How to be a Great Online Teacher

Based on her own teaching experiences as a highly successful online instructor, Lehmann discusses the knowledge base and communication skills necessary to be a high-quality online teacher.

Online teaching is a relatively new but rapidly growing field that requires a new set of teaching skills. How to be a Great Online Teacher is designed to supplement and extend training that is already being offered. Positive, warm, proactive instructor communication is crucial in creating an environment where participants feel valued and safe in developing themselves as online learners. The qualities that describe good teachers: caring, supportive, structured etc. are all especially important in the online world. How those attributes are communicated online is the difference. Since instructor communication skills are crucial to the success of a course or program it would follow that these skills are purposefully taught and instructors supported as they develop these skills. Unfortunately, most instructor training programs feature the tools of online learning, not the teaching and communication skills. The developers of these tool-based training programs probably assume, albeit wrongly, that communication and teaching skills can be transferred directly and easily from the face-to-face environment to the online environment. This is not always the case. While there are similarities in teaching within both of these environments there are marked differences as well. Lehmann deals just with the knowledge base and communication skills necessary to be a high-quality online teacher. Based on her actual teaching experiences as a highly successful online instructor, Lehmann includes examples of real student/instructor communications as well as tips for working efficiently. How to be a Great Online Teacher is highly readable and organized so that the reader can refer to specific sections as future needs arise. This book is for anyone teaching online courses. It could also be used as a textbook or supplemental reading for online instructor training programs.