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Instructing Online

• Publish a comprehensive outline and study guide for the course.
• Plan carefully. Allocate time, and think through directions for the activities and the presentation. Ask someone to read the directions.
• Require learners to participate in discussions and e-mail exchanges. Assign work groups.
• Keep your commentary lively.
• Respond to students' emails in a timely manner. Let the students know how soon you will be able to respond to their questions. It usually helps to have a 24-hour turn-around time stated so that a person who emails at midnight does not expect an immediate response.
• Teach with a variety of activities and real-life examples.
• Set up multiple interactive exercises for students with different learning styles.
• Learn to read learners' attitudes and signals through the text or verbal response.
• Move from being the "class sage on the stage" to being a virtual facilitator.

Motivating Adult Learners Online

• Tell learners what they are expected to do at the beginning of a course.
• Ask learners what they expect to learn.
• Ask learners to rate the importance of the objectives in order to understand what they want to get from the course.
• Ask learners to be open-minded and positive towards a Web-based approach even if they are tentative of this new situation.
• Let them know that you will do everything possible to help them succeed in this new format.
• Ask learners to commit to a study schedule.
• Relate the learning to real life circumstances as often as possible.
• Increase the human interaction in the course.
• Encourage learners to contact you for assistance, if they have any problems.