Jump-Start Your Online Classroom: Mastering Five Challenges in Five Days

Every year, more online or technology-enhanced learning experiences are added to the landscape of education, and the number of students taking online courses on residential campuses continues to grow. In addition, new instructional tools are creating environments that are mobile, interactive, and collaborative. These trends present challenges to the online classroom, and this book will help instructors meet those challenges.

Jump-Start Your Online Classroom prepares a first-time online instructor to successfully manage the first few weeks of a course, including activities to help instructors plan, manage, and facilitate online instruction; and provides resources helpful during the beginning weeks of class. Each chapter is developed around the immediate challenges instructors face when teaching online. The authors address everyday problems and suggest solutions informed by their extensive research and experience. The five challenges, which are designed to be addressed in five days, are to:
• Make the transition to online teaching
• Build online spaces for learning
• Prepare students for online learning
• Manage and facilitating the online classroom
• Assess learner outcomes in an online classroom

The book is based on the authors’ design and facilitation model that identifies five elements comprising an online learning environment: digital tools, participants, social practices, learning community, and outcomes. The book shows how each of those aspects influences instructional practices and interacts to create an environment for a meaningful online educational experience.

David S. Stein is an associate professor in the College of Education and Human Ecology at The Ohio State University. He specializes in adult teaching and learning. Dr. Stein has conducted workshops on principles of adult teaching and has served as a consultant to the Ohio Board of Regents, the Supreme Court of Ohio Judicial College, the Columbus (Ohio) City Schools, the Ohio Learning Network, the Digital Union at Ohio State, professional associations, and other universities. He has presented at numerous conferences on adult and online learning and has written extensively on how adults learn in online environments. He serves on the conference planning committee for the Distance Teaching and Learning Conference in Madison, Wisc. Dr. Stein received his Ph.D. in adult education from the University of Michigan and earned an M.S. in community health planning and administration from the University of Cincinnati.

Constance E. Wanstreet is an adjunct assistant professor in the College of Education and Human Ecology at The Ohio State University. She has developed and implemented training programs for adult learners in workplace settings and pioneered the use of training via videoconference for a major national corporation. Dr. Wanstreet has served as a consultant to the Ohio Board of Regents, the Supreme Court of Ohio Judicial College, the Columbus (Ohio) City Schools, the Ohio Learning Network, and the Digital Union at Ohio State. She has presented at numerous international and national conferences, primarily on how adults learn online. She received her Ph.D. in workforce development and education from The Ohio State University.