The Fourth Pillar of Teaching Online

For quite some time now, I've been sharing lots of information on the 3 main areas that I think are really important for online educators to master. They are: Organization, Communication and Preparation & Time Management. Recently however, I thought it important to focus on an additional element that is just as important as the other 3. In fact, I can't believe that I didn't think to include it previously. In today's blog post I'll discuss more about this 4th pillar and why it's important in online education.

 

I love teaching online but I acknowledge that it is not easy or intuitive most of the time. That's why I discuss the 3 pillars of teaching online often because these are the main elements (Organization, Communication and Preparation & Time Management) that help me to be successful teaching online. However, it occurred to me that I've been missing a hugely important part of online education. That is- Instructional Design. 

 

Instructional Design primarily refers to a method of developing effective learning experiences. This can include things like course content (texts, video, websites) as well as delivering and evaluating that content. You might be wondering how I could possibly not think to include this in the pillars I have been proclaiming all time! Well... honestly, when I was thinking about the main elements of teaching online, I was thinking about the elements that make teaching online different from teaching face-to-face. I always say that educators know how to teach, but teaching online requires a little bit of a different skill set. I took for granted that most educators already knew the elements of instructional design so I never spent much time on it, other than encouraging more engaging discussion assignments. However, there are so many additional areas that are important when it comes to instructional design in online courses. These include:

Each of these are equally important to the instructional design process and requires attention.

 

Which area of Instructional Design do you need to focus on more? I'd love to see your thoughts in The Online Educator Facebook Group.