Week 2: Overview, Readings and Resources

Teaching Perspectives

As you move to teaching online, it is useful to reflect on what the beliefs and values are that guide your current teaching practice. Teaching online may mean that you simply need to adapt to different possibilities and tools and a broader, more diverse audience. The move may also require adjustments to your beliefs about what can be learned online, and may require you to change or adapt some of your approaches to teaching.

A useful tool to help you think about your teaching is the Teaching Practices Inventory, developed by Daniel D. Pratt and John B. Collins. Based on 20 years of research and observations, the survey will identify where you are located across a 5 teaching orientation framework. The profile that you receive could be used to develop a personal statement of teaching philosophy.

The rapid changes in knowledge and the increasing access to information, experts, tools, and unique learning experiences available in our networked world change the ways that you can teach when you move into the online world. Take time to read the ideas presented in some of the more recent publications as they describe some of the ways you might adapt your teaching perspectives and approaches to meet the needs of your online learners.