Cover Page

“For anyone teaching online—novice or seasoned—Small Teaching Online is a must-read! Darby expertly combines educational research and her expertise as an instructional designer to suggest practical solutions to challenges faced in the online environment in bite-sized chunks that don't overwhelm.”

—Mel Young, Teaching and Learning Innovation Hub, Cambrian College, Blogger, disruptivepedagogy.ca

“Darby and Lang extend the powerful Small Teaching paradigm successfully to the online teaching and learning environment. Faculty who are new to online teaching are especially well-served with this superb introduction to research-based incremental strategies.”

—Victoria Mondelli, Founding Director, Teaching for Learning Center, University of Missouri

An unexpected delight! Flower brightens the literature she cites with her experiences and experiments in her own online classes—what she tried, what worked well and what didn't, and how she improved on less-than-perfect results. You feel like you're getting to know her and finding a new friend and mentor.

—Linda B. Nilson, Director Emeritus, Office of Teaching Effectiveness and Innovation, Clemson University

Any professor would find this book useful, whether you teach entirely online, in a flipped classroom, or just want your course website to be more than a folder of readings. Flower Darby mixes her rich experience as a teacher and learner with a careful review of the most current literature to bring us a work that's deep with context and immediately applicable.

— Joseph M. Murphy, Director of the Center for Innovative Pedagogy, Kenyon College.

In his book Small Teaching: Everyday Lessons from the Science of Learning, Jim Lang provided instructors with practical, simple, and easy strategies for maximizing student learning and success. Flower Darby and Lang now offer Small Teaching Online: Applying Learning Science in Online Classes, an equally important book for those who strive to create engaged learning experiences for students in an online environment. This will be really helpful to many instructors, whether teaching online or face-to-face or in a hybrid format. Indeed, anyone who cares about student learning and student success in the 21st century would benefit from implementing the lessons presented in this book.

—Dr. Jerry Daday, Executive Associate Dean, Institute for Engaged Learning, Professor of Sociology, IUPUI

The work of teaching is hard. Coupled with the often-uncharted paths involved in teaching online, it can feel downright discouraging. Enter Small Teaching Online. It is a practical guide to help us design our online classes to support learning, be more experimental in our pedagogy, give effective feedback, help students persist, and create more authentic connections. This book helps us see how we can continue to iterate one small step at a time toward excellence in online teaching.

—Bonni Stachowiak, director, Institute for Faculty Development, Vanguard University; host, Teaching in Higher Ed podcast

“What faculty members teaching online need most of all are research-based, but very practical, strategies they can use in their online learning environments tomorrow. Darby and Lang's book, chocked full of great ideas that faculty can use right away, is just the resource we have all been looking for.”

—Larry Gallagher, former Director of Faculty Professional Development at Northern Arizona University

Small Teaching Online

Applying Learning Science in Online Classes

 

 

Flower Darby

James M. Lang

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wiley Logo

For Emerald, Piccadilly, and Britannia, for whom I learned to teach online so I could be home when they were small.

About the Authors

Flower Darby is a senior instructional designer and adjunct faculty member at Northern Arizona University, where she has taught for over 22 years. She is also adjunct online faculty for Estrella Mountain Community College. She's taught over 75 online classes to more than 2,000 online students. Darby also teaches in-person and blended courses in a range of subjects: English literature, composition, technology, education, dance, and fitness. She regularly writes and presents nationally and internationally on excellence in teaching and learning design. She is zealous in her promotion of student success through effective classroom practice, whether the classroom is physical or online. Her bachelor's and master's degrees are from Northern Arizona University in English literature.

James M. Lang is a professor of English and the director of the D'Amour Center for Teaching Excellence at Assumption College in Worcester, Massachusetts. He is the author of five books, the most recent of which are Small Teaching: Everyday Lessons from the Science of Learning (Jossey-Bass, 2016), Cheating Lessons: Learning from Academic Dishonesty (Harvard University Press, 2013), and On Course: A Week-by-Week Guide to Your First Semester of College Teaching (Harvard UP, 2008). Lang writes a monthly column on teaching and learning for The Chronicle of Higher Education; his work has been appearing in the Chronicle since 1999. His book reviews and public scholarship on higher education have appeared in a wide variety of newspapers and magazines, including the Boston Globe, Chicago Tribune, and Time.

Lang edits a new series of books on teaching and learning in higher education for West Virginia University Press; he co-edited the second book in the series, Teaching the Literature Survey Course: New Strategies for College Faculty (2018). He has conducted workshops on teaching for faculty at more than a hundred colleges or universities in the United States and abroad, and consulted for the United Nations on the development of teaching materials in ethics and integrity for college faculty. In September 2016 he received a Fulbright Specialist grant to work with three universities in Colombia on the creation of a MOOC (massive open online course) on teaching and learning in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) education. He has a BA in English and Philosophy from the University of Notre Dame, an MA in English from St. Louis University, and a PhD in English from Northwestern University.

Acknowledgments

To say that I'm grateful to Jim Lang is an understatement of epic proportions. This book would literally not exist if it weren't for his original book, Small Teaching. Further, you would not be reading this book if not for Jim's willingness to take a chance on a complete stranger, his openness to working with me, an unknown. Jim has been unfailingly patient as he guided me, a new author, through this process. Through the journey, Jim has modeled courage, wisdom, generosity, grace, and kindness. Thank you, Jim, for the opportunity to work with and learn from you. Sincerely.

My colleague and friend Wally Nolan is next on my list of people who were essential to the creation of this book. All of my colleagues at the Northern Arizona University e-Learning Center have helped me develop as a passionate advocate of excellent online course design and teaching practice, but Wally Angel, as he is affectionately known around here, has had a special, selfless influence on who I am as a professional and what came to be in this book. Thanks, Wall, and happy trails to you.

Many other friends and colleagues contributed in countless ways to the knowledge and approaches represented in this book, or have otherwise supported me personally and professionally. Sirscha Nicholl, Melissa Schoeffel, K. Laurie Dickson, Stephanie McCarthy, Larry MacPhee, Peggy Gregory, Jim Nichols, Amy Nichols, Sharon Gorman, John Doherty, Wayne Field, Erin Shelley, Betsy Buford, Jerry Gile, Michelle Miller, Larry Gallagher, Anne Scott, Sharon Crawford … too many to name. For all of these (and others), I'm thankful.

Pete Gaughan provided invaluable editorial advice; Amy Fandrei and Roger Hunt on the Wiley team were of immense practical assistance; our reader reviewers provided numerous helpful suggestions. Thank you all.

Two more very special people deserve recognition: my parents, Patrick and Lesley Hesselmann, who have always only ever supported me, encouraged me to take on whatever goal, whatever challenge was before me, who have always known, and have always told me so, that I could do whatever I set my mind on doing. Thanks, truly. I so very much appreciate your ongoing support.

I would be remiss if I neglected to give a quick shout-out to my kind and generous mother-in-law, Janis Flynn, for doing so much to enable my chaos. You know I couldn't do what I do without your help. I appreciate you!

And of course, finally, Tim, my husband, to whom you will see multiple references in this book because of how involved he has been in the process. Tim, who tirelessly engaged in hours and hours of discussion of the concepts in this book, who helped to generate the most insightful ideas you will find here, who is the best instructional designer I know, who's the wisest and most patient faculty support professional, and who's an ideal case study of what today's online students are experiencing since he himself is halfway through an online graduate program. Not to mention Tim's incredible support at home, taking on the vast majority of parenting and domestic duties while I wrote, never complaining, just quietly serving the needs of the family and home, freeing me up to do this work. Though it's a cliché, it rings true: Words can't express my gratitude. So I'll conclude with a simple, yet inadequate, thank you. For everything.

Flower Darby

Flagstaff, AZ