The guiding principles for teaching face-to-face courses are also relevant in an online learning environment. You may be familiar the study Seven Principles For Good Practice in Undergraduate Education by Chickering and Gamson (1987). They found that good practice in undergraduate education:

  1. Encourages contact between students and faculty
  2. Develops reciprocity and cooperation among students
  3. Encourages active learning
  4. Gives prompt feedback
  5. Emphasizes time on task
  6. Communicates high expectations
  7. Respects diverse talents and ways of learning.

Another article called Implementing the Seven Principles: Technology as Lever by Chickering and Ehrmann (1996) provides ideas for utilizing communication and information technologies in ways that are consistent with the seven principles: “For any given instructional strategy, some technologies are better that others: it’s better to turn a screw with a screwdriver than a hammer—a dime may also do the trick, but a screwdriver is usually better.” Many new technologies have arised since 1996 when that study was published, and the benefits of using technology as a tool for teaching are greater than ever before. There are new ways to share information that many college students may understand better than their instructors. Online instructors must learn to utilize new technologies at least as effectively as the students that they are teaching if they are to be respected for the way that they are presenting information. If instructors do not utilize technology in an appropriate way, then their students will view them like the person who is turning a screw with a dime. That being said, do not use a tool just for the sake of using that tool.

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