Preparation to Teach Online

St. John’s University’s Office of Online Learning and Services offers formal training to our full and part-time faculty who may be interested in teaching distance learning courses at the University.  Successful completion of the “Distance Learning Pedagogy I” workshop is required for teaching any of the University’s online courses, fully online or hybrid (unless faculty members have previously received a waiver).

Upon successful completion of this six-week online workshop and after teaching their first fully online course with assistance from a Distance Learning mentor, the University will provide a stipend of $1,000 to the faculty participant.  In addition, the University will also provide faculty with ongoing mentoring support, as requested.  The “distance learning pedagogy” methods taught in the workshop are also appropriate for online support of face-to-face courses. Three to four hours per week of online participation will be required.  The required parts of the course will be completely asynchronous and online to model the subject, to permit participants to choose the times when they will participate, and to enable them to participate from wherever they might be.

Online pedagogy workshops are offered during the Spring and Fall semesters to prepare faculty who want to teach online during the NEXT semester.  The next six-week Distance Learning Pedagogy I workshop begins on Monday, October 19 and ends Friday,  December 4, 2009.  If you expect to teach a class totally online or hybrid in Spring 2010, you should enroll in this Oct-Dec session.  If you expect to teach in Fall 2010, you should enroll in the Pedagogy class scheduled for the Spring semester.  Prior course participants who did not finish are also encouraged to reenroll. You can continue from where you stopped.

There are a limited number of seats available; selection will be based on curricular needs of the distance learning program, level of commitment and date of registration for the class.  It is important to consult your chair before registering for this course to ensure that your department wishes you to teach online or hybrid in the appropriate semester.  Prior to enrolling in this workshop, faculty members should also know how to save files to their “facpub” account and upload files on line. When registering for the course, please indicate if you do not, so you can be guided to the appropriate resources.

There will also be a series of optional on-campus workshops in the basic skills of Blackboard courseware. The on-campus workshops will be taught on Tuesdays, October 20, November 3 and November 17, from 12:15 to 1:15 PM in Library - St. Augustine Hall 308. These workshops are open to all faculty members. Online PowerPoint slides and tutorials are available for the Blackboard training, so that you do not need to attend the on-campus workshops, but the workshops are highly recommended. You will need to the Blackboard skills to design and teach your course.   Please visit our online tutorials and workshop information.

Please note, all faculty members including those who teach online courses need to be familiar with the University’s course ownership policy.  St. John’s policy for course ownership is that faculty members own course materials unless St. John’s University provides substantial use of university resources to create them, then the faculty member is entitled to any royalties resulting from licensing the course for use. St. John’s notifies a faculty member when the assistance that they request will be at this level. The formal copy of the course material ownership policy on our web site.

Used properly, the Internet is an exciting medium for teaching and learning. If you are interested in enrolling in the next scheduled Distance Learning Pedagogy I workshop, please complete and submit the application form.  For additional information, email chasene@stjohns.edu or contact the Office of Online Learning & Services at 718-990-2786.