Using traditional teaching methods online is easy, as long as you are willing to make a few changes in how course work is structured. Through discussion forums, blogs, text boxes, video, podcasts, and webinars, you can teach students effectively and still maintain a fair amount of control and personal interaction.

Virtual Tradition

Choose a wiki site. They allow page edits and creation of additional pages, and they offer forums, blogs, notes, video, and podcast. Wetpaint.com is an excellent site that offers these kinds of tools. It is easy to use and manage. You can find other wikis suitable for educational purposes at ncvps.org/web/.

Use discussion forums to take advantage of traditional discussion methods. Online discussion forums allow a teacher to start multiple discussions that can be accessed by students from multiple periods.

Invigorate your lectures by using blogs and podcasts to deliver key points. Both venues accommodate comments. Have students comment to earn credit and to show comprehension of the key points.

Check for understanding in a variety of forms. At your disposal, all the student comments, blogs, and forum replies lend themselves for your perusal and give you an excellent benchmark for how students are learning.

Give instant feedback to individual students. No more traditional chicken scratch in the margins of papers--you can, instead, deliver the necessary feedback through comments and emails.