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[nomad]

I received a contract to teach an online course. This will be my first one. I have over 13 years of experience with F2F teaching, and I have experience taking online courses. I did quite a few when I was getting my master's, but for some reason I am getting really nervous about this one. I am surprised, I thought I would be more confident. This is a course that has the syllabus and digital text already included, so there is one less worry, but I am still feeling overwhelmed. Any tips for brand new instructors?

[turbojet]

Get a handle on what your computer use is on the personal plane.. For me there are certain sites that I read daily. Once I am done with that and my morning routines, THEN and only then am I ready to check in my folder for my online course, and give that my complete total attention. Initially, I would peek in there during my personal time, and get side tracked. This after a while got very draining as online school can take hours and can get complicated. I find now that separating the two works best for me.
I also keep a file for each student away from the 'platform' where I copy paste every words between student/teacher, where I can review all assignments and correspondence at once. I make sure to keep every word that goes out and comes in. Saves hours at a time.
Lastly, i view my course as a work in progress and make changes to it all the time. I find that as long as I lay out expectations from the get go, and am clear straight and consistent all works out. 

[lucys]

I got asked to teach online in my first semester as a new instructor with almost no training. I made it through and so will you. Do as much as you can ahead of time. For me this means putting up weekly lessons before the class starts. I then deploy one lesson each week (make it visible to students). Stay organized about due dates. Begin grading as soon as papers are turned in. I participate in the discussion board posts to help students feel like a live person is on the other end. Also, take part in any training the university offers for online instructors. You'll be fine. The people I worry about are the ones who are never nervous.

[in_vino_veritas]

I also keep a file for each student away from the 'platform' where I copy paste every words between student/teacher, where I can review all assignments and correspondence at once. I make sure to keep every word that goes out and comes in. Saves hours at a time.

Great advice! I'm in training now for an online university, I'll be using your tips.

[acrimone]

Forget that you are teaching real people and imagine that it's some sort of video game... Sim-Professor, or whatnot. 

Try to maximize your score and minimize the aggro you pull on the mobs.

It may sound like I'm joking, but I'm totally serious.

[nomad]

Get a handle on what your computer use is on the personal plane.. For me there are certain sites that I read daily. Once I am done with that and my morning routines, THEN and only then am I ready to check in my folder for my online course, and give that my complete total attention. Initially, I would peek in there during my personal time, and get side tracked. This after a while got very draining as online school can take hours and can get complicated. I find now that separating the two works best for me.

The class officially started today and I can already see what you are talking about. I could end up online all day. This first week has a lot of bio discussions and each one gets a personal answer. I would guess that future weeks may not be as discussion heavy. I will post a minimum of 20 times this week and possibly more. I would guess that I won't have to respond to each person next week.

This school has given me a good mentor so I am a bit less stressed.

[creaky_knees]

I also keep a file for each student away from the 'platform' where I copy paste every words between student/teacher, where I can review all assignments and correspondence at once. I make sure to keep every word that goes out and comes in. Saves hours at a time.

Great idea, turbojet.  I've never done that, and it would save a lot of time.

I've tried keeping a very basic log of the amount of time I spend on each online or hybrid course (including daily check-ins, emails, grading, prepping assignments, etc.) so I can see if I'm giving way more time to those courses than I do to F2F courses.  It helps me see when it's time to be less "present" online.

[pisces]

I taught online for the first time last year. One suggestion that I wish someone had told me is to schedule regular times in the week to keep track of the course/moderate student discussions/etc. I found that the absence of a F2F presence regularly front of me meant that during busy times of the semester it was easy for a week to fly by before I had checked in online. This meant that the work would pile up. Once I figured that out, it was very doable. Good luck!

[bigghostdini_tha_don]

No reason to be nervous, teaching online classes is a breeze

[peitho]

I'm having problems of my own with online classes, so take it with a grain of salt.  And I'm pretty new at this, so some of this may seem de rigeur for the more experienced.

Once course set up is over, it's downhill from there.  The annoyance is the immediacy and the constant sense of urgency.  I'm always relieved when my weekly discussion boards are closed, because I can pretty much ignore them until the assignments or exams roll in.  (Well, I do respond to email, but there's less chatting and less perceived need to visit the site multiple times a day!)

It is helpful to use an icebreaker of some sort, if only so that you can keep track of who's in the class and realize there's a person on the other end of the gradebook.  Students who are off campus for summer, students who work full time and have family responsibilities...you can review who they are before responding to their messages and adjust your tone accordingly.

It's also helpful to post regular announcements with general comments on how the last assignment went and reminders for the next one.  I also announce what constitutes my weekend, to the effect that I'm going offline now, I'll check email once over the weekend, and I'll be back on Monday.  The early birds will still keep working on their assignments, but they won't hassle you because you've told them you're offline.

[proftowanda]

Having witnessed a discussion board go ballistic with an abusive student, and having heard of even worse happening, I tend to be a tad too nervous myself to not monitor as students are posting, replying, etc. 

But here are a couple of things that can help. 

First -- this is in my syllabus, but I think that you are past that points, so you still can make a clear statement on the announcements page -- any inappropriate posts will receive no credit.  And state that those will be removed; cut, paste, and save for later reference, though, in case you get a chronic flamer who needs a really serious smackdown, perhaps even removing the student from the course (I have not done that but know that it has been done).  However, I have found that a milder but fast stop put to such stuff and a denial of credit generally brings such students in line . . . or, better yet, when denied the fun of flaming, they drop.

Mainly, though, throughout the course, lock down discussion boards immediately, as soon as a module/unit/whatever you call it is completed.  You do not want the experience that a friend, teaching an online course for the first time now, just commiserated about after most of the class moved on, so the instructor stopped monitoring past boards.  But the few flamers kept going at it -- and the instructor did not realize it for a while.