Teaching online involves different preparation than teaching in a face-to-face class. Here are some resources to help you prepare.

Workshops

We offer Technology Training Workshops on a variety of topics throughout the semester, so be sure to check out the ones on the learning management system you will be using for your online course, be it myDU or Blackboard. That's just the start of it, though. Next, you want to learn what to do in those sites. By next year, we hope to have full-blown tutorials on online pedagogical practices in same Blackboard and myDU sites. You will be engaged in each of these courses the same way a student would be, so that you get the "feel" for a class from the students' perspective. Until then, check out of the information below.

Online Classroom newsletter

Dominican has a group subscription to Online Classroom, a publication from Magna Publications, the same folks who publish The Teaching Professor. Each issue is full of tips for faculty teaching online.

Because it is limited to Dominican faculty members, send Ken Black an email from your Dominican email address requesting information on how to get access to this wonderful publication. Email Ken at: kblack@dom.edu.

Various Enhancements to the Online Experience

Voice-Overs

One thing some faculty members have done is create voice-over productions of their PowerPoint lectures. Treat this in the same way you use PowerPoint in a face-to-face class:  don't read the slides, but rather talk about the topic the way you would in a regular classroom. We have a tool for doing this called Camtasia Studio. You will need: an IT Help Desk request to get the software installed, and a microphone/headset combination so that you can narrate your material. We have some documentation on using Camtasia on our myDU pages.

Camtasia can also be used for anything where you want to demonstrate something on your computer screen. This is terrific for times when you want to narrate your students through a website, explain how to do something in Word, Excel, or any other application, or even show a few pictures you have on your hard drive.

If you want just make an audio recording of something (without visuals), Camtasia can do, that, too — but it's probably overkill. There are many free applications on the web for that, but one of the most popular is Audacity. You can download Audacity at the Sourceforge web site for free. If you plan to save your audio recordings in the popular MP3 format, you also want to make absolutely certain you download the LAME MP3 Encoder. There are versions of the LAME MP3 Encoder available for download at the Audacity site for both Windows users as well as Mac users

Video

Dominican's LiveDU server is a Mac-based server that includes the ability to upload video podcasts. If you have a student assistant in your department, he can be trained on how to record a lecture and upload it to the LiveDU server. Your students can then retrieve the lectures by logging into the site using their Dominican network user name and password. There is a nice overview, as well as a downloadable proposal form on the LiveDU site.

Blogs/Wikis

The LiveDU server also has the ability to host blogs and wikis. Contact the IT Help Desk for requesting a slot for your course. Students (and you) will have to login to the site using your Dominican network user name and password.