3 Tips Justin Olaguer

Three Tips to Excellent Distance Education:

1. Before the faculty can engage in teaching a distance course, they need to be provided with sufficient amount of training and technical support of the technology that they are using. If the faculty has the thorough knowledge of the hardware and software that they are using this will help when certain technical problems arise between faculty and student. Ineffective troubleshooting wastes valuable time when the distance course is in session. The university hosting the distance course must also have the right personnel and infrastructure to support the faculty with this issue. This includes instructional designers as well as IT consultants (information technology) that are competent enough to adapt with the needs of the faculty.

2. Before the distance course begins the faculty should be encouraged to require that the students submit a written statement to the instructor or institution hosting the course. This should be encouraged because it forces the student to take immediate responsibility for their enrollment in a distance course. This would remind the student of what is expected of them in the course and puts the instructor and student “on the same page”.

3. An effective distance course is one that incorporates both real time and asynchronous communication between students and instructor. By designing a course that can support real time communication through chat rooms or discussion groups it allows for questions to be answered immediately. Asynchronous communication through e-mail or forum posts helps students when class is not in session and allows for more effective support of the distance course. By incorporating both real time and asynchronous communication it gives the student the maximum amount of support needed in the absence of a normal on-campus course.