Scenario

Dr. Russo felt pretty good about the online course she prepared. Not only did she have all of the course's materials and activities created in advance, she had the readings, lectures, assignments, and discussions organized into weekly modules in the LMS. She was going to have additional departmental responsibilities and an upcoming important conference presentation to prepare and deliver, so she knew she would have a hard time juggling everything this term. To give herself more time to concentrate on these other obligations, Dr. Russo used functionality in the LMS that would time the release of module resources to match the schedule in the syllabus. "I've done so much work ahead of time, this course should practically run itself! As long as students pay attention and follow along, that's one less thing for me to worry about," she thought.

Fast forward to the end of the course: performance by the class as a whole was uninspired. The discussions lacked substance, and in some cases, veered wildly off-topic. Assignments were completed with the bare minimum of effort, and many submissions were off-track as students either misinterpreted or ignored instructions. Most disconcerting were the end-of-course surveys: while Dr. Russo typically received praise for her warm and engaging teaching style, in this course, she was criticized for her lack of responsiveness and her general absence as a resource for students.

Have you been tempted to think that the work for an online course takes place in the building of the content and that students will just follow the path laid out for them in the LMS and syllabus?

In this module, you will see that there are ways you can avoid this misconception and actively engage students in the course through your presence, the content, and with each other.