Small Teaching Online: Applying Learning Science in Online Classes 1st Edition

<!-- wp:paragraph -->My current role is to oversee the academics of non-traditional teaching at Belhaven University. This includes the online program. My passion is effectively blending technology with pedagogy to produce the most effective learning environment for students. Because of that I am constantly seeking out new ideas and exploring new options to improve our online courses and enhance faculty pedagogy. </p><!-- /wp:paragraph --><!-- wp:paragraph -->I ran across <a href="https://amzn.to/3BC0vIe" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Small Teaching Online</a> while pursuing those goals. It has taken me quite a while to finish the book. While you might think that is a mark against it, the truth is quite the opposite. Every time I pick it up I only get a few pages read before coming across another great idea to implement or explore and off I go. This book has been one of the best I have found that shares solid, pragmatic, ideas that can take online teaching and online course design to the next level. I HIGHLY recommend that anyone teaching online or working in online instructional design get a copy of this book as soon as possible. You won't be disappointed.</p><!-- /wp:paragraph --><!-- wp:paragraph -->No, I wasn't able to use or even embrace every idea presented, but I found more than enough to use that has made a difference, affecting our course design, or to share in a faculty development workshop. Darby states that "The premise of this book is that you can make small incremental changes to your online teaching that have an outsized impact on student learning and success." In that, she hits the nail solidly on the head.</p><!-- /wp:paragraph -->

As an ardent admirer of Lang's Small Teaching, I was so excited to see an iteration of Small Teaching focused specifically on online teaching. The collaboration between Darby and Lang is clear throughout the book, as Darby translates the essence of Small Teaching, then infuses the concepts with examples from her extensive experience as an online teacher and instructional designer.The technique of weaving narrative into a teachable moment is what makes Lang's Small Teaching so engaging. Darby leverages this technique to reinforce learning theory and make explicit connections between Small Teaching and online teaching without becoming overly pedantic--like Lang's Small Teaching, Small Teaching Online is easy and enjoyable to read.In Chapter 2, Darby uses an example of teaching dance by focusing on the feet first, then adding in the hands. I've led professional development for online teachers in higher education for almost a decade, and have repeatedly seen both novice and experienced online teachers struggle with translating in-person techniques to the online environment. Small Teaching Online is a much needed resource for helping online teachers develop effective online course design and teaching practices by allowing them to focus on one aspect at a time (feet then hands, so to say!).Too often online teaching is overlooked because it's assumed that it is easy to modify traditional pedagogy to online modalities. Not so! Small Teaching Online is an important addition to any professional development bookshelf for online teachers and those that support online teachers. The comprehensive bibliography, alone, is worth the price. Looking forward to brown bag lunches with my colleagues to discuss this book, and share our own small teaching online insights!

I appreciated that this is a relatively easy and quick read, with discrete and actionable strategies and the evidence behind them -- after each chapter, I stop and make notes and changes in my syllabus. I also appreciate that the strategies are all things I can do to improve or tweak my existing course instead of requiring that I start over from scratch, unlike some books I've found on this. My only frustration is that the authors seem to assume that all online courses are entirely asynchronous online, which is of course not the case -- while some are, others are synchronous online (i.e., professor and students together in a live Zoom session or such) or a hybrid between the two. Not only does this mean that the tips aren't super helpful for the synchronous parts of the course, but some of the strategies they suggest for the asynchronous parts are driven by the assumption that there will be no synchronous parts -- that students won't ever have the opportunity to ask live questions during a talk, etc.

After completing the book I realized it a Mr. Miyagi approach to teaching online. Ms. Darby doesn't show you how to teach online. She provides the "Small Teaching" approach to online design. Just like Mr. Miyagi didn't teach Daniel Son Karate, Mr. Myagi taught him how "wax on / wax off." In the process, the wax on / wax off gave him the skills to do karate. This is the approach to "Small Teaching." She provides a very easy approach in taking the small steps that we create to design an effective online course. Each chapter does provide information that we struggle with in online design. Yet she gives nice, simple, helpful and practical strategies to address those areas of struggle. From the syllabus, to discussions, to assessments, to even the overall feeling of a course, it is clear she understands the issues, the principles and effective strategies. The best part is, the strategies are totally doable. So if you are intimidated to teach online, this book is for you. If you are an advanced online instructor, then the strategies will keep adding value to your learning environment. Highly recommended for professional development reading groups or individual reading.