Tips for Teaching Online

If you are already a good quilting teacher, you will undoubtedly be a good online teacher.  We have found that teaching a class in person is the best foundation for teaching that class online.

Whether you are accustomed to teaching in face-to-face classes or through your books and patterns, you will find some differences when teaching online. You will probably want to adapt your material to those differences, but you can also capitalize on them to enhance your teaching.

Teacher roles in online learning.  Teachers can function in several different ways.  The type of class and the people in the class, as well as the time available, are factors in determining which approach is best.

• Teacher as "source of all wisdom."  Here the student learns by being told. Think of this as an online lecture, with optional home work.
• Teacher sets the task - student learns by doing the task. A very traditional approach.  Many process classes use this exclusively. Be careful that you are not underestimating the ability of your students.  We never want Quilt U students to be bored or think, "Why did I take this class?"
• Teacher acts as a "facilitator," setting the stage with a specially designed open-ended task. Students learn as they work individually or collaborate on the project.  Cooperative learning requires that each student accept responsibility for his/her portion of the task.
• Teacher is a "catalyst," providing a starting point and guidance as required. Students learn by initiating, researching, planning, doing and evaluating. This type of approach would definitely be a process class, one that would probably explore some aspect of quilting in depth.  Projects would appear much later, after class has ended, and the student's ideas have had time to coalesce and mature.

Student roles in online learning.  Your teaching method will result in four distinct type of student roles.  They parallel the teacher approaches above.

• Student receives information - student does the assignment
• Student receives information - collaborates with one or more other students to complete the assignment.
• Several forms of information are presented - student selects, researches and prepares assignment.
• Within the context of the class, student initiates and carries through on a project of his/her own.

Kinds of Lessons for online learning - a class may use one or any combination of these approaches:

• Pattern: "How to make this..."
• Technique: "Use this technique to make..."
• Design: "Experiment with this..."
• Research: "Find something and use (adapt, modify, explain, evaluate, etc.)...."
• Conversation with guests (from anywhere in the world!)
• Questioning and discussion - Why? How? (see Creative Critiquing in the password-protected section of the Faculty Lounge for more ideas)

Many quilt classes are restricted by their time and place constraints. Quilt University will offer both teachers and students the opportunity to do work that is more than just a simple repetition of projects.  When appropriate, classes can be more like seminars.

Go into the password protected area of Faculty Lounge for more in-depth suggestions.