Best practices
Best Practice 1: Be Present at the Course SiteSend announcements to students via blackboard (or it's equivalent) at least once a week.
Best Practice 2: Create a supportive online course communityHave student join a Google+ Circle ( or equivalent) so that they can start creating community that can last beyond the end of the course. I strive to nurture life long learners!
Best Practice 3: Share a set of very clear expectations for your students and for yourself as to (1) how you will communicate and (2) how much time students should be working on the course each weekThis will be clearly stated in the syllabus for the course and the weekly unit information package. The syllabus will be available online via Google Drive or the learning portal (or equivalent).
Best Practice 4: Use a variety of large group, small group, and individual work experiencesGoogle+ Hangout can be used to facilitate partner and small group (up to 10) work. Gotomeeting, Skype, and Google Drive and facilitate the collaboration in group work.
Best Practice 5: Use both synchronous and asynchronous activitiesMessage boards and bloggs are good platforms for asynchronous work even a FaceBook page. Second Life and the before mentioned platforms (practice 4) can be used for synchronous work.
Best Practice 6:Early in the term - about week 3, ask for informal feedback on "How is the course going?" and "Do you have any suggestions?"Google+ has a poll feature. It can be used with the class circle to check in with people. A separate tool is Survey Monkey.
Best Practice 7: Prepare Discussion Posts that Invite Questions, Discussions, Reflections and ResponsesIn introductions to discussion boards ask learners to reflect on readings/ video viewing. Ask them to talk about how it made them feel, or the questions the information prompted in their minds, not the "Clift Notes" of what thy saw/read.
Best Practice 8: Focus on content resources and applications and links to current events and examples that are easily accessed from learner's computersYouTube videos, my RSS feed (Feedly), both have current information and articles I can easily "share" with learners in our class Google+ Circle or FaceBook page. I can even tweet about it (as long as the class is following my tweets #EDCU2700)
Best Practice 9: Combine core concept learning with customized and personalized learningHave students participate in discussion forums, blogging, or e-journals and comment on the contributions of their classmates.
Best Practice 10: Plan a good closing and wrap activity for the courseStudents will need to use the tools used throughout the course to create a final project (PSA, Video/-Blogg, YouTube video, etc.) can be solo, paired or group work. As the annual Global Education Conference is held each November, students could be incouraged to create a submission for the week-long virtual event or a similar event.