Common mistakes made by first-time online faculty

Glenn LeBlanc, Instructional Designer at University College (Maine), shares the following 20 common mistakes made by first-time online faculty, wisdom he's gained over years of working with faculty:

1. Thinking that you have to reply to every posting in every discussion forum (and that students have to do the same).

2. Not being clear about what students have to do in order to submit their assignments (save their documents in a specific format that you can open, how to submit using whatever method you use, how to name their files, keep a copy just in case…)

3. Loading the course with so many resources that students get overwhelmed, and not distinguishing between what's critical and what’s “nice to know.”

4. Not reminding students to set up mail forwarding so they can get e-mail sent from Blackboard. You don’t want to have to keep track of non-UMS e-mail addresses like “catlover@roadrunner.com.”

5. Not starting far enough ahead to design the course. (This becomes a BIG issue when you use materials that require copyright approval. If it doesn’t work out, you need time for “Plan B.”)

6. Posting PowerPoint slides from your on-campus lectures and calling it an online course.

7. Using technology for its own sake. Do you really need the webcam talking head in your screencast? Keep it simple – especially your first time!

8. Failing to establish reasonable expectations for turnaround time to grade and give feedback on written assignments. (Just because students can submit with a click, you can’t grade this way!)

9. Failing to give very clear guidelines on posting to discussion board forums, including such things as: Post as a Thread /Reply to help keep forums organized, netiquette, maximum post length, timeliness (don’t post at the last minute), relevance, assertions supported by evidence, posts must build on previous discussion, etc.

10. Not spending enough time to become familiar with the technology you will use. (Especially tools in Blackboard.)

11. Not thinking through the setup of the Grade Center before you start recording grades. Faculty have sometimes begun with one approach only to learn that calculating grades the way they want to will require making major changes.

12. Not making your course site “Available” far enough in advance. Course sites have to be made Available before the program that adds your students can do its thing.

13. Not posting an announcement during the week before your course starts that welcomes students, and reminds them of the starting date.

14. Making technical support your responsibility. Give your students the Technical Support contact information they need.

15. Using online testing for a major portion of the course grade. While there are safeguards to help reduce cheating, having multiple methods of assessing students can minimize the risk and help to validate test scores.

16. Not using regular assignments to make sure students stay on track and are ready to participate when required.

17. Establishing unsustainable grading and feedback policies that can burn you out over time.

18. Expecting to respond individually to every student all the time. (You can give generic feedback in Blackboard and limit your comments to unique issues on a student-by-student basis.)

19. Forgetting that your students are adults, and, as such, have to be responsible for reading instructions, asking when they need help, and completing assignments on time. Forgetting that as adults, students also have important family and job responsibilities that may require you to sometimes be flexible. (The challenge of finding a good balance.)

20. Assuming that free time and weekends are things of the past because you have to be present in your course site all the time. Assuming that you now have all the free time in the world because your students are “self-directed learners.” (Find a level of engagement that works for you and supports your students without supplanting their own cognitive strategies.)