This is the second in a series of blog posts examining online instructor teaching styles through the lens of Anthony Grasha’s (1994) typology. This post focuses on the expert style and how both course developers and instructors can embody this style in online courses.
The Expert Teaching Style
The expert teaching style involves sharing detailed knowledge of course topics with students. Expert instructors foreground their subject matter mastery, equipping students with essential disciplinary knowledge. Presenting knowledge and implementing assessments to evaluate student mastery are hallmarks of the expert teaching style. Strategies and considerations for achieving these aims in online learning environments are explored below.
The Expert Teaching Style in Online Learning
Course Developers
- You can share subject matter knowledge with your online students in a variety of ways. For example, you may choose to pre-record a series of lecture videos on key course topics, draft written lecture materials for students to read, or create infographics, diagrams, or other representations of key information. As you prepare your online course materials, consider which kinds of information are best suited to which modality. Fundamental, unchanging concepts are well suited to video, where visual and auditory representations can be shared simultaneously. In contrast, information that requires frequent updates is better suited to written or diagrammatic form, both of which are easily revised.
- In addition to creating materials yourself, you can curate assigned readings and other required resources to include in your online course. In doing so, consider how to best augment your materials. Resources that illustrate real-world applications of key concepts might be especially valuable. You might also identify supplemental resources to help students develop their own areas of focus.
- You will also want to consider how to set up your course to track and guide students’ growing expertise. Including short practice quizzes, reflections, and problem sets at routine intervals can provide both valuable practice opportunities to students and timely information on student progress to instructors. Depending on the assessment structure, you may also be able to automate feedback based on student responses to provide guidance and follow-up information.
- For graded assignments, consider how you might guide future instructors in assessing student knowledge development. Creating detailed rubrics and answer keys can help ensure that instructors will be able to provide consistent and effective grading and feedback to students, aligning with your vision for the course. For example, in developing answer keys for written assignments, you might list the pieces of information you would look for in a given response and where you would direct students with questions about particular items.
Online Instructors
- Announcements are an integral component of online course management for instructors and constitute one means by which you can share information and resources with students. For example, you might share your own experiences with or research on course topics or offer supplemental readings that provide a deeper look at particular topics. Announcements can be particularly advantageous in that they allow for precise timing of when content is shared. As you review your course, consider when particular pieces of information or resources you’ve identified as being augmentative to the course materials might be most useful to students and time the posting of your announcements accordingly.
- Depending on the requirements of your course and program, you may need or have the option to host synchronous sessions for your online students. Such sessions afford valuable opportunities for community building, interactivity, and sharing your expertise on course topics. Consider how you might structure any sessions you hold to complement and enhance the materials in your course with your own expert perspective.
- Grading affords another means of sharing information with students. In reviewing and providing feedback on assignments, consider what additional information might be most advantageous for students as they progress through the remainder of the course. Depending on the nature of the assignment, student work may also provide valuable insights into students’ interests and specific areas in which they wish to grow their expertise. You can use these insights to customize the information you share with students, for instance, by tailoring recommendations for outside resources.