Clear Expectations:

Regardless of the platform, courses of all kinds are filled with expectations from all sides. The university, instructor and student all have expectations of one another and when these expectations are not clear, and therefore more difficult to meet, nobody is happy.

Speaking specifically from a student’s perspective, a good course outlines assignments and objectives so that I know what my instructor expects from me and what I can expect to learn from them.

There is no ‘syllabus day’ in an online course, no first day where an instructor can spend fifty minutes outlining the next sixteen weeks, actively taking questions and giving explanations for everyone to hear at once. Which means that their materials truly must speak for themselves. However, much like they might use a white board or projector in a classroom, an online instructor can use their online platform to help convey expectations without relying entirely on the syllabus alone.

• Assignments can have dropboxes with accurate due dates and times
• PDF or Docs of assignment rubrics or objectives can be uploaded
• the instructor can set up modules or class sections based on time periods such as weekly work

All of these tools can come together to create a platform where students can easily and consistently find:

• what they should be doing
• when they should be doing it
• how it should be done
• whereit needs to be turned in

One of the quickest ways for me to tell if an online course is going to go well or not is to:

1. Read the syllabus.A good syllabus will outline all expectations and objectives.
2. Check the dropxboxor assignment submission tab. Does the instructor have at least the first few assignment boxes setup? With accurate due dates and times? Are the syllabus and this section consistent?
3. Check the content section. Are the materials for the first few assignments at least present? Labeled clearly? Are there assignment rubrics and instructions? Are the assignments where the syllabus said they should be?
4. Check the grades section.Often instructors will list the grades for assignments here and you can use this to again crosscheck with the syllabus, particularly to see if the grade amounts match up. Are discussions all worth 10 points or 20? Are there 4 journals or 9?

REMEMBER:This is not an exact science. Every instructor operates a little differently and their classes are set up often as uniquely as their personalities. Maybe your instructor only shows work up to four weeks ahead at a time instead of all sixteen weeks, maybe they don’t use the dropbox and require all assignments to be emailed.

Either way, via the syllabus or the platform this information should be clear and if you can’t find it ask. Maybe they’ve made a mistake and simply forgotten to upload something because instructors are human, too. If you still can’t obtain that information, well…that is a problem for another post.