![](\"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0023\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/70\/2018\/09\/How-Change-is-Addressed-by-Leaders-in-Digital-Learning-Environments-1.png\")
<\/p>\nThe infographic below provides five key tips that online instructors should know in order to be effective facilitators.<\/p>\n
The first tip is for online instructors to start with great course design. Online instructors should plan a variety of authentic activities and write clear assignment descriptions (Boettcher, 2013).\u00a0A greater variety of activities provides more effective, engaging learning environments and clear assignment descriptions may reduce student frustration, allowing students to focus on their learning instead of trying to figure out assignment expectations.<\/p>\n
The second tip is for online instructors to provide instructor presence. Online instructors should consider creating intro and weekly videos, post questions encouraging conversation and a deeper exploration of the topic, and connect with students who are absent (Boettcher, 2013; Bull, 2013; Dunlap, 2018). With instructor presence, students may feel more supported and engaged in their course.<\/p>\n
The third tip is for online instructors to develop a course learning community. Students and the instructor can post intro videos to get to know each other, and the instructor should take every opportunity to encourage student-student interaction and communication (Bull, 2013; Dunlap, 2018). The learning community provides students with student-student interaction opportunities and may allow students to feel more engaged and connected.<\/p>\n
The fourth tip is for online instructors to provide quality feedback (Dunlap, 2018). Quality feedback should be clear, actionable, prompt, encouraging, and specific. These words create the mnemonic CAPES, which is easily remembered by thinking that instructors who give great feedback are superheros and therefore wear capes! Quality feedback helps students improve and understand what they need to work on.<\/p>\n
The fifth tip is for online instructors to be enthusiastic and encouraging (Watson, 2016; Woo, 2007). The instructor should explain why people have a passion for the topic and find it exciting. It is preferable that the instructor is also passionate and excited about the topic, or at least tries to be. Finally, the instructor should show students how the topic can help benefit them and what they can do with it so that it is meaningful to them in their contexts and lives. Students may more easily learn the content if it seems to serve a purpose in their life, while enthusiasm and passion for a topic are often very encouraging.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
References<\/strong><\/p>\n Boettcher, J. V. (2013). Ten Best Practices for Teaching Online<\/em>.<\/p>\n Bull, B. (2013). Eight Roles of an Effective Online Teacher<\/em>. Faculty Focus.<\/p>\n Dunlap, J. C., & Lowenthal, P. R. (2018). Online educators\u2019 recommendations for teaching online: Crowdsourcing in action. Open Praxis, 10<\/em>(1), 79\u201389.<\/p>\n Watson, S. L., Loizzo, J., Watson, W. R., Mueller, C., Lim, J., & Ertmer, P. A. (2016). Instructional design, facilitation, and perceived learning outcomes: an exploratory case study of a human trafficking MOOC for attitudinal change. Educational Technology Research and Development, 64<\/em>(6), 1273-1300.<\/p>\n Woo, Y., Herrington, J. A., Agostinho, S., & Reeves, T. C. (2007). Implementing authentic tasks in web-based learning environments<\/em>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The infographic below provides five key tips that online instructors should know in order to be effective facilitators. The first tip is for online instructors to start with great course design. Online instructors should plan a variety of authentic activities and write clear assignment descriptions (Boettcher, 2013).\u00a0A greater variety of activities provides more effective, engaging […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":67,"featured_media":474,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-471","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lrnt528"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/471","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/67"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=471"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/471\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":490,"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/471\/revisions\/490"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/474"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=471"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=471"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=471"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}