Online Pedagogy Course Available for LIS Faculty and Doctoral Students

Anne McKinney

WISE Instructional Designer

Amcki01s@UIUC.edu

JULY 2007 - This summer, the University of Illinois Graduate School of Library and Information Science will offer a two-week training course for current and future online instructors in the WISE consortium: Introduction to Online Pedagogy, July 23-August 4.

Online education is a field that continues to grow and develop as new advances in technology and teaching strategies change the way we think about the learning process. For those who have never taught an online course before, however, the task can be daunting: how does an instructor convert curriculum to suit an online medium? How can we, as educators, ensure that our students are learning without the benefits of a face-to-face classroom?

This course is not meant to function as the sole training an online instructor would need to teach effectively online, but rather to introduce him/her to an ever-developing, ever-changing field of education. This course should, ideally, inspire students to continue to learn more about learning possibilities in distance education as they develop their online teaching skills.

During this two-week course we will explore methods and strategies to help both current and aspiring instructors develop online course materials. Because of the short length of this training program, we will cover the information at a quick pace. It is advisable to reserve at least 2-3 hours per day and check the course Moodle site every day to keep up with the assignments and discussion forums.

PLEASE NOTE: Those who register for the summer session will be enrolled in a pilot for this course. As we would like to make this training program as useful to WISE members as possible, we would like to invite experienced online faculty to participate in this experimental design and give us feedback on the course's effectiveness. Feedback will be incorporated into a revised training course, which will be offered twice during the Fall 2007 term.

To register, please select the following link and fill out our online registration form:
https://webtools.uiuc.edu/formBuilder/OrganizationSecure?id=5391738
Up to 20 participants may register for the summer pilot session.