Lawrence Duplechan III

Focus on creating an environment that gives all students the opportunity to learn and grow within the class. Establish netiquette early, and monitor discussion posts closely to ensure that those rules are being followed. Keep a close eye on all students participation and achievement to decrease attrition as much as possible throughout the course of the class.

Managing an online class means navigating the class size, engagement of all students, and various learning styles of those students. Having options of both asynchronous and synchronous assignments, closely monitoring information retention, and providing opportunities for all students to remain engaged with the material will help to ensure success as an online instructor.

Building rapport with students asynchronously is different than a physical classroom in that I must be mindful that providing visual and auditory information about myself through video or auditory recordings gives them a truer sense of who I am. I also need to make sure that I provide them the opportunity to give similar information about themselves so that they feels seen, heard, and cared for by their instructor. 

Decide on items such as content delivery, quiz/information access, and my ability to be available to students when needed for both contextual and technical support. Because the course is asynchronous, I need to be more on top of students' experience to ensure that they have a similar experience within the course as if they were in person.

To pay attention to the various learning styles of my students, and adjust my delivery method to make everyone feel included. To include demonstrations, examples, questions, etc. to allow students to grasp material through different means for improved retention.

Prepare an environment and plan for the first day that allows the students to get to know me as their instructor, as well as each other as classmates. To ease nervousness by having a succinct, easy to follow plan for the course that include goals, expectations, and learning objects so that the students leave the first day confident in their capabilities to succeed. 

Planning all aspects of the course ahead of time is beneficial not only to myself, but to my students as well. They will be able to see my preparedness, and feel as though their professor is professional; modeling behavior that I expect from them. Getting into habits like arriving to class early also gives the opportunity to know students on a personal level, and provide them a safe space to grow within the classroom through trust in me as their instructor.

I've learned to model to my students the behaviors that I expect them to demonstrate both in the classroom, and in the workforce. To always look for ways to improve my teaching capabilities to ensure that my students are receiving the best information possible throughout my classes.