indicators of quality within an online course that you may wish to apply to your online or hybrid course(s).