How are Online Classes Different?

 

 What's the difference?

If you're new to online teaching and learning, you may be wondering what it's all about. Often faculty have ideas about online classes based on what they have heard from colleagues here at IU or at other schools. What do you think about online classes?

Additional misconceptions about online classes include:

  • You don't know your students

    Because you don't meet in-person, many faculty believe that you can't get to know your students in an online class. Experienced faculty report that they often feel they know their online students better than the students in their in-person classes. This is because students who would never speak up in a classroom can feel much more comfortable participating in an online discussion forum, where they have more time to think about what they want to say.  

  • Everybody goes at their own pace

    A standard "everyone progresses together" course is much more efficient and enjoyable for both students and faculty. This is due to the need for ongoing interaction between students, the nature of collaborative work, and the simple issue of logistics.

  • I have to be available 24/7

    Just because students may email you in the middle of the night does not mean you need to respond to them in the middle of the night. While student questions should be replied to in a timely manner, an immediate response is an unreasonable expectation for both students and faculty. Your syllabus should explain your availability and turn-around time for messages (replying within a 24 hour period is recommended) and your preferred contact method.

  • Everything has to be written

    Online courses are different from paper correspondence courses in many ways, one of which is the use of audio and video, by both instructors and students. Using phones, tablets, and webcams, faculty can interact with students asynchronously (or synchronously) from with video introductions and video-based feedback to interactive group presentations. 

Experienced voices

Experienced online instructors uncover their misconceptions over time. In an article in the magazine eLearn, Michelle Everson, a statistics instructor, shares 10 things that she learned about teaching online Links to an external site. over the course of 5 years. While everything she shares is insightful, a few points below highlight the dissonance that some new online instructors can feel.

  • Communication can take longer

    One issue that new online instructors may not consider is that "questions that can be answered verbally in the classroom require a written explanation in the online course, and sometimes, it takes more time to write out a sensible explanation than to say it." In Canvas, it's easy to use video or audio to explain, but, for most faculty, writing will come more naturally.

  • The workload is more diffuse

    Michelle writes that

    "In some ways, I think the workload for an online course is similar to that of a face-to-face environment — but it seems like more work because it's not as concentrated. For example, in a classroom, an instructor may do the bulk of her work for the week while she is meeting with students, and if all students are together in one place, announcements can be made and questions can be answered for the entire class. In other words, a great deal of teaching can be done in one sitting. An activity (or several activities) can be completed during a single class period, and any issues related to that activity will be discussed in real time with the entire class. Then everybody moves onto the next thing simultaneously.

    In the online setting, though, the workload is distributed. Students will likely be working at different times during the week, and their questions will trickle in accordingly. Plus, an activity that might take 20 minutes to complete in a classroom setting might take a few days to discuss online, especially if students are not able to be online together at the same time."

  • Students want to hear from you

    When Michelle first started teaching online, she didn't participate much in student discussions. She, like many new online instructors, didn't want to stifle the students' voices in discussion, and she wanted to give them a place to work together. Student feedback showed that "the students wanted to hear more from me, if anything just to let them know they are on the right track. I now make it a point to participate more and to make sure that students know I'm there in case they need me. I cheer them on, or question them, or provide direct instruction or other examples for them to think about if they are struggling. There are many ways to participate without necessarily giving away all the answers."

Other commonly experienced differences include

  • You don't have to think of your class in terms of MWF 10-10:50 time blocks

    In an in-person class, you may regularly run out of time to finish discussing or explaining something. You may choose to start the next class by finishing the previous class session or you may choose to let it go and move on to what you had planned for the next class. In an online class, all of your explanations and examples are there in a module for your students from the beginning so you won't run out of time. In addition, if students want to continue discussing questions related to the original module, they can do so in its discussion forum without taking time away from the discussion in the following module. While this isn't an open invitation to put an unlimited amount of content into the course, it does mean your students have a much better chance to work with all the topics in the course and not miss out on things that tend to "drop off" the end of the course for lack of time.

  • Students may expect an online class to be less work than an in-person class

    Based on a long history of correspondence courses that required no active engagement or interaction, students often think online courses are simply correspondence courses online. Real online courses require both student-instructor interaction and student-student interaction on a regular basis. Students are also expected to actively engage with the content and receive frequent feedback on their progress. Online courses that don't include regular interaction and frequent instructor-initiated feedback are considered to be correspondence courses, and students will not be able to use financial aid to pay for them. Links to an external site. Setting clear expectations up front for both you and your students is often more important in an online class than an in-person class. 

For more, take a few minutes to read Dr. Michelle Pacansky-Brock Links to an external site.'s thoughtful piece on online teaching and learning, A Love Letter to Online Learning. Links to an external site.

tools.png Different Skills

Teaching an online class requires additional skills that you may not normally use when teaching in-person classes. The survey on the following page will let you check your technology, pedagogy, and organizational skills and attitudes related to teaching online.