Best Practices for Online Learning

Every opportunity is accompanied by several responsibilities. For universities and colleges, this responsibility entails the necessity to adopt best practice that effectively engage students in online classrooms to promote learning. The purpose of this research is to identify the best practices for effective engagement of students in online classrooms. Background Technological advancements have greatly transformed that teaching and learning process. The increased global interest in higher education has further contributed towards the adoption of online learning as an acceptable teaching and learning medium is many universities. “Unlike face-to-face courses, online courses present a unique challenge as the only social presence between the faculty and the student is via the internet” (Khan, Egbue, Palkie, & Madden, 2017). Another challenge is that the course development and design should occur before the material is actually delivered.

Also, effective management of resources and time is important for both the instructors and learners. The techniques of boosting student interactions plus communications also differ greatly from the face-to-face delivery techniques. For most faculty, implementing teaching and learning tools when delivering online courses is quite challenging. Active involvement of instructors in the learning process Studies have revealed the need for collaboration and cooperation between students and their instructors (Britt, Goon, & Timmerman, 2015). An effective instructor presence is fundamental to create a sense of connectedness in the students. Instructors should be actively involved in the learning process but minimally in discussions. Maintaining consistency and having clear deadlines to lessen student confusions In online learning classrooms, consistency is important to ensure that student follows a certain structure from week to week.