How to Teach Online: Adult Students: Practical Suggestions

  • Break the material up into small pieces. Adults may have only a few minutes to study in between their other activities.
  • Provide your Course material in an accessible format, such as PDF, which can be used by the students for reference later. They can also show the tutorials to their friends as advertisements of your course.
  • Respond to every student posting (email, chat, discussion board, forum, etc.):
    1. quickly
    2. include the student's name in the first sentence
    3. positively - no matter how ignorant, lazy, abusive, etc. the student
  • Include in your tutorial material pictures of what the student's computer screen should look like, whenever possible
  • Have a picture of yourself in your introductory material, along with a brief biography
  • Number everything, so that the student and you can point at the relevant material exactly
  • In feedback to a test, state exactly why every reasonable answer is right or wrong
  • At the end of the Course, provide unofficial PDF "Certificates" signed by you as a personal memento for the student - in addition to any official documentation of the course
  • Whenever possible, transmit a feeling of excitement and activity.
  • Send out reminder emails shortly before crucial time-points. It is easy for adult students to lose track of schedules amid the rush of other activities.
  • I teach online courses for adult students who study at their own pace, in their own time. Each Course is for one month.


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