There are as many ways of running and managing an online course as there are people who might do it. But my experience teaching online courses both here at Clockworks Academy and for Memorial University has taught me a few things. Let me offer a suggestions.

Give students variety.

I don’t just mean give students variety in the means of instruction, though that is important too. I mean give students choices of how they will technologically access your materials. This is partly in recognition that different students respond well to different approaches, but much more it is a recognition that not all students have the same technological ability or access, and not all schedules are the same. Don’t have all course materials as live meeting—some students won’t be able to make it, not because they don’t want to but simply because they can’t. They might not have the bandwidth, or they might be in a different time zone. Instead, have some course material be synchronous (that is, real-time) and some asynchronous (that is, recorded) so that students can catch up when they can but are also part of a learning community in real time.

At Clockworks Academy all courses involve pre-recorded videos and podcast-style lectures that students can listen or watch on their own time, but also a live discussion board on Discord, where students can ask questions of the instructor or share insights with other students. All courses also include live seminars, sometimes as Zoom meetings, or as YouTube livestreams with the instructor responding to live written questions from students, to use two examples.

Which brings me back to the idea of variety. Should your courses be student-led or instructor-led? The real answer is both!

Students don’t always know what they don’t know. The instructor’s expertise is not just a matter of knowledge, but of how to prioritize knowledge. But on the other hand, instructors need to be responsive to students’ curiosity. Expertise does not lead to knowledge retention if the students aren’t' intereested.

So the solution is to offer students variety. Some of the course should be instructor-led, and some should be student-led.

At Clockworks Academy the lectures are carefully planned and delivered by experts, but on the Discord students set the agenda and instructors respond.