By Emily Cook, TLS staff writer
When exploring the possibility of online learning, some people are concerned that the online environment lacks the social interaction and engaging atmosphere of a classroom experience. But professor Anne Trépanier is proving that online courses can be engaging, interactive and hands on.
Trépanier began teaching in Carleton’s School of Canadian Studies in 2010. After bringing her lectures online, she was recognized with a 2015 Carleton University Teaching with Technology Award.
Trépanier says that while the format of her lectures changed, she wanted the course message to stay the same, and for the environment to be stimulating with group work, research and hands-on activities.
“It’s not the regular thing one would expect from an online course,” she says.
“The key challenge for me was to be able to create a safe space for the students to grow their ability to think.”
Camtasia and cuLearn are among the different types of technology Trépanier says she uses to make her courses interactive, along with incorporating documentaries, interviews with professionals and virtual museums.
“I wanted [students] to be able to interact deeply with the material, so not just having superficial use of information,” she says.
According to Trépanier, an important component of online teaching is to be organized with each lesson so students know how to succeed. She says she’s also found it helpful to reward students with marks for logging in and completing reviews and quizzes.
“The repetitive, simple, well-organized lesson format permits learner-centered teaching,” she says.
In her courses, Trépanier says she provides three types of feedback: personal, group and automated. Automated responses are programmed for quizzes to provide students with resources to find answers to questions they got wrong.
Trépanier also has students participate in online group research. She has students search for scholarly sources and once they’ve made their submissions with an explanation, they can see contributions from the rest of the class.
“It’s like a mini Google from the class, and it helps for the upcoming essays,” she says.
For professors considering online teaching, Trépanier says that in addition to the time it takes to prepare the course, support from your department and a good relationship with an instructional designer are key. Trépanier says the designer makes the ideas a reality.
“You don’t need to be tech savvy, but you need to be responsive and listen to the designer,” she says.
Despite the hurdles, Trépanier says there’s a lot of potential for online teaching.
“There’s a lot of freedom online,” she says. “I’m more of a guide, I’d say, then just someone who delivers information.”