The following Tips and Strategies for Tele-Teaching were modified from Omatseye, J. N. (1999). Teaching through tele-conferencing: Some curriculum challenges. College Student Journal (33) 3, pp. 346-354.

Before you can say you are ready to teach, you must

1. Practice, practice, practice

2. Become familiar and know how to use the equipment

3. Combine the use of media and strategies to accomplish course objectives

4. If having on-site facilitators, coordinate their activities and share your instructional goals with them

5. Get familiar with your students' backgrounds

6. Identify and follow a routine for distance learning processes and procedures

7. Prepare strategies to accomplish formative assessment

8. Visit the distance sites to get familiar with the setting and the equipment. If possible, meet your students

9. Ask all the necessary questions to understand how to use the equipment and how to teach your class

10. Make arrangements to access library materials.

If you are ready, now you ought to

1. Provide contact information to all students within policies of the institution

2. Teach the students to use the equipment, especially the microphones

3. Outline the unique expectations that an IITV class presents, specifically how to react when the camera focuses on the student

4. Remember that the technology is only a tool and the focus of your teaching should be on the content matter

5. Create a listserv to facilitate interaction and communication or teach your students how to use the WebCT email

6. Have a through explanation of the course syllabus when you hand it in. Make sure that all students understand your expectations, the assignments, the grade system, etc.

Then you need to

1. Address your students by their names; you should learn their names as soon as possible

2. Lecture for 10-15 minutes at most and then interweave other activities and media options, such as discussions, question-and- answer, presentations, and dialogic exercises.

3. Be spontaneous and personalize interactions

4. Use humor, fun, and  jokes in your lecture to ameliorate or eliminate boredom

5. Direct questions to students in all sites as much as possible so that nobody feels excluded; create a sense of balance in participation

6. Look straight into the camera lens always because that creates a sense of being close to the viewer

7. Provide students with an activity that acts as a break to discuss, digest, and reflect on content issues

8. Make good use of class time to make up for loss due to slow pace of the two-way system

9. Strive for clarity in communication at all times

10. Keep good record of class activities and events

11. Remind students of when and how you can be reached after class hours, e.g., by phone, email, fax, voice mail or through a secretary

At the end of each class meeting, it is good to

1. Reflect on what went well and why

2. Think about the pitfalls and how to avoid them in future

3. Review the class video, if any, for self evaluation and work to improve your performance in the future.

© 2004 EdTeching @ http://edteching.com