Customer Reviews

Teaching Online: A Practical Guide (College Teaching)

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

I've taught humanities online for quite awhile. A couple of years ago, I began searching for a single resource that, not only included the basics, but provided an additional (or possibly affirming) perspective on the use of online tools and strategies.

Having, previously, purchased a number of books on distance education and online learning, I eventually decided to give Ko and Rossen a go and was pleasantly surprised. The book certainly covers the basics and I believe, for anyone just beginning in online, it may prove quite useful in, not only design, strategy, and structure, but in anticipating and resolving some of the problems and issues that may tend to arise in an online environment.

I continue to use it, from time to time, as a checklist in development and as a refresher or when I find a course is becoming somewhat repetitive or mechanical. I can easily see how Ko and Rossen may be adopted as a text for instruction or use in faculty development for online. Additionally, I've referred it to a number of colleagues who are inexperienced in developing for, or in converting existing materials to, online.

I think, even if one is teaching a prepackaged course, this book has many things to offer including strategies for dealing with troublesome students and working with asynchronous discussions. A great little book and well worth the cost.

Our instructor certification course is heavy on skill building. We've used both the first and second edition of the Ko and Rossen in our course in order to build in more discussion of pedagogical issues, to provide additional depth on core topics and provide more tips on course management.

This book is very readable. The book begins by addressing issues in preparation of an online class, including a discussion of instructor and institution resources. Also included are chapters on student preparation, student assessment and copyright.
The strength of the book, however, is in the chapters that discuss the workings of the online classroom itself. What areas should my online classroom contain? How do I go from lectures to online activities? How do I encourage participation, yet manage my workload? How do I manage the behavior of disruptive students? I would definitely recommend the book for new teachers of online classes. The book has enough depth that even experienced teachers can use it to review their current practices.

This book covers everything that you would need to "ponder' when creating or converting online lessons. I use it for my online college course as a textbook on "How to Teach Online". Definitely a "must read" for organizing your thoughts and your process.

This was a good book, but a bit out of date.

An issue with mechanics of delivery. The package arrived full of ants. This was isolated to this package, as it came to a post office "hold mail" reserve. The post office sprayed the package to kill the ants, which certainly affected the readibility of the book

This is a fascinating and extremely informative book. This book has helped me in looking at a students perspective when being an instructor; given me new web-sites to visit and helped me gain a greater knowledge of technology in general. I'd highly recomend this book for anybody interested in teaching an online or hybrid class! It was 'more' than worth the money spent for it!

Teaching Online: A Practical Guide (College Teaching Series)

I was kind of nervous about ordering a book from amazon, I went back and forth trying to decide. So I ordered and when I got the book it was better than I could have imagined. The condition was excellent, I will definitely use amazon again!