How faculty can make the best use of online courses — Sage Campus // Replace title block colour with text shadow

This post is a guest blog by Dr Tom Chatfield, the author of the SAGE Campus Critical Thinking online course that equips students with the intellectual skills and practical habits of critical thinking. Tom is an author, tech philosopher and broadcaster.


Times are tough and uncertain, today—and this means that, for me, the most important starting point for thinking constructively about online courses is that students and instructors are in it together.

It’s tough on both sides of the screen. Workloads and anxiety are up. It can be hard just finding the time and the space to focus. Much that could once be taken for granted in terms of routines, security and support simply isn’t there.

What follows from this?

Online courses aren’t a replacement for in-person learning, and there’s no point pretending they can or should be. They’re tools: one element among many in the ongoing business of coping with what is, for hundreds of thousands of people, a profoundly different learning experience to any they expected or hoped for.

Using online courses well thus means thinking clearly about what they are, and aren’t, good for—and in what context they can create the best outcomes in terms not only of completion, but also of satisfaction and well-being. Here are some principles I’ve found useful.

First of all, don’t be afraid to be vulnerable, together.

Most instructors aren’t in a position simply to dictate how things are going to go—and this is fine. Don’t be nervous or self-conscious about asking about students’ needs; iterating and seeking feedback; and being prepared to treat courses and tools as options to be tested and explored, together.

On which note: so far as possible, test and try things for yourself. Don’t just look at what a course promises to deliver in terms of content. See for yourself what the experience of actually using it, onscreen, is like. And bear in mind the particular situation that students themselves are likely to be using it in, in terms of technology, time and aptitude. Many may not have large-screened computers, or fast internet connections. Is the course lucid, engaging, user-friendly, and accessible across a variety of devices? Will it do what you need it do within the lived contexts your students find themselves in?

Less is more online

As I’ve said elsewhere, and feel I can’t repeat often enough, less is more online. Look for courses that offer a focused experience, rather than a mountain of recorded lectures and transcripts. Brevity, ease of repetition and crispness of interaction are associated with better outcomes than information dumps; while navigability and signposting count for a great deal when someone may be pausing, revisiting and looking back through materials many times over. In general, good digital resources aren’t simply used: they are re-used.

One of the joys of a great, stimulating online course is the opportunities it can create for meaningful discussions, debates, peer mentoring and research. In an ideal world, it’s the facilitation of these outcomes that should consume the majority of your time; and that will bring the greatest benefits to learners.

There’s no need to reinvent good materials that are out there already, and there’s no shame in pointing learners towards’ other people’s videos, reading lists, articles and explanations. Above all, it’s the time you put into interacting with students—and facilitating interactions between them—that will pay dividends.

Check for knowledge checks

Another thing to look for in and around online courses is the incorporation of tools and tests to help learners diagnose what they do and don’t know—and how and where they can then remedy this. Put as much emphasis as possible upon this kind of diagnostic assessment, as opposed to focusing on meeting constantly monitored objectives and the prevention of “cheating.” Why? Because this kind of monitoring undermines trust, morale, and ultimately hollows out many of the potential gains of online learning, as well as negating the broader confidence that good online learning can bring in terms of fundamental digital literacies.

As you may have noticed, much of the advice above relies upon assessing courses’ suitability and uses within a holistic overview of students’ needs and experiences. A final, vital aspect of this is providing some support and guidance around habits, routines and expectations. Time management is a huge challenge for learners even in ordinary circumstances, let alone when they’re doing almost everything online. It can be immensely liberating for you to entrust students with a realistic assessment of what you consider the most and least important elements of a course; where you think their time might be best spent; and what you consider to be a reasonable allocation of time to different tasks.

During the course of the last year, one of the greatest gains I’ve experienced when it comes to online interactions with learners and colleagues alike is the way in which our discussions have become far more frank and human, in the sense of setting aside professional facades in place of more open, honest sharing around experiences, anxieties, and tensions. This doesn’t mean blurring personal and professional boundaries—indeed, it’s extremely important to keep these separate, and to reserve different communication channels and clear expectations for each. Rather, it’s about being open to discussions of resilience and struggle, difficulty and uncertainty, and what is and isn’t working on a day-to-day basis.

This lived experience is the key context within which a course must pull its weight—and within which it should provide a stimulus for wider discussions, research, self-interrogation and consolidation. On both sides of the screen.


Find out about the unique learning style of our SAGE Campus online courses and how faculty can assign courses to cohorts for on the SAGE Campus platform.

If you’re teaching a course that requires critical thinking, Tom’s SAGE Campus Critical Thinking online course could supplement your teaching and equip students with the skills to succeed. Sign up to our demo hub to try a full sample module today or find out how libraries can get institution-wide access to SAGE Campus.

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