SO, YOU'VE GOT TO TAKE THE

CLASS YOU'RE INSTRUCTING

ONLINE, AND FAST!
If you've never taught online before or if you only have limited experience with it, you probably
(understandably) have two big categories of concerns: the technological concerns and the
pedagogical concerns. The technological concerns have to do with getting a handle on the
technological applications that enable online teaching, and the pedagogical concerns have to do
with the mechanics and logistics of teaching when you can't be in the same room with your
students.

© Cengage 2024.
Contents
Contents............................................................................................................................................. 2
First, the Technology…....................................................................................................................... 3
Software Resources......................................................................................................................... 3
Training Resources.......................................................................................................................... 3
Second, the Pedagogy…..................................................................................................................... 3
Online Teaching Modes................................................................................................................... 3
Using Synchronous vs. Asynchronous Modes..................................................................................4
Transitioning Your Course............................................................................................................... 4
Lectures.......................................................................................................................................... 4
Discussions..................................................................................................................................... 5
Writing............................................................................................................................................ 6
Reading........................................................................................................................................... 6
Peer Review.................................................................................................................................... 6
Student Presentations..................................................................................................................... 7
Group Work..................................................................................................................................... 7
Projects........................................................................................................................................... 8
Quizzes/Tests.................................................................................................................................. 8
Labs................................................................................................................................................ 8
Office Hours.................................................................................................................................... 9
Communicate, Communicate, Communicate!.................................................................................9
Communication Channels............................................................................................................. 9
Expectations and Directions......................................................................................................... 9
Accessibility................................................................................................................................. 9
Communication Overload?......................................................................................................... 10
Some Final Comments................................................................................................................... 10
[Discipline/Course/Title]-specific Considerations and Solutions........................................................12

© Cengage 2024.
First, the Technology…
Figure out what tools and resources you already have at your disposal. Chances are that you
already have access to a wealth of tools and resources for teaching online—even if you haven't had
the need or desire to use them until now.

Software Resources

 Find out what platforms and applications your school has already adopted to enable online
learning. Don't make it any harder than it needs to be. Use the tools that your institution has
already selected. Which learning management system (LMS) does your school use, if
any? Your school might use Blackboard, Canvas, Moodle, or something comparable.
 Which web conferencing tool(s) does your school use, if any? These kinds of tools enable
instructors and administrators to conduct classes and/or meet virtually on the internet.
Common applications include Zoom, Skype, and Google Hangouts.

Note: In some cases, your school will have already integrated the two primary tools—the LMS and
web conferencing—into a single tool.

Training Resources

 Find out what local training and support resources are available to you. Does your school
have trainers, instructional designers, or a teaching center? These resources, if
available, often help pedagogically by establishing and maintaining online instructional best
practices—and they also can train instructors on how to use the technological tools
themselves.
 Rely on any guidelines about online technology and pedagogy that they can offer you. Using
locally supported technologies and instructional models is crucial. Confusion about online
course design and organization, which can happen when different instructors at the same
school adopt different online technology and design approaches, is frequently cited as a
primary hindrance to student satisfaction and success in online courses.

The time you invest in learning new software platforms will pay huge dividends once your course is
up and running. If you don't know how these applications work from a user perspective (say, which
fields to fill out and which buttons to push to publish a discussion prompt in the LMS's discussion
board), everything else that follows will remain more mystifying than it needs to be. But be
confident: If you can set up and maintain your course in your school's LMS and you can run a web
conferencing application, that's all you need to be able to do, technologically speaking, to thrive as
an online instructor!

Second, the Pedagogy….

Online Teaching Modes

Online learning takes place in two different temporal modes: synchronous and asynchronous.

Synchronous online instruction denotes that an instructor and a class of learners will be
meeting all at the same time.

Asynchronous online instruction takes place when an instructor makes assignments that
learners will then complete on their own schedules (though you can still require that various
assignments be submitted by a certain time).

© Cengage 2024.
Using Synchronous vs. Asynchronous Modes

An online course may include both synchronous and asynchronous elements. Unless your school
has strict guidelines, it doesn't have to be an either/or proposition. Both types of online instruction
have their advantages and disadvantages. And you should give serious consideration to both,
depending on the intended learning outcomes of your course(s) and the kinds of instructional
activities you have in mind for your learners.

Synchronous is most useful for

 When you need to provide students with complicated instructions—say, for a lab or
research project; such instructions might prompt questions from students, the answers
to which could benefit all students
 Establishing community in ways that more closely resemble traditional classroom
settings
 Situations where it is most effective to hear one another in real time (e.g., world
languages)
 Small group brainstorming sessions

Asynchronous is most useful for

 Situations in which students in multiple time zones are taking your class(es)
 Situations in which students are likely to access the course material at different times
due to other responsibilities
 Providing students time to process and explore course content on their own time and at
their own pace

With respect to the technology and to make it as simple as possible: Web conferencing is for
synchronous activities and the LMS is typically for asynchronous activities.

Some lessons from the flipped classroom model

Over the last decade or so, one of the most popular internet-enabled instructional design models
has been the “flipped classroom” model. Typically, in this model, students initially encounter basic
concepts and perform lower-level cognitive learning tasks (such as the viewing of lectures, videos,
and/or PowerPoint presentations) before arriving for class. In-person class time is then reserved for
higher level analytic, synthetic, and/or creative activities. Although the flipped model is generally
assumed to be a model for the division of learning activities between at-home and in-person, you
may find flipped classroom best practices helpful for considering the division of online learning
between asynchronous and synchronous modes—especially if synchronous learning time will be at
a premium.

 At-home (read: asynchronous) work should be essential to the specified learning outcomes
for the class. Work perceived by students as optional or “nice to know” (as opposed to “need
to know”) will typically not attract the time and attention of students.
 If you intend to use in-person (read: synchronous) time to tackle more cognitively
challenging learning activities, you should make sure that that students have successfully
completed the intended preparatory material before they come to class. Students should not
only be expected to familiarize themselves, say, with a pre-recorded lecture, but they should
complete some formative assessment that demonstrates that indeed this familiarity has
taken root. You may also want them to have prepared tentative responses or outlines to the
questions that will be guiding the in-class interactions. If students don’t come to class
prepared already with the basics, then you may end up having to rehash the basics in class
—which ultimately defeats the purpose of the flipped model in the first place.
 The flipped model is not an all-or-nothing proposition. Some lessons and activities lend
themselves better to this model than others. Lessons and subject matters that are difficult
for students from the outset are better treated during in-person synchronous time. In any
given course, you can use a mixture of flipped and traditional instruction; don’t be afraid to
experiment.

© Cengage 2024.
Transitioning Your Course

You may have heard that online teaching encourages or requires you to completely revamp the
way you teach your courses, that you can't just put your on-ground course online and expect any
success at all.

Initially, though, it's virtually impossible to avoid this question: "How do I take all the elements of
my on-ground course that work so well for me and my students and replicate them in the online
setting?" So, let’s take some very common components of traditional on-ground courses—lectures,
discussions, writing, reading, peer review, student presentations, group work, projects,
quizzes/tests, labs—and describe how they can be transitioned to online contexts.

Lectures

 Synchronous: With a web conferencing tool like Zoom or Google Hangouts, you can project
your classroom into many other rooms across the internet. Talking into a web camera may
be awkward the first few times, but it will eventually feel as normal as getting up in front of
a room of people. Just don't forget everything that you already know about "lecturing."
Students are easily distracted and thus you should aim for as much interactivity in your
online lectures as you would on-ground. If you like to use props in person, don't forget them
when you go online. Encourage students to ask questions via the chat features in the web
conferencing platform, or use online polling tools. Consider using these web conferencing
tools to record your synchronous lectures as well. Students who can’t make these live
sessions will still be able to view them later.
 Asynchronous: Lectures can always be recorded ahead of time and posted in an LMS for
students to view before, or in lieu of, synchronous class meetings. At all costs, avoid long-
winded videos of talking heads lecturing about a topic for 45 minutes. Instead, try to limit
individual lecture videos to no more than five minutes. It doesn't mean that you can't serve
up multiple videos at the same time, but learners will simply lose interest if a video lecture is
too long. Intersperse video lectures with interactive elements or activities that allow
students to generate momentum and promote their course engagement. Also consider
creating unique lectures based on questions raised by students upon completion of a
reading or some other preparatory activity.

Discussions

 Synchronous: If you're using a standard web conferencing platform, then you can facilitate
a discussion just as you would in a classroom. Students can virtually or physically raise their
hands and you can call on them just as you always have. (Note: Always remember to tell
non-speakers to remain on mute unless they have the virtual floor.) These platforms often
enable you to break a large group into smaller groups. Just as they would in a traditional
classroom setting, smaller groups encourage more input from more students. As the
meeting leader you can pop into each of the smaller groups as you wish.
 Asynchronous: A basic component of any leading LMS is the discussion board. As an
instructor, you can post prompts to the board to which students will respond. Then they will
have the opportunity to view and respond to their classmates' posts. As an instructor, you
should participate and emulate the best practices of academic discussions. Consider
providing students with guidelines for productive discussions—which you can find readily
with an internet search. Also remember when thinking about the value of asynchronous
discussions: Research indicates the cultivation of a social presence and community is vital to
success and persistence in online courses. Students may appreciate the asynchronous
elements of an online course, as it gives the learner some self-determination in creating a
study schedule, but nagging feelings of “going it alone” could eventually prove
counterproductive and could erode a student’s momentum in an online course.
Asynchronous discussions can prove to be quite valuable if there aren’t opportunities for
synchronous interactivity with classmates.

© Cengage 2024.
Some best practices for designing asynchronous online discussion activities

 Don't assume that, if you simply tell students to "discuss" something, they will in fact know
what that means. Be sure to clarify what the goals and requirements of a discussion should
be.
 Make sure that discussions prompts can't be answered with a simple yes or no.
 At the same time, discussion prompts shouldn't be too broad; they should require students
to focus on subject matter that is relevant to everyone taking the class.
 If discussions are a component of class participation grades (as they often are in online
courses), be sure to specify exactly what's required of students to fulfill participation
expectations. How many words or paragraphs is an acceptable initial post? A follow-up
response? How many contributions to a discussion are required?
 If students are required to post initial answers and then to respond to their classmates, you
should require that initial answers are posted with ample time for the subsequent responses.
 Be as clear as possible in describing what evidence and/or reference materials students are
supposed to bring to bear in a discussion post. Should they just provide their own opinions?
Should they be referring to particular readings or other course content? Should they be
crafting well-formed arguments (with premises and conclusions)?
 Consider participating in the online discussion yourself. This allows you to monitor student
progress and to model desired discussion practices.

Writing

Presume that extended writing activities are largely asynchronous tasks. Via the LMS, you can post
writing assignments and students can submit them back to you. You can then review the work and
assign a grade through the LMS.

Reading

Extended reading assignments are typically asynchronous activities. Hyperlink, whenever possible,
directly to readings in e-textbooks or online library resources to which your school is subscribed.

Peer Review

 Synchronous: Think of peer review as a small group discussion. Use the web conferencing
tools' breakout room capabilities to facilitate one-on-one meetings between review partners.
In this setting, learners can also share their screens with one another, offering the
opportunity (if desired) to collaborate in real-time revisioning.
 Asynchronous: Some LMSs are better at facilitating peer review than others; nevertheless,
there's nothing in the online environment that prohibits you from assigning review partners
among a cohort of learners. They can distribute their work via email or shared doc, provide
feedback to their peers in marginal comments, track changes, and/or in individual web chats
that the partners initiate. Finally, learners can post various iterations with and/or without
peer comments to the LMS drop box. As with any peer review assignment, it's important to
clarify expectations and good feedback etiquette with your learners. (See the best practices
outlined next.)

Some best practices to share with your students for peer review

 Be respectful and constructive: Offer suggestions, not commands.

 Don’t focus your comments exclusively on the weaker parts of your peer’s work: Identify
both the good and less-than-good components of your peers’ work and offer concrete
solutions for improving the less-than-good parts.
 Be judicious in the amount of feedback you’re offering to your peers: Focus on the most
essential things or the components of your peer’s work that you think could make the most
improvements most efficiently

© Cengage 2024.
  Be clear: Aim for clarity and precision in your feedback. Quickly asserting that something is
“too vague” itself is too vague. What specifically is hard to understand? Share with your
peers the different ways you could construe what your peer is trying to present.
 Ask questions: Feedback doesn’t always have to be so assertive. If something isn’t clear, ask
the creator for more elaboration or context.
 Your peer put a lot of time and energy into creating the work that you’re reviewing: You
should aim to respect that time and energy by committing the same time and energy
providing thoughtful feedback.

Student Presentations

This applies to student presentations, but is also applicable to activities when students need to
perform physical tasks or deliver public speaking:

 Synchronous: Just as you might regularly turn over your place at the head of the classroom
to a student, you can do so virtually as well. Web conferencing platforms allow you to
transfer control of the virtual room to any given student, at which point a student may walk
classmates through a PowerPoint deck or some other output of student research and
creativity.
 Asynchronous: Students can record themselves giving a presentation via their computer or
smart phones, either aurally or on video, depending on resources and the learning outcomes
of the assignment. Students can then post their audio and video files on the LMS for
subsequent review by other members of a class. Or they can often post directly to a
discussion board. As with peer review assignments, it helps to provide students with
guidelines for constructive feedback to presentations.

Group Work

 Synchronous: Web conferencing platforms make it easy to assign students to smaller

groups.
 Asynchronous: Once groups have been assigned for a particular learning activity you can
also encourage small groups to devise their own schedules of meetings or virtual
collaboration outside of any synchronous class times via communication platforms of their
own choosing. Don’t forget that online group work—synchronous or asynchronous—is
subject to all the same interpersonal group dynamics operative in face-to-face groups.
Students should clearly define roles and responsibilities for each group member.

Some best practices to share with your students for working in groups

 Group dynamics should be a focus of any group work: Group assignments shouldn’t take
team dynamics for granted; groups should collectively discuss and evaluate their functioning
as a group throughout their time working together.
 Group members should be deliberate in establishing group guidelines around goal setting,
communication (what, where, when, how...), time management, and equity of each
member’s efforts.
 Group members should aim for a culture of mutual respect and constructive candidness:
Group members owe it to one another to take everyone’s contributions seriously, but if
members have reason to question another member’s efforts, they should first seek
understanding and, if then required, be respectful in criticisms of other group members’
efforts and participation.
 Group members should clearly define their roles and expectations: Different group members
will naturally gravitate to differing levels of leadership in the group. Sometimes negotiation
will be required, but once roles and responsibilities have been established, group members
should respect these expectations, unless there is evidence the group needs to revisit these
decisions.

Projects

© Cengage 2024.
Projects are likely to be an amalgam of other activity types and are typically asynchronous. They
may also culminate with a presentation. (See Student Presentations above.)

Quizzes/Tests

 Synchronous: Proctoring quizzes, tests, and/or exams synchronously online is unavoidably

a challenge. Even if there are various software tools that can disable learners' abilities to
interact with other web browsers and social media, it's still very difficult to control what
other "resources" students may have placed conveniently out of the webcam's frame. Your
school may have contracted with distributed proctoring services to oversee student testing,
but these tend to be pricey and logistically more of a challenge for you and your students.
 Asynchronous: LMS-facilitated asynchronous quizzing is a much more readily achievable
proposition. Every leading LMS has a quizzing engine that can serve up and automatically
grade original quiz questions and/or those supplied by publishers. Questions and the
ordering of potential answers (distractors) can be set to automatically randomize
themselves to hinder cheating, but don't set yourself up for disappointment. Setting the
right (read: low) stakes for these kinds of assessments and assuming that they will be "open
book" assessments is generally a better approach. Quizzing via the LMS thus may be best
for formative assessment. In the online environment, your highest stakes summative
assessments would be better conceived as projects or other outputs that aren't as
susceptible to cheating.

Labs

 Web conferencing: Depending on the access to equipment and materials that you or your
students have, you could conduct labs or components of labs collaboratively via a web
conferencing platform.
 Virtual labs: Consider what virtual labs or simulations you may already have access to via
course material publishers, libraries, and/or open resources. Typically, your colleagues
and/or local teaching development resources will be good sources of information here.
Students can work through these labs synchronously or asynchronously.
 Data for analysis: If a lab is primarily focused on the analysis of data, instead of requiring
students to collect data first in a laboratory and then analyze it, you could present students
with pre-collected datasets.

Office Hours

If possible, use an Outlook or Google calendar to manage your virtual office hours. Encourage
students to request appointments through these tools. You can then conduct office hours either via
a phone call or web conferencing.

Communicate, Communicate, Communicate!

It's vitally important when it comes to online instruction to think intentionally about your
communication patterns. As mentioned previously, students struggle in an online learning
environment if they don't feel connected to a community of other learners. Online education is
often painted with broad strokes describing the broad autonomy students gain from purely online,
asynchronous courses. But these pictures just aren’t accurate or desirable. Open, free-flowing
communication between you and your students and between the students themselves is vital for
successful online learning experiences.

Communication Channels

Consistency is key. If your local resources haven't already prescribed the basic platforms for
communicating with your online students, then it's worth your time to think it through. The LMS
should likely be your primary means of communicating with students. Through an LMS you can

© Cengage 2024.
communicate to the entire class as well as with individual students. Although it might be tempting
to use email or texts to communicate, your messages via these other media can more readily end
up lost or overlooked. Likewise, encourage your students to communicate class-related messages
with their classmates via the LMS. Students may seek the freedom to engage each other via other
means, but prescribing preferred channels may alleviate the unnecessary creation and proliferation
of alternate platform-based communication. (At the same time, consider designating a backup
communication channel if the LMS experiences any downtime during the course.)

Expectations and Directions

Above all, your goal in your communications with learners should be to demonstrate clarity about
your expectations and the clearest possible directions for achieving the intended learning
experience. In a classroom, you usually have the chance to immediately clarify expectations and
instructions, but it's often more of a challenge in the online setting. Thus, be as deliberate as
possible and try to anticipate all the questions and confusions a student might experience. When
designing your course for online delivery, remember that students might be doing this work at all
hours, and they won’t have ready access to you when first learning about an assignment. Make
sure instructions for assignments or activities are very clear. Try to predict student questions and
address them in the assignment instructions.

Accessibility

Online instruction should include constant vigilance to an institution’s accessibility policies. Seek
out your institution’s accessibility policies and guidelines from your local Disability Support Services
office. Frequently the guidelines they provide will prove advantageous not only to your students
who have special needs or learning differences, but to the effectiveness of your course design in
general.

Communication Overload?

Many first-time online instructors find the uptick in their communication with students to be a bit
surprising. All that informal communication and clarification that typically happens in a classroom
now must happen online.

 Course information pages: Be as generous as possible in clarifying your goals and expectations
for your course on the course information page in the LMS. Think of it as a Welcome page. You
may discover that learners ask you the same questions over and over in their individual
communications with you, so consider the creation and ongoing maintenance of an FAQ section
on your course information page.
 Setting your limits: Clarify to your students when and how you want to receive queries from
them. Communication is a two-way street and just as you should be concerned about not
confusing or overwhelming your learners with your communications, you should make sure your
learners don't overwhelm you.

Some best practices for supporting your online students

 If teaching online feels like a challenge to you, learning online also poses challenges to your
students. In the recent rapid migration to online education, many instructors have voiced
concerns over how best to support their students. To be sure, online students still need all the
supports you typically provide your students in the classroom. Student support begins
essentially with showing your students that you care about them individually. That doesn’t
change when you’re teaching them online. They truly benefit from knowing that you are
thinking about them.
 Be deliberate in keeping an “open door.” Do maintain office hours; be generous with feedback
and instructions; challenge yourself to return all student queries within a certain period of time
(say, 24 hours), and finally, if possible, don’t wait for them to reach out to you. Try proactively
to contact each student individually to assess their circumstances and state of mind

© Cengage 2024.
 Balance flexibility with accountability. Students all have unique circumstances—particularly in
the recent rapid migration to online education. Some students will benefit from continuing
demands for high standards and accountability; in uncertain times, these kinds of expectations
and structure will be exactly what they need. Other students will be facing extenuating
circumstances and will need every bit of flexibility you have to offer them. Do your best to
know and manage the individual needs of your students.
 As you know, on-ground students need academic support, tech support, physical and emotional
health support, and a sense of community. Online students need all of the same support but
probably even more. Don’t forget about all the other functions of your institution that have also
had to go online; it’s not just the teaching. Coordinate your efforts with the other student
support services your institution offers. Keep the contact information and service descriptions
of these support services handy; embrace the opportunity to be a critical lifeline to your online
students well beyond the academic subject matter you’re trying to teach them.

Some Final Comments

First things, first: Find those local training resources. They just might become your best friends.
Gaining some familiarity with the technology available to you and the people there to support your
online teaching endeavors will go a long way in easing any anxieties you may be feeling. Also, find
out what your colleagues at your own institution and others are doing in these uncertain times. The
resources for assisting you in thriving in this new environment have exploded online. You are not
alone in facing these new challenges; you are not alone in having to find solutions.

Try to maintain a spirit of experimentation. Always be on the lookout for ways to iterate and
improve your courses each time you teach them online. Remember too that your students aren't
expecting perfection.

May the online teaching world now be your oyster!

© Cengage 2024.
IT/Networking/Cybersecurity - Specific
Considerations and Solutions
In IT/Networking/Cybersecurity MindTap courseware and textbooks, there are certain tried and true
learning activities, such as: hands-on projects, quizzing, and case projects that are consistent
across most of our products. A majority of these courses additionally offer videos, discussion board
activities, live, virtual machine labs, and lab simulations which provide opportunities to learn real-
world skills in context with information technology applications. Refer to each course’s MindTap
Educator Guide for specific details, as these are fantastic tools to augment the online learning
experience.

Following are ways to replicate or reconfigure the standard learning activities in an online setting.

Learning Activity: Hands-On Projects Synchronous

Hands-On Projects help students build upon the Use a web conferencing platform to
technical skills they will need in order to work demonstrate or talk through the steps of the
in an IT/Networking/Cybersecurity role. The project as you share your screen to show
projects will help instructors get a sense for students how to use the software or IT tool. Let
which students truly understand the topics students know they can use the chat tool to
covered in each module, and which students post any questions they have during the class.
may need some additional guidance.
Asynchronous
Record yourself performing the steps of the
project ahead of time and post the video to
your LMS. If it’s a long project, remember to
break it up into shorter video segments,
keeping the length of each segment five
minutes or less. Then, ask students to post any
questions they still have about the project to a
discussion board.
Once you have answered all of the students’
questions, instruct students to record
themselves performing the steps of the project
and post their video to the LMS for grading
and/or review by the instructor.
Cengage/affiliate/OER Solutions
Hands-On Projects are also available in most
MindTap courses either in the eBook modules
or directly in the learning path for the course.
These can be assigned as practice or manually
graded.

Learning Activity: Quizzes Synchronous

IT/Networking/Cybersecurity courses offer a Your school may use a distributed proctoring
variety of quiz types. service to oversee student testing.
Review Quizzes: multiple-choice questions
that help instructors gauge what students have
learned once they complete a module.
Think Critically Quizzes: scenarios and
discussion questions that allow students to
evaluate a situation and choose the best
solution.

© Cengage 2024.
 Instructor Test Banks: available in Cognero
(which can be downloaded and added to an
instructor’s preferred LMS) and CNOW in
MindTap; hundreds of additional auto-graded
questions for instructors to choose from to
create quizzes, mid-term, or final exams.
Pre-Assessment Quizzes: brief practice quiz
provided at the beginning of each MindTap
course to help students get in the habit of
testing themselves frequently.
Post-Assessment Quizzes: unique set of
questions that can be used as a mock
certification exam or simply as a final exam for
a course.
Asynchronous
Every leading LMS has a quizzing engine that
can serve up and automatically grade original
quiz questions and/or those supplied by
publishers.

Quizzing via the LMS may be best for formative

assessment. In the online environment, your
highest stakes summative assessments would
be better conceived as projects or other
outputs that aren't as susceptible to cheating.
Cengage/affiliate/OER Solutions
MindTap courses include auto-graded quizzes
to assess students’ understanding of the
readings. Instructor quizzes can be found on
your Cengage Instructor Resources as well as in
most MindTap courses.

Learning Activity: Case Projects Synchronous

Case projects ask students to evaluate a Use a web conferencing tool to lead a
scenario and decide on a course of action to discussion with the class based on one of the
propose a solution. These are valuable tools real-world scenarios in a case project. Outline
that help students sharpen decision-making, some best practices for a successful online
critical thinking, and troubleshooting skills. discussion at the beginning of the class, such
as clarifying what the goals and requirements
of the discussion are and remind students they
can virtually or physically (if their video
cameras are on) raise their hands to be called
on. Make sure your discussion prompts can’t be
answered with a simple yes or no.

If your class is large, use your web

conferencing tool to split students into
breakout groups, and then have each breakout
group report out highlights from their
discussions to the whole class.
Asynchronous
Use your LMS discussion board to post a
discussion prompt based on the case project
scenarios. After students post their initial
answer, make it a requirement that they
respond to their classmates’ posts to build a

© Cengage 2024.
 sense of community and social presence.

Be sure to specify exactly what's required of

students to fulfill participation expectations.
How many words or paragraphs is an
acceptable initial post? How many contributions
to a discussion are required?

Refer to the “Best practices for designing

asynchronous online discussion activities”
earlier in this document for additional
suggestions and recommendations.
Cengage/affiliate/OER Solutions
Scenarios or case projects with questions are
available in most MindTap courses. Many
chapter readings also include real-world
features and/or scenarios/case projects that
encourage students to make the connection
between the reading content and actual
practice and can be used for discussion.

Learning Activity: Videos Synchronous

Videos offered in the MindTap courses both Use a web conferencing platform to watch a
support the readings and help deepen video with your class. Have some questions
students’ understanding of the material being ready to ask your students at the end of the
covered. video to spark discussion about what they just
watched. Encourage students to take turns
speaking or let them also post ideas using the
chat tool.

Tip: check with your school about best

practices for correct audio settings when
sharing videos!
Asynchronous
Post the video to your LMS and assign a due
date for viewing the video. Use the LMS
discussion board to post discussion questions
based on the video. Ask students to post their
answers and then respond to at least two of
their classmates’ responses. This helps expose
students to other opinions and ideas about the
concepts covered in the video and builds a
sense of community in the class.
Another option for this activity would be to ask
students to record themselves responding to
the video and answering the discussion
questions posted in the forum. Then ask
students to post their own videos to the LMS
and respond to two of their classmates’ videos.
Cengage/affiliate/OER Solutions
Videos are offered in most MindTap courses
and encourage students to make
the connection between the reading content
and a real-world scenario. Many of the videos
offer an alternative way to explain challenging
topics covered in the course and can be a great
way to encourage discussion and sharing of

© Cengage 2024.
 ideas.

Learning Activity: IT for Life Synchronous

Podcasts, videos, Web sites, RSS feeds, and Choose one of your favorite industry resources
other resources allow students to explore (e.g., a podcast episode you recently listened
industry-related news and events. to), and using your web conferencing tool listen
to a clip of that podcast with your class. (In
Instructors can use these activities to help build preparation for the class, you may want to
student interest in the field of assign students to listen to the podcast in its
IT/Networking/Cybersecurity, as well as lifelong entirety beforehand.) Then, using the questions
learning habits. posted in the IT for Life activity, lead your class
in a group discussion.
A great icebreaker for starting the conversation
would be to ask them how the topic covered in
the podcast relates to a personal experience
they have had on the job or in a course; how
they solved for that issue; and how they might
handle it differently in the future.
Asynchronous
Assign an IT for Life activity in your LMS.
Depending on which activity you choose, ask
students to engage with the resource cited,
(e.g., watch a TED Talk video, follow a
professional blog for 2 days, etc.) and then
using the discussion board in the LMS, post a
unique response. Students should also be
directed to respond to two of their classmates’
posts. Post a grading rubric for the assignment
on the LMS as well, so that students are clear
what the goal of the assignment is and what
the grading expectations are.
Cengage/affiliate/OER Solutions
IT for Life activities are available in many
IT/Networking/Cybersecurity MindTap courses
(the name may change slightly depending on
the course; for example, if you are teaching a
cybersecurity course it may be called Security
for Life). Use these activities as an opportunity
to engage with your students about the
importance of continuous learning outside of
the classroom.

Learning Activity: Reflection Synchronous

Discussion prompts that encourage self- Reflection activities can be a useful tool for
reflection and open sharing among classmates. gauging what knowledge your students have
gained at the end of a chapter. Using your web
Research in cognitive psychology shows that conferencing tool, take 15 minutes at the end
reflective discussion of content being learned of the class to ask students to consider the
and of the learning process itself improves following questions:
retention and understanding significantly, - What have you learned from this
especially in the context of sharing with peers. chapter that you believe will be most
These rich discussion prompts invite deeper helpful to you?
consideration of key concepts and provide a - In what areas do you feel your
platform for sharing insights and debating knowledge and understanding are still
controversial topics. weak?
- Which technologies do you think you
need to learn more about to best
prepare yourself for your future in IT?

© Cengage 2024.
 Participate in the discussion yourself to model
desired discussion practices.
If you have a large class, consider using the
web conferencing tool to create breakout
sessions of smaller groups of 3-5 students.
Allow them time to discuss these questions in
their small groups and then ask them to share
their responses with the entire class.
Asynchronous
Use your LMS to assign a Reflection activity.
Encourage students to reflect upon the
questions posed in the activity and then create
a journal entry that expresses their thoughts
and opinions about the topic. Be clear about
the expected length of the journal entry and
ask students to either submit it directly to you
for grading, or to post it on the discussion
board of the LMS to promote open sharing
among students in the class.
Cengage/affiliate/OER Solutions
Reflection activities are available in many
IT/Networking/Cybersecurity MindTap courses.
Use these activities as an opportunity to
encourage self-reflection and/or open sharing
among students in the class.

Learning Activity: Live, Virtual Machine Synchronous

Labs Use your web conferencing tool to spend some
VM labs provide hands-on practice and allow time going through the Live Virtual Machine
learners to troubleshoot, practice, explore and Lab User Guide with your students at the
try different solutions in a safe, sandbox beginning of the course. This is an invaluable
environment using real Cisco hardware and tool that will help students understand how to
virtualized Windows, Linux, and UNIX operating navigate around the lab environment and
systems. optimize their experience by showing them
how to configure accessibility options.
Leave plenty of time to log into the live, virtual
machine lab prerequisite and demonstrate how
to use the Content Pane, Lab Toolbar, and
Device Pane and allow students to ask
questions throughout the demonstration.
Sometimes it’s helpful for students to hear
what questions their peers are asking, because
it may answer some of the same questions
they have.
Asynchronous
Assign the Live, Virtual Machine Lab
Prerequisite in your LMS. The prerequisite is an
assignment meant to walk students through
how to use the live VM lab environment. It is
designed to be a practice lab that will help
them learn how to successfully navigate live,
VM labs so they feel more confident when
working through the labs on their own.
Direct students to complete chapter readings
first and any other activities associated with
the chapter, such as hands-on projects or
simulation labs, before they log in to the live,
VM environment. This will help students gain

© Cengage 2024.
 the hands-on practice and experience they
need in order to successfully complete the
tasks outlined in the live, virtual machine labs
throughout the course.
Cengage/affiliate/OER Solutions
Live virtual machine labs are available
in most IT/Networking/Cybersecurity MindTap
courses. Many chapter readings also include
hands-on projects that encourage students to
make the connection between
the reading content and actual skills they
should practice in order to prepare the students
for the lab exercises.

Learning Activity: Simulation Labs Synchronous

Lab simulations provide students with an Using your web conferencing platform, share
opportunity for hands-on experience and your screen with the class and show them how
problem-solving practice with automatic you complete each step in one of the
feedback. simulation labs. Allow students to ask questions
during your demonstration and encourage
other students to suggest answers to their
peers’ questions in a constructive and
respectful way.

An alternative approach would be to use the

web conferencing tool’s breakout room
capabilities to facilitate one-on-one meetings
between students and let them work through a
simulation lab together. In this setting, learners
can also share their screens with one another,
offering the opportunity (if desired) for real-
time collaboration.
Asynchronous
Assign the simulation labs in your LMS. Direct
students to complete the chapter reading first
and any other activities associated with the
chapter, such as hands-on projects or case
projects, before they complete the simulations.
This will help students gain the hands-on
practice and experience they need in order to
successfully complete the steps outlined in the
lab simulation.
Cengage/affiliate/OER Solutions
Simulation labs are available in many
IT/Networking/Cybersecurity MindTap courses.
Most chapter readings also include hands-on
projects that encourage students to make
the connection between the reading content
and actual skills they should practice in order
to prepare the students for success in the
simulation labs.

© Cengage 2024.