Communicating with online students: lessons from the front

The authors describe lessons learned from their online teaching experiences with two different delivery systems. One is a system using the World Wide Web, bulletin boards, e-mail and chat rooms for instructions and another is a software package known as Convene. In each case, students pursue their degrees via 100% online courses. The article discusses the planning process necessary to ensure an effective online course as well as lessons learned about actually communicating online, including the correct degree of informality and the importance of continuous feedback. Finally, the results of a case study in online assessment of student attitudes is presented.