How To Design Online Courses: Transform Not Transfer

The message in this useful article is simple: "one needs to design an online course with an attitude that it is different from a residence course. Instead of piling on the assignments that instructors must grade and making irrational promises to answer all posts, the instructor must design a course with one thought in mind: less is more." What follows are five useful pointers: teaching
experience is helpful, faculty should attend workshops before leaping into the fray, [existing] courses should be transformed and not merely transferred, online instructors should move to the side, and students should be assigned a good
textbook.