Foundations of Online Teaching
To help ensure our students get the best quality education possible, Provost Coll has announced that instructors who wish to teach online will be required to take and pass a training on online teaching. In alignment with this, the Center for Teaching and Learning has produced a Foundations of Online Teaching course that all faculty who wish to teach online will be required to participate in.
The Foundations of Online Teaching course is designed to foster peer engagement and the exchange of strategies, helping educators connect around best practices for online teaching. By collaborating with fellow participants, educators will strengthen their ability to design, deliver, and improve high-quality online & hybrid courses. The course focuses on aligning course design with instructional goals, effectively using technology to enhance engagement, and implementing inclusive practices for diverse learners.
Through hands-on activities, reflective practice, and peer discussions, faculty will explore essential skills in course design, interaction, and assessment. Key modules include student success, community building, instructor presence, and authentic assessment, all culminating in an action plan for continuous teaching improvement.
Format
The Foundations of Online Teaching is a seven-week asynchronous course hosted fall of 2024. With no required synchronous sessions, the course offers flexibility while requiring approximately 2-3 hours of work per week, all conducted in Canvas thus giving participants an opportunity to take the course from a student perspective to enhance their own teaching skills. To join us for this course this fall, please navigate to the following link.
This course is made up of 7 learning modules. The 7 learning modules can roughly be broken into two categories: Exploring what might be different when teaching an online or hybrid course (weeks 1, 2, and 3) and course design, for both materials and the course in general (weeks 4, 5, 6, and 7). Week 7 will include a feedback mechanism that asks the participants to reflect on their experience in the course and provide feedback so we can continue to make revisions after each time we run the course.
When is this offered?
The Foundations of Online Teaching course will be held starting the third week of every new term, with some variability in the summer. The course will run for seven weeks and will require approximately two hours of working time every week to complete. Upcoming dates are as follows:
- Winter 2025: January 20, 2025 – March 16, 2025
- Spring 2025: April 14, 2025 – June 1, 2025
- Summer 2025: June 23rd, 2025 – August 10th, 2025
Accommodations
If you would like to request disability related accommodation(s) to participate in a WOU activity or event, please notify Disability Access Services (DAS) at 503-838-8250 or das@wou.edu at least three (3) business days in advance. For ASL interpreting, Typewell transcribing, or captioning services please complete the online request form.
For any questions related to programs and workshops, please email CTL@wou.edu.
