Over past 5+yrs of online teaching of #firstgen students who balance family, work, & school I hold several key principles in designing my classes bc students are vocal about what works & doesn't work. I mainly use blackboard but what I do seems to work for upper division students

1) Clear syllabus, deadlines grades, points, due dates listed on page 2 at the latest. They just want to know expectations! The universe of points/activities ASAP.

Bring syllabus to life w due dates built into Blackboard, so use announcements/emails/calendar functions.

2) Rubrics for all assignments. So if I have anything w points, it has a rubric, even a discussion board post. If something is worth 2 points it gets a rubric. Unless we've all agreed that every submission is going to get max points.

It helps us see where points are coming from

3) Give examples, if you have an assignment, give a completed example.

If you can't give an example, maybe leave out the assignment, do it next year. Or modify for less points.

If I don't have an example but I can make one, I include it.

4) Be careful w length of your videos. My lectures right now are kinda long. I learned from students, shorter is better. I wish I had production value of crash course vids on YouTube, but I don't, but they do, so use their videos of you can & when it makes sense.

5) Pacing matters. Over time, students have told me that a certain week had too much content or that they never had a break...so now I look at the entire class and think about pace. With summer/winter/spring intersessions the pace is always fast, but even then you can adjust.

6) Try to keep your class low cost by using online readings, old edition of txt book, or books that can be rented.

7) variety of assignments. Students learn differently even in online setting. So I have quizzes, exams, discussion board posts, final project, and group activities/assignment, worksheets. They don't all have points. But if they do, there's a rubric.

I think of it as a buffet.

8) I am also flexible. If someone missed a test, you know what I open it back up, and say that I'm within my rights to deduct points if I see fit. They're usually ok w that. I rarely deduct points bc the students don't abuse that.

9) I am transparent as I can be. Students can usually see the entire class in modules from day one or week one depending on how behind I am.

I create a pre-class module and let them take a fake quiz, post, upload assignment. Low stakes!

10) I admit when I make mistakes & I try to correct them. If one student is struggling more students are probably struggling, so I try to fix what I can, when I can, even if only one student is struggling.