Principle #1 Practices:

1. Be sure to use the current, approved Syllabus template that has language about university policies. No need to recreate the wheel; we have done most of the work for you.

2. Respond to every Introduction post in your course, and if you don’t have one, you can create it – no points need to be assigned. This is a great way to establish a warm, inviting and personable presence right away. First impressions are so important!

3. Ask for and publicize the use of the Start Here menu that has netiquette guidelines listed. And, even though emoticons are not suggested, feel free to let your personality shine in your communication with students!

4. Monitor and post in the Discussion Boards frequently to model, coach and facilitate the learning.

Principle #2 Practices:

1. Set-up your NLU email to go to your smart devices so responding is more efficient—it only takes 5 minutes to set up!

2. Post a Weekly Announcement that summarizes the expectations for the week. Students flourish when they are reminded of what bar to rise to.

3. Post a Weekly Wrap-Up that summarizes what was covered and perhaps group-level feedback on the activities and/or assignments that you observed and graded that week. Saves you time on giving the same feedback to everyone, individually!

4. Host and post at least one hour of office hours, preferably synchronously.

• TIP: we have free Zoom accounts you can use -- did you know that web conferencing is considered as rich a communication channel as face-to-face meetings?

5. Provide substantive feedback on all written assignment submissions that minimally includes, a) how the student performed overall, b) specific details on areas of strength and items that could be improved, and, c) advice for the next submission. Additionally, make sure to use the rubric for each assignment so students can compare the assignment feedback to the criteria in the rubric.

6. Provide feedback on Discussion items, even if you are simply reinforcing the points you had already made while you were facilitating the Discussion earlier in the week. For example, “I responded to your initial post in the Forum, you did an excellent job highlighting how important start-up financing is to a small business – great work!”

Principle #3 Practices:

1. Did you ever send an email to someone and never hear back from them? Did you feel valued? Our students feel the same way when they craft a response to a Discussion prompt and no one replies.

a. TIP: In small classes, we want to strongly encourage you to respond to each initial post to encourage the dialog between peers and to encourage them to interact with other materials on the subject matter. For example, “Julie, this is a great definition of micro-financing – thank you! As I was reading it, I was thinking about developing nations and how critical this type of financing can be in building critical infrastructure and economic sustainability. Here is a video <link> on that – what are your thoughts?”

b. TIP: In larger classes, we suggest you respond to at least 30% of initial posts each week and rotate through the class roster so that in just about three weeks, each student has at least one response from you on their initial post—by the end of the course, they likely have at least two. What a great way to demonstrate you value their input!

2. Set up an alert on the Class Café and/or Question forum(s) so you can immediately reply to student posts/questions in this area. A huge time saver!

Principle #4 Practices:

1. Utilize the Rubrics loaded in templated courses for each graded item. TIP: if there are no Rubrics in your course, please ask your Chair/Program Director/Lead for examples for you to load and use.

2. Grade all assignments within 7 calendar days and provide substantive feedback on written assignments and reinforcing feedback on Discussions, at a minimum.

3. It’s an expected practice to email students who do not turn in work by the deadline to remind them of the missing work and/or to offer assistance or referrals to tutoring or other academic services. Also, use EAB to flag these instances, especially if they are chronic, so the Student Success Coaches or Academic Advisors can follow up.

4. Email students who are failing at the midpoint and raise EAB flag for intervention.

5. Especially in Gateway courses and/or those that are a prerequisite for another, we want to encourage you to create an EAB flag during the last week of the class if a student is failing. This helps our advising department reschedule students appropriately.

6. Oh, and please don’t forget that your final grades need to be entered into Banner within 10 calendar days.

Principle #5 Practices:

1. Be sure the following are clearly outlined in your syllabus and in D2L:

a. Your turnaround time for student inquires (see # 2).

b. Your turnaround time for grading (see #4).

c. Your expectations about online participation (discussion posting frequency and word counts / examples of substantive posts / frequency of participating in the course each week, if applicable),

d. Your late work policy. Most departments have general guidelines around late work policies; please do state them clearly. If you are taking late work, clearly articulate the penalty expressed as points or percentages and the increment (day, week, etc.).

e. A weekly outline of course activities and assignments with due dates – in the syllabus and in D2L, please.

f. A clear grading matrix that shows what points and percentages are allocated to each graded item (be sure the syllabus matches D2L).

g. TIP: If the term starts on any other day than Monday, please document that you will take late work with no penalty into the following week. Your Department Chair/Program Director/Lead can answer questions about this if you need assistance.

2. Turn on TurnItIn for written assignments and communicate this feature to your students during the first week of the course—you can also encourage students to view their own reports (if you select the student view setting).

Principle #6 Practices:

1. Most templated courses already have a mix of course materials; feel free to utilize video, audio and multimedia in the Discussion forum. It is very easy to insert videos in the Discussion forum using “Insert Stuff” on the reply menu!

2. Utilize audio feedback on assignments and/or discussion grading, as applicable.

• TIP: Panopto is embedded into D2L and allows you to record up to 3 minutes, which is plenty of time for audio feedback.

Principle #7 Practices:

1. Don’t forget that first impression in the Introduction post; this is a great way to model what healthy interactivity looks like in an online class—from the very first day!

2. Utilize peer review for one assignment in your course.

3. Upgrade one assignment to a group assignment (be sure to ask for individual group member reviews to enforce group citizenship).

4. Refer students to other student posts in the Discussion board that either a) align to, or, b) directly oppose that student’s post to encourage dialog and debate.

Principle #8 Practices:

1. Just login each day – trust us! There is plenty to do in an online course, each day. TIP: if you are going to be absent from an online course for more than 3 days, please contact your Department Chair/Program Director/Lead to let them know. We are here to help!

2. A lot of that logging in each day will be dedicated to Direct Instruction. It is critical and about compliance, in addition to student learning.

a. In fully online courses, all the time you would spend teaching a face-to-face course (Direct Instruction) is spent on the following items:

i. Facilitating Discussion Forums that are counted as part of Direct Instruction for the course.

ii. Responding to student questions in Class Café and Question forums.

iii. Responding to student questions via email and phone.

iv. Hosting office hours and/or other synchronous meetings/events with your students.

b. 1QH is 10 hours of Direct Instruction over the 5-10 weeks the course meets.

c. 1SH is 16.67 hours of Direct Instruction over the 5-10 weeks the course meets.

3. The rest of your logging in each day is grading, which is not counted towards Direct Instruction.

• TIP: Many online faculty “chunk up” their grading time so that they grade Discussions on Mondays and Tuesdays and Written Assignments over Wednesdays through that Friday (so they can also enjoy their weekends and to keep the grading well within the 7 day turnaround time we ask of you at NLU).

Principle #9 Practices:

1. Post Weekly Announcements each Sunday evening (TIP: you can schedule them to post) that reiterate what is due that week and suggest when to start items for helpful references.

2. Schedule your grading and try to stay consistent so students generally know when to look for their grades.

• TIP: send the students an email when that weeks’ grading is done – they always appreciate knowing!

3. Email students who are missing work each week and utilize EAB to call for other resources to intervene.

Principle #10 Practices:

1. Be sure to give yourself enough time to prep your course prior to the two-week pre-term deadline where we ask each faculty member to have the following in their courses:

a. A customized syllabus with correct course start/end dates.

b. Assignments set up that match the syllabus.

c. Gradebook set up that matches the Syllabus.

d. The course is brought active.

e. TIP: reach out the NLU helpdesk if something isn’t working correctly or if you are experiencing issues setting up your course—they are here to help!

2. Set aside time each week to reflect on how the course went that past week. View Student Analytics and review grades for potential in-course corrections that need to be made. TIP: many faculty keep teaching reflection journals to continue to improve on their practice and recall what went right, wrong or indifferent in their courses. Try it!

3. Cross-reference the Syllabus and textbook to each module to be sure nothing has changed. We also recommend clicking the links in your course to be sure they are all still working before that week opens.