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Welcome to the SUNY Online Teaching Readiness Assessment!
Teaching online requires certain prerequisite technical skills, capacity, support, and motivation. This resource was designed to help you self-assess your basic technical skills, check your general readiness to teach online, and to give you the opportunity to hear directly from online faculty, instructional designers, and students about their online teaching and learning experiences to help clarify and deepen your understanding.

Use the check boxes to keep track of your progress though these introductory materials and resources.

To get started, follow the links below presented in a list format, or browse the self-assessments, resources, and videos presented graphically on the Readiness page.

Self-Assessments:

Use these self-assessments to see if you have the basic and prerequisite technical skills to teach online.

The Basics – This section will ask you to consider whether you have the basic motivation and conditions to develop a course and teach online.

Computer Skills – Want to see if you have the necessary computer skills to be successful in an online teaching environment? This section will help you confirm that you have the essential computer skills you need to develop and teach an online course. 

Word Processing Skills -  Want to confirm that you have the necessary word processing skills to develop an online teaching environment? This section outlines the required word processing skills you need to develop and teach an online course. 

Internet Skills – Ready to check your internet skills? This section will help you confirm that you have the prerequisite internet skills you need to even think about teaching online. 

Email Skills – Want to check your email skills? This section outlines the necessary email skills necessary to be effective and efficient in communicating online.

Resources:

Engage with these resources to learn more and keep connected.

Observe an Online Course – Have you ever wondered what a well-designed online course looks like? This section will provide a variety of online courses in a variety of disciplines and levels, from a variety of SUNY institutions for you to explore to see how your online teaching colleagues have designed their online teaching and learning environments. 

SUNY Online Teaching - What supports, programs, materials, and resources are available to support online teaching? Explore the SUNY Online Teaching site for more information and resources on online teaching and learning.

Sign up! How can you keep in formed on all the interesting things happening in online teaching and learning? Become a SUNY Online Fellow in the “Interested in Online-Enabled Education” role to join your SUNY colleagues in the system-wide community of online practitioners interested in learning more about online teaching and learning. If you are not from SUNY, sign up as a "Friend of SUNY" to connect and network with us!

Join, the online networking community! and use the Use the hashtag: #teachingonline to connect with others in the community around the this topic. Join the SUNY Online Teaching networking community to keep up to date, network, mentor, be mentored, share what you know, ask questions, and learn from the community of online practitioners from across the system and beyond. Open to anyone, regardless of SUNY affiliation

Videos:

View these videos to test your assumptions and perceptions about online teaching and learning.

What is online learning?

10 myths about teaching online – Question your assumptions and misperceptions about online teaching and learning.

Why online faculty love online teaching and learning – SUNY Online Teaching Ambassadors share their enthusiasm for online teaching and learning.

What is the role of an effective online instructor? – An overview of some practical challenges, concerns and responses to them.

The online student perspective – Online students discuss their online experiences – what they liked, didn’t like, and why, including the role of the online instructor, online student relationships, and tips for online faculty on how to engage learners online.

What are the benefits of teaching online? – Consider one perspective on what faculty gain from teaching online.

What do you lose in teaching online? – A response to the constraints and limitations often cited about the online teaching and learning environment.

Start Your Journey!

Once you have completed these Interested in Online Teaching Readiness activities, you are ready to learn more.

We have developed a self-paced online course that you can follow either as a mapped out journey, or you can browse it as a meandering path to provide you with a comprehensive dive into what you need to know if you are interested in online teaching.