Seven Principles of Good Practice in Undergraduate Education

Arthur Chickering and Zelda Gamson, "Seven Principles of Good Practice in Undergraduate Education," (American Association of Higher Education, 1987) has become a classic resource in the development of effective online courses. These seven principles, updated over time, are based on many years of research on good teaching principles. They apply to teaching and learning in the classroom or online.
 

(1) Encourage interaction between students and faculty.

Use the Discussion Board, Mail, Chat & Whiteboard to interact with your students.

(2) Encourage interaction and collaboration between students.

Learning is enhanced when it is more like a team effort than a solo race. Good learning, like good work, is collaborative and social, not competitive and isolated. Working with others often increases involvement in learning. Sharing one's ideas and responding to others improves thinking and deepens understanding. Encourage students to ask each other questions or react to each other's work (via the Discussion Board, in Mail, or Chat, for example). Set up collaboration groups (you can assign private Discussion Topic areas to specific groups of students, assign Chat rooms, and set up a public Student Presentation area where each group can share their group work).

(3) Use active learning techniques.

Use the Self-Test tool for active review of materials. The Discussion board is a good place to have students comment publicly on issues & respond to each other's reflections.

(4) Give prompt feedback.

Let students know what type of feedback to expect from you and how often. Be clear as to what type of feedback you'd like from them. Note that the Quiz & the Self-Test tools are a good ways of providing instant feedback.

(5) Emphasize time on task.

Use the Calendar tool as one way to keep students on-task. Timed quizzes emphasize time-on-task, as well.

(6) Communicate high expectations.

Provide students examples of "A"-quality work. Release statistics along with grades, so that students can see how they are doing in comparison to the rest of the class (stats can give the mean grade and/or the frequencies). Use the "Selective Release" feature to release course info only as students achieve a certain level of success on a test.

(7) Respect different talents, experience, and ways of learning.

Modified from "Implementing the Seven Principles: Technology as Lever" by Chickering and Ehrmann
http://www.westga.edu/~distance/webct/facultymanual/AfacCommun.html