Share your enthusiasm!

Community Engagement Activities for Online Teaching Ambassadors & other Online Community Leaders

SUNY Online Teaching Ambassadors are those individuals who have been nominated by their home campus and are considered “Exemplary online SUNY educators, who are enthusiastic and effective in online teaching, and who can be positive and strong advocate for online teaching in our SUNY community.”

In an effort to support their role as advocates for online teaching in SUNY, SUNY Online Teaching has curated a list of ways for Online Teaching Ambassadors & other Online Faculty/Experts/Community Leaders to engage with the SUNY Online Teaching community and share their expertise.

Other Online Faculty/Experts/Community Leaders are also invited to share their enthusiasm, best practices, suggestions, and examples.

Community Engagement Activities for Online Teaching Ambassadors & other Online Faculty/Experts/Community Leaders:
Below are a few activities in which Online Teaching Ambassadors & other Online Faculty/Experts/Community Leaders can elect to participate.

1. Submit blog posts on a topic of your choice – send draft to erin.maney@suny.edu.
2. Contribute to the Advice from Ambassadors blog.
3. Submit an effective practice to the annual SUNY Online Effective Practices Award Program.
4. Submit a proposal for a Fellow Chat.
5. Share a Discipline-specific resource.
6. Create a video testimonial (must upload to Vimeo/YouTube with Creative Commons license, and use the hashtag #onlineteachingambassador) – send email to erin.maney@suny.edu with a brief description of the video and the URL.

Potential ideas for video testimonials:

1. Showcase/demonstrate an effective practice.
2. Explain why you love teaching online.
3. Highlight tips for new online faculty.
4. Provide tips for instructional designers working with faculty.
5. Have your online students create a video response to the student perspective questions below (must upload to Vimeo/YouTube with Creative Commons license, and use the hashtag #onlineteachingambassador, #SUNYonlineteaching).

Reflection prompts for online faculty:
What helped you most when you were first becoming an online instructor in the design and delivery of your online course?
What did you learn from the first experience teaching your course?
What have you learned as an online educator?
What surprised you most about online course design?
What surprised you most about online course teaching? What surprised you most about managing the delivery of your online course?
What assumptions did you have about your online students? What surprised you most about your online students?
What surprised you most about yourself in this experience?

Defining online teaching and learning:

Purpose: to dispel myths and misperceptions about online teaching and learning.

What is online learning?
What are the benefits of online teaching?
What are the benefits of online learning?
What are people skeptical about regarding online teaching and learning and how do you respond to that?
What is a common assumption or misconception that people have about online teaching and learning? How do you respond to that?

Questions for experienced online practitioners:

Purpose: To dispel myths and misperceptions about online teaching.

Describe your online course in one word.
Describe a high quality online course is one word.
What makes your online course good, unique?
What do you love about your online course?
How would you describe your online pedagogical approach?
What theory informs your approach to online course design and teaching?

Tips from experienced online practitioners:

Purpose: To share experiences and lessons learned from those with experience.

What is one mistake online instructors make?
What is one thing a good online instructor should do?
What makes a good online instructor?
What makes a good online course?
One tip/recommendation for someone new to teaching online?

Importance of Continuous Improvement:

Purpose: To showcase the need for continuous improvement in the online course development and delivery.

Why are online offerings important to students?
How do well-designed online courses support student success?
How do you improve your online teaching practices?
How do you improve the design of your online course?
Why is it important to review and update online courses in a systematic way?

Student perspective ideas:

Purpose: To highlight from the student perspective the importance of good online design and teaching practices.

What do you want your online instructor to know?
What is one mistake online instructors make?
What is one thing a good online instructor should do?
What makes a good online instructor?
What makes a good online course?
Why are online offerings important to students?

You can also share your enthusiasm by volunteering:

• Volunteer to be listed as an online mentor to others in the community of practice.
• Volunteer to be listed as an online course quality reviewer.

If you have other ideas or additional ways in which you might wish to participate in the SUNY Online Teaching community, please send an email to erin.maney@suny.edu.