The prospect of introducing an online component into your teaching can seem quite daunting. Even teachers who have computer skills that are adequate for word processing and emailing find that they have a lot to learn when they start teaching online.

So, where do you start? The first thing to do is to sort out your expectations, and write them down. Your expectations will relate to why you want to introduce computers and the internet into your class, for example:

  • the availability of interesting resources online
  • improved cost-effectiveness (not only for program providers, but for students) that may result from going online
  • the hope that going online will help students overcome fears about computers and develop a range of new skills
  • the wish to conduct classes that are more self-paced and self-directed, with you in the role of facilitator
  • the expectation that online delivery will increase flexibility for you and your students.

Whatever your reasons, the main point is to try and get clear about what you expect out of using computers and the internet in your teaching. One way to approach this is to imagine that, after going online, you were to have your course formally evaluated. Write a few sentences that sum up what you hope the evaluator would find. For example:

Students have become more confident in the use of computers and the internet during the semester.

More capable students have been able to move ahead at their own pace, leaving me with more time to focus on students who are having difficulties.

Students regularly go to the website and contribute to things like the forum.

Clear expectations like this will give you a good basis for planning what you do and for monitoring your progress.

The second suggestion for starting is to just start somewhere, and keep what you do simple. You could start with any of the following:

  • during class-time, get students to download and use information from a CD or website
  • ask students to locate the best website for a particular topic and post the address to a forum before they come back to class next week
  • make existing resources, such as an ANTA Toolbox or information provided by a textbook publisher, available on CD as background material, and set tasks that require use of this material
  • get help to create your own simple website which includes basic information that students will need to refer to, and has links to information-rich sites
  • ensure that students have your, and each other’s, email addresses
  • use group tasks that require discussion between classes, either by email or, preferably, using the chat facility available on a number of sites (see Exemplar 9 for some of the possibilities).

A third suggestion for getting started is, no matter how modest your plans, try to introduce the online approaches it in an orderly way that gives students plenty of notice and explains your expectations clearly. The previous suggestion to ‘start somewhere’ does not imply you should walk into class, midway through a semester, and announce that you are suddenly taking a different tack. Where students are not informed well ahead of time, there can often be negative consequences (as happens in Exemplar 1, for example).

A fourth aspect of getting started is to experience being an online learner yourself. As one interviewee observed:

‘One thing [facilitating online learning] has reinforced for me is that you need to actually experience online learning to appreciate how it works. Actually doing it opens your eyes!’
You can get experience either as part of a formal course in facilitating online learning, or by enrolling as a pseudo-student in a course one of your colleagues is running (see Exemplar 6). For more about formal courses that will help you with blended learning, as well as other ways of gaining first-hand experience, see Booklet 1 (Learning New Skills in Blending).