Research Report

On May 28, 2014, Group #1 (Sharon Freeman, Heather Harris, Heather Butler, Kim Gregory) analyzed, discussed and posted a Best Practices Consensus Report. This report was based on the following articles, “Best Practices for Online Instructors” by Wade W. Fish and Leah E. Wickersham, “(My) Three Principles of Effective Online Pedagogy” by Bill Pelz, and “Designing for Learning: Ten Best Practices for Teaching Online Quick Guide for New Online faculty” by J.V. Boettcher.

Upon reading the required reading articles and reviewing Group # 1 comprised List of Best Practices for Online Instruction, a few topics stood out that I would like to implement in my own hybrid teaching.

The following are my topics of interest and credible resources:

1)    Being present in the course. 

·       Establishing Teaching Presence

Oztok, Murat and Clare Brett.  “Social Presence and Online Learning: A Review of Research.”  International Journal of E-learning and Distance Education.  2011. Web. 2 June 2014.

2)    Providing synchronized and asynchronized activities

·       Encouraging Interaction with Class, Groups, One-on-one, etc.

Nandi, Hamilton, and Harland. “Evaluating the quality of interaction in asynchronous discussion forums in fully online courses. Distance Education.” May 2012, Vol. 33 Issue 1, p5-30. 26p.

Wu and Hiltz.. “Predicting Learning From Asynchronous Online Discussions.” JALN Volume 8, Issue 2 — April 2004

Stefan Hrastinski. Asynchronous and Synchronous E-Learning EDUCAUSE Quarterly, vol. 31, no. 4 (October–December 2008). PDF file.

3)    Focusing on content resources

·       Personalized learning

Powers, Lisa ; Alhussain, Ruqaya ; Averbeck, Clemens ; Warner, Andre.  “Perspectives on Distance Education and Social Media.”. Quarterly Review of Distance Education, 2012, Vol.13 (4), p.241-245

While the above topics and resources are of interest for implementation in my courses, they will be beneficial in comprising and completing a sample action plan as well.