There are a few things to keep in mind when moving from teaching in a face-to-face classroom to an online environment. A good online experience for students capitalizes on the affordances of the online environment. Strategies that work best are based on students being active participants in the learning process, rather than merely "empty vessels" to fill with the instructor's knowledge.

Considerations

Students' learning conditions

Students have busy lives, and maybe juggling family and professional obligations. As a result when and where they find time to learn online varies.

Time

Learning online often requires more student time to independently review information and study. Course design should minimize student time-on-task by including concentrated learning "chunks". Instructor time use also shifts from presenting information, to guiding online learning with frequent online interactions.

Bandwidth issues

Not all students will have access to good computer/mobile equipment or a reliable internet connection.

Learning is social

Effective online learning fosters connections between:

learner <—> content
learner <—> instructor
learner <—> learner
learner <—> community (where possible)

This chart contains some samples of strategies that work well in online courses. As you will note, in most online courses, students will typically spend more time interacting with the learning content, and the least time, if any, on community interactions.

chart of learning strategies mapped to interaction types
Chart created by Parm Gill (CC-BY-NC SA 4.0)

See Synchronous and/or Asynchronous Teaching and Learning for more strategies.