This course is intended primarily for NOVA faculty to help them make the transition from teaching in the classroom to teaching on line.

In this online course you will experience and learn from the student’s perspective. Teaching online successfully requires some of the same skills as teaching in the classroom, but involves a few additional ones as well.  This eight-week online course will guide you through:

• a refresher on some basic pedagogical principles
• the exploration of useful technologies
• an introduction to required administrative tasks

all while you are participating as an online student.  You will find out if online teaching is right for you, what skills you will need to teach online, what technology you will need to employ and therefore know, and how to engage students to become active learners.  You will grapple with some of the barriers to successful online learning and at the same time find strategies for motivating yourself to persist and finish.  You will experience learning online as part of a community.

This is a three-credit course compressed into eight weeks; expect to spend the equivalent of about two days a week on course work. Because many of the assignments involve discussion and other forms of collaboration, assignments are completed on a weekly schedule, with some mid-week due dates.

Admission to this course is by permission of the instructors. To be admitted, you must meet the following prerequisites:

1. You must have taught in the classroom for at least one semester.
2. You must have training or experience in using Blackboard as an instructor.

If you do well in this course, you will be able to:

1. Identify and establish social presence.
2. Provide personal, effective, and motivating feedback in writing.
3. Identify active learning techniques that engage students and allow them to contribute to the course.
4. Identify the characteristics of a successful online facilitator.
5. Identify and establish the basics of a learning community within your course.
6. Create a multimedia presentation with several new technology tools.
7. Identify and describe a technology new to you and explain how you can effectively utilize it within your course.
8. Use technology effectively within your course.
9. Identify and recall the steps needed to successfully view and print course rosters within PeopleSoft.
10. Identify the steps and the importance of creating an assessment rubric.
11.  Identify and recall time management techniques.

The required textbook for this course is:

• Palloff, R. and Pratt K. (2007). Building Online Learning Communities: Effective Strategies for the Virtual Classroom. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

You will also need a microphone and speakers (or a headset) with your computer to participate in an eNova session.

For information on how to order your textbooks, go to http://eli.nvcc.edu/books/

Your course grade will be determined according to the points in the tables below. To receive a VCCS certificate of completion, you must complete ALL assignments and achieve a minimum of 800 of the 1000 points (80%).

There are no proctored exams in this course.

We are here to help you succeed in this course. Occasionally questions or problems may arise. Here is how to contact us when they do:

You may also schedule a meeting in person at our campus offices.

1. Use your web browser to connect to http://www.nvcc.edu/bbstart. Follow the directions to determine your email, Blackboard and VIVA account user names and passwords.
2. Access your email account and make sure you know how to use it; you will be required to use this account for all course-related email.
3. Log on to Blackboard at http://learn.vccs.edu.
4. Click on this course under "My Courses." Review the entire course to make sure you understand what will be required of you. Then start completing the assignments.

Please note that account generation takes approximately one week from the time of your paid registration. If you cannot log on after one week, contact the IT Help Desk. If you can log on to Blackboard, but your course isn't listed, please contact ELI or your instructor.