Small Teaching Online

In Fall 2021, the UWP hosted an online book group focused on Flower Darby and James Lang’s (2019) Small Teaching Online: Applying Learning Science to Online Classes.  

Promotional images of the fall 2021 Small Teaching Online flyerSo much of online teaching and learning happens through writing, from discussion board posts to blogs and wikis to longer written projects and reports. In Small Teaching Online, Flower Darby adapts James Lang’s innovative ideas from Small Teaching to help us think about how high-impact practices often occur in very small moments in our online courses. If you are interested in reading this book with faculty from across campus and possibly discovering some new ideas about teaching in online environments.

From the publisher’s website: “The concept of small teaching is simple: small and strategic changes have enormous power to improve student learning. Instructors face unique and specific challenges when teaching an online course. This book offers small teaching strategies that will positively impact the online classroom.

This book outlines practical and feasible applications of theoretical principles to help your online students learn. It includes current best practices around educational technologies, strategies to build community and collaboration, and minor changes you can make in your online teaching practice, small but impactful adjustments that result in significant learning gains.”

 

 

 

 

Reviewers Write:

“If there was one book I could give to faculty that taught them strategies for online learning and teaching, Small Teaching Online: Applying Learning Science in Online Classes would be that book. Flower Darby and James Lang have written a book that reflects the advice I currently give to faculty plus some. The guidance that Darby and Lang provided elevate online courses from correspondence courses to those with substantive human interaction.”
– Stan Skrabut, Ed.D
  “With so many schools teaching at least partially online, teachers need to consider the best ways to reach these learners, many of whom wouldn’t have chosen online classes if given a choice. For that reason, Small Teaching Online provides value in how it approaches virtual classrooms and connecting with students online.”
– Jessica Brooks
“Small Teaching Online reads like a highly engaging annotated bibliography of teaching research within the last five years, punctuated with narratives drawn from Darby’s varied teaching experience over her career.”
– Erin Heinz, Teaching Sociology