Redeveloping Instructor Style
I review my Instructor style daily to: (1) Make sure I gave students a clear understand of daily topic. (2) My lecture always begin with an overview, then notes on the white board. I explain word for word the notes. (3) I close out the lecture with interactive questions and a personal experience. (4) The first 15mins of class the next day I test the students on what we covered in class the day before. I rarely do multiple choice anything. There are no clues on the test because I am looking to see what the student retained. (5) I move forward with class and reiterate previous lectures as it pertain to topic at hand.
I had to redevelop my teaching style when I became a full-time online instructor. I had been teaching keyboarding in online classes before going full-time and changing to English classes. You must try extra hard in online classes to develop a bond with students and to be careful in emails and announcements. When you are sending an email to the entire class, you need to let them know that by using a salutation that says "Class." If you fail to do this when alerting them of a problem, you may offend someone in the class that has not made that error or already understands the assignment. I always use the students first name when making comments about the assignments in the comment box along with returning a marked assignment just as I would in the classroom. If I have a struggling student, I will ask them for a phone number and a good time that I can reach them to have a phone conference. The sound of a friendly voice goes much further than several emails back and forth trying to resolve a major problem for a student.
Hi Felicia,
Excellent list of items. You have it covered in terms of having a viable, supportive and comfortable instructional style. I know this style gives you much return in relation to student support and respect.
Gary
