Teaching Online: A Practical Guide (College Teaching) [Paperback]

Susan Ko (Author), Steve Rossen (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0618298487 | ISBN-13: 978-0618298488 | Publication Date: June 6, 2003 | Edition: 2nd

Teaching Online is a practical, concise guide for instructors teaching distance-learning courses or instructors supplementing a traditional classroom with online elements. This pocket-sized, portable book can be used as either a course text or a professional resource.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"The strengths are the thoroughness of topics covered and the practical approach to the discussion of those topics and the examples used."

About the Author

Susan Ko received her Ph.D. in 1991 from Yale University and has over ten years' experience teaching and developing courses in humanities, interdisciplinary studies, Asian Studies, and world literature. She has particular expertise working with adult students, non-traditional students, and in distance education. She currently serves as executive director of online curriculum and instructor development for Online Higher Education, a division of Sylvan Learning Systems, where she customizes instructor training programs and oversees curriculum conversion for a variety of institutions. She recently appeared on the PBS Adult Learning Services program, "Surviving and Thriving in your First Online Course," part of the Instructional Technology Survival Skills series.

Steve Rossen has been working with instructors using technology in the classroom and on the Web since 1994. After earning an M.Ed in Educational Technology from California State University, he on to manage UCLA's Faculty New Media Center, a center/lab where instructors and TA's experiment with, train with, and use new media technologies. He brings to this field experience gained from working in both the broadcast and publishing industries as a writer/producer and novelist.

He has been an online instructor for over five years at UCLA Extension, where he created two innovative courses for the Online Teaching Program:"Creating and Using Multimedia Online" and "Streaming Media." In addition, he is a candidate for an MLIS from UCLA's Graduate School of Information Science and is expects to receive his degree in June, 2004.

Product Details

• Paperback: 339 pages
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Company; 2nd edition (June 6, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0618298487
• ISBN-13: 978-0618298488
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.1 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #742,805 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

49 of 49 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This book is my blueprint!, December 14, 2003

By 

Donna Austin (Shreveport, LA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Teaching Online: A Practical Guide (College Teaching) (Paperback)

I am the Director of the Teaching, Learning and Technology Center at LSU in Shreveport. I use this book as my textbook each semester as I lead a group of faculty in a ten-week training class on "How to Teach Online." Each person receives their own copy of the book. We have our class almost totally online so the students (faculty members) can actually feel how it is to "learn" online.

We go through the Ko and Rossen book chapter by chapter. It is very solid and answers almost every question my students have. They finish the ten weeks knowing much more than they ever imagined about teaching online thanks to Ko and Rossen's frank and helpful hints and remedies. I feel that the easy-to-understand principles put forth in this book are the best out there if one is looking for a place to build a solid foundation and learn the rules of online teaching and learning.

The references and websites given at the end of each chapter are very helpful and give you a place to go to learn even more. Ko and Rossen give some very good examples of real life experiences of teaching online. If someone is looking for a place to start in order to learn about teaching online, then this is the book to read.

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good, solid book, May 8, 2006

By 

Patrick Artz (Omaha, NE United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Teaching Online: A Practical Guide (College Teaching) (Paperback)

If you need a text to support faculty workshops for online education, then this is a very good choice. It walks beginners through the landmines of online education very nicely. The suggestions coincide with my own personal experiences, so the "practical" part of the title certainly is accurate. I like the web links - hopefully those links can stay reasonably current, perhaps through a student/instructor web site for the book?

I give the book only four stars rather than five because it lacks some of the academic depth that I need for my online program in instructional technology. I need to introduce students to the field of study in an academic as well as a practical way, and this book focuses strictly on the practical side rather than the academic side. That is certainly a great approach, but it doesn't quite fulfill my needs for an instructional technology class, and so I have had to supplement it with outside readings/articles.

This little book is great. Other great little books that I pondered before choosing this one included "Essential Elements: Prepare, Design, and Teach Your Online Course," and "The Virtual Student: A Profile and Guide to Working with Online Learners.

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Interesting but way outdated!, January 20, 2008

By 

Jose Ernesto Padilla Gomez "Ernesto Padilla" (El Salvador, Centro America) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Teaching Online: A Practical Guide (College Teaching) (Paperback)

I reviewed practically every book in amazon regarding this theme, I chose this one because it had the best reviews in its kind. But when I actually got it I felt dissapointed because of a couple of things:

1. This is not a book, Its barely a manual!, It has the size of a printer manual, both in height, width and number of pages. When I pay more than 40 bucks plus shipping the least I expect is a serious book.
2. This book was written when Netscape was still alive!, I mean at least the author could have updated it to talk about Firefox and Opera, but the examples remained.
3. It's oriented for people who don't know much about computers, if you're computer savvy, it's probably best that you skip this book.