McKelvey Teaching

A key part of any online learning community is the building of that community.  Students must be made to feel welcome in the digital environment.  Getting to know both their peers and instructors sets students up for successful interactions later in the course.  There are many strategies that can be used, but frequently, relying on fun, light-hearted […]

Office hours are an integral part of a traditional face-to-face course, and they serve an important role in providing your students with support in their learning.  Office hours take a different form in an online environment.  Using scheduled Zoom sessions for synchronous office hours is a recommended approach.  A perennial issue with office hours for […]

When teaching in traditional brick and mortar settings, most instructors open their courses by introducing themselves.  Instructors make these introductions in order to give students a sense of who their instructor is as a person. In online courses, face-to-face introductions are rare. To address this problem, Quality Matters standards call for instructors to include Instructor Biographies […]

The first week of any course is critical. Because we are starting Spring 2021 online, building out your Canvas site and using it as a platform to introduce your course to your students is vital. An Orientation Module can help you in this process. An Orientation Module provides students with critical course information. These details […]

Course Objectives describe specific abilities students should have gained by completing a course. Good Course Objectives are specific and measurable; they, too, focus on student ability. When Course Objectives are explicit, students can take agency of their learning. Students can do this by choosing to align their efforts and resources with the Course Objectives. To articulate good Course Objectives, instructors might […]