Course Checklist

General Considerations:

• Does your course description match the description in the Course Catalogue?
• Will your learners be on grounds as well as off grounds?
• Will you have a teaching assistant or grader available to support you? If so, has the specific individual been identified to work with your class?

The Classroom:

• Have you practiced using the equipment in the room from which you will be teaching?
• Do you feel comfortable interacting with the equipment in your room?
• Have you reviewed all of your Video Classroom Orientation materials?

The Course Content:

• Have you identified the instructional content and developed corresponding goals to guide your design of the instruction?
• Have you logically sequenced your content for optimal learning?
• Have you divided your content into manageable segments of information?

Performance/Assessment:

• Have you developed specific, measurable objectives to correspond with every content segment?
• Have you written assessment items to correspond to your objectives?
• Are there opportunities for students to be both formally and informally assessed?
• Will students be provided with frequent instructor feedback?
• Will students have sufficient time and opportunity to work towards performance improvement after receiving feedback?

Teaching & Learning Activities:

• Have you outlined your proposed lesson plans for each class meeting?
• Have you chosen a variety of instructional strategies that are appropriate for you type of content?
• Have you created opportunities for frequent student/instructor interaction?
• Have you created opportunities for frequent student/student interaction?
• Have you built in opportunities for collaborative learning across sites?

Support Materials:

• Have you created/organized all support materials, such as your course syllabus?
• Have you chosen your reading materials and textbook?
• Have you selected appropriate instructional technologies to reinforce teaching points and/or to provide learners with access to course materials?

Preparing to Teach at a Distance: Supporting Learner Success

The following questions refer to you learners and their specific needs. Considering learner support needs is a key part of the teaching and learning process. These needs influence the overall course development process and will continue to guide you once your classes have begun to meet. As you proceed through the semester and grow to learn more about your particular group of learners, you may wish to refer to these questions from time to time to ensure that you are fostering an interactive learning community.

• Have you examined your learners (both on-grounds and at your sites) to determine those characteristics that will influence your instructional decisions?
• Have you assessed your learners’ prior knowledge level, both on-grounds and at your sites?
• Have you provided/created support resources for your learners? (These include academic, administrative and technical support resources.)
• Have you clearly delineated and articulated your learner expectations to your learners?
• Have you provided learners with mechanisms by which they may regularly communicate with you?
• Have you fostered development of a learning community? Have you made all necessary support materials accessible to all of your students?