and on the right day

Small Teaching Online: Applying Learning Science in Online Classes by Flower Darby

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


This is really well written--lots of concrete activities and strategies to use in the online classroom as well as the theoretical foundation on which that pedagogy is based. The book also points readers to many other books and articles that might interest them.

I was really validated when I read this book because I am employing most of these strategies in my online teaching already.



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I'm planning some small redesign to my courses based on this book, but ultimately it's left me feeling pretty good about what I'm doing.

One of the things the book brings up is that many online teachers were never online students which is certainly true for me. I didn't get the apprenticeship of experience in distance learning that I got in the face-to-face classroom. There were no online classes when I was an undergrad, and Ole Miss didn't offer online grad classes in the humanities until after I was finished (the English faculty at that time was largely aging and tech-averse; for example, when I finished my dissertation, I was already in my current job, and I had to print and snail mail my draft to my director instead of just emailing it to her OMG).

Anyone interested in talking online teaching/learning (either from the professor or student perspective)? I'm in a mood to talk shop.