Jeremiah Parry-Hill—During the spring semester, RIT’s Teaching and Learning Services hosted a series of workshops for faculty new to developing online courses. After each faculty member taught their newly designed course for the first time, we asked them to write a reflection on how the course went and how they would improve the course before the next offering. With their permission, we’ve taken those reflections and distilled from them 10 tips for improving an online course.

Christine Kray—Teaching online has required a shift in my approach to course instruction. When I talked with a colleague at another university about my experience teaching online, she asked, “But don’t you just have to post your syllabus?” Nothing could be further from the truth. (This made me realize how far afield people’s understandings of online teaching can be—even those of fellow academics!)

Marty Golia—Faculty often struggle with the concept of online teaching presence. Does “being present” in an online course mean posting a new video every week (or every day)? Does it mean hosting live, synchronous sessions? Does it mean responding to every discussion post or email immediately?

Neil Hair—Nothing is more terrifying than going into your first class session with a new group of students. After 19 years in the classroom and several teaching accolades, I think it’s fair to say that even as a veteran I still get butterflies. Here are a few tricks that have worked well for me in the context of what I teach, which is mostly marketing strategy.