1. Overview
2. Before class begins
3. Prepare your lesson
4. During class
5. After class

• Distance learning will only succeed if it is learner-centered.
• The instructor should do less. The learners should do more.
• The learner’s role should be designed in great detail and incorporate lessons that rely heavily on student interaction and involvement.

1. Know the Learner’s Profile... grade level, gender, cultural issues, attention span, time available to learn, learning preferences, learning limitations, degree of literacy, motivation to learn.
   
   
2. Materials... prepare lots of overheads.
   
   
3. Instructional content... thoroughly script your delivery, and stimulate student interaction and involvement.
   
   

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1. Introduce the instructor... share appropriate information about yourself and project your personal style so that your students will gain a sense of familiarity with who you are.
   
   
2. Introduce other participating schools or locations... let your students know what other schools or locations will be taking part in the class or session.
   
   
3. Give an overview of basic information
   
   
• Set the ground rules... let them know what you expect.
  
  
• Explain what they will experience... briefly explain what they will be able to see, hear and do. Use non-technical jargon to explain the equipment and room set-up.
  
  
• Explain what they should do to achieve success... explain what they must do to succeed in your class. Reassure them that they do not need any special technical skills to be successful in the video classroom.
  
  
• Provide a point of contact... provide a way for them to ask you questions / clarify something before the first class meets.
  
  
• Seek Feedback... ask for information to help you customize the course design to better serve the particular students in this class. Ask for information that you can tie to content or delivery of material. Stress that this information is for your eyes only and will not be shared with other students.
  
  

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1. Prepare your materials
   
   When developing instructional materials such as overhead visuals, it is important to remember that these teaching aids will be viewed on a tv screen. As such, there are a number of design considerations that must influence the format of these documents:
   
   
• aspect ratio - a television screen is horizontal, not vertical: 3 units high X 4 units wide. Visuals must conform to this ratio. If you are creating materials on a computer, create your materials in landscape rather than portrait format.
  
  
• safe area - the useable area of a tv screen = 80-85%. Leave a wide border, 2 inches around text or images. Center the information on the screen. Do not exceed a maximum of 30 characters AND spaces per line. Don’t exceed 9 lines of text per screen. Remember that less is more: 4-8 words per screen achieves maximum effect.
  
  
• fonts and color - use a sans serif font and black letters. However, be aware that you must reduce the contrast between the text and the background - don’t use white as the background. Choose a middle tone or light pastel. If you want to add variation by creating light colored text, place the text on a dark, but not black field - for instance, yellow letters on blue. Avoid very dark or light colors. The camera makes dark darker and light lighter. Large solid blocks of white, black and red should be avoided.
  
  
• computer text - if you are creating visuals on a personal computer, adopt these guidelines:
  - use 42 - 48 point type for titles
  - use 30 - 36 point type for body text
  - use boldface
  - use simple fonts
  - use upper and lower cases for body text
  
  
2. Prepare the room
   
   Things you can do to prepare the room:
   
   
• Presets... you can preset the camera so that you have a variety of images to transmit. Create at least two instructor presets - a close shot (mid chest to top of head) and a long shot - (3/4 of the instructor - can include desk or podium). Also prepare a few presets of the students. Make sure that each preset of students includes more than one student - don’t make the shot too intrusive.
  
  
• Mark your spot... use small strips of tape to mark the borders of your preset - for instance, put two pieces of tape on the desk to mark the area within which you should stand. You may also wish to “block out” where you should stand in other areas of the class if you decide to have presets when you “pull an Oprah” and walk around.
  
  
• Identify your students... have a folded stiff piece of paper at each student seat so that students can print their names in letters large enough for you to read.
  
  
3. Prepare yourself
   
   Things you can do to prepare yourself:
   
   
• Mental attitude... it may be hard to remember that, even though you are the (apparent) focus of the camera, you are more of a facilitator than a lecturer. Remember to change the focus often - to visuals and to your students.
  
  
• Clothing... use the same color rules for your clothing as have been mentioned about printed materials. Avoid dressing in solid whites, blacks or reds. Avoid dense prints or patterns, such as checks and stripes. Pastel shirts and blouses are suggested. Do not wear hats, overwhelming scarves and ties, or noisy jewelry.
  
  

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1. Break the glass... break through the glass early and often by involving your students in the class. Speak directly to individuals frequently, especially those at remote sites. It is up to you to involve your students as often as possible. Think of logical, reinforcing activities related to content, which can be combined with your presentation to make your lesson come alive for remote students. A minimum of thirty percent of class time should be devoted to interaction and other activities directly and personally involving students. Remember, you don’t want viewers, you want learners.
   
   
2. Avoid a top heavy opening... one major reason for having sent a welcome letter to your students was to get a lot of the housekeeping items out of the way. Remember, your first objective is to reinforce to your students that theirs is not a passive role. You want to involve them as soon as possible, but spending the first 10 or 15 minutes going over items that could have been dispensed with earlier requires just the sort of passivity you want to avoid. Within the first 5 minutes of beginning, call on one of your students, preferably one at a remote site. You may ask them to respond to a question that was in the welcome letter or to discuss pre-assigned reading. The point is to involve your students early and often.
   
   
3. Stay focused on all students... not just the students at the originating site. Think of the instructor camera as another student. Look directly into it periodically, so that students at receiving sites feel like you are speaking and listening to them. Call on individual students to ensure that all participants have ample opportunity to participate, but at the same time politely and firmly discourage students from monopolizing class time.
   
   
4. Have a plan for handling student questions... classroom etiquette must be established by you as the instructor / moderator of the session. Since most students are unaccustomed to talking to a television image, they may be unsure when it is acceptable to ask questions. If you simply tell students to ask questions whenever they want to, you run the risk of never getting any questions. If you have more than two sites involved, letting students interrupt when they want to could result in two sites trying to talk at the same time or one site dominating the conversation.
   
   You may want to ask students to hold, or even write down questions as they think of them. Pause after each segment of your lesson to poll each site individually and prompt for questions. For example,
   
   "At this point, let me stop for questions. Site name, do you have any questions regarding _____________?"
   
   Another method is to get the ball rolling by calling on an individual student. For example,
   
   "Let's pause for a moment for questions. Look over notes at the questions you've jotted down. John at site name, what have you written?" (He may have nothing written down, but if you continue to ask in this fashion, students will get the idea that you really give them the opportunity to question you.) If you let students ask questions at any time, have them identify their name and site when interrupting so that no one misses part of the question and people can direct their attention to the tv displaying the site they are at.
   
   
5. Change the center of focus... involve students: set goals for how many student interactions you will have during every session. Use visuals, audio and video to enhance your presentation. Build in off-screen activities: have short break-out sessions, provide time for students to jot down their thoughts to a question you pose. Whenever you have an off-camera activity, write down the time that the activity ends and transmit it via the document camera.
   
   
6. Use silence... silence is a tool used by most teachers in live classrooms. Use it here as well. Silence introduces a welcome change element by breaking up what can become a monotonous droning. Silence provides more than variety, though. It also gives your students time to digest information and relief from a barrage of sound. It increases attention by making your students better listeners. When you institute a silent period remember that you, too, need to observe the silence - don’t inject side thoughts, “helpful hints” or other comments into the soothing silence.
   
   
7. Keep segments short... design instruction that can be delivered in short segments. Instead of planning a 25-minute lecture, try to divide it into 5 minute segments, with two of the segments presented in a different way, such as having students report on assignments related to the topic.
   
   
8. Build in breaks... depending on the length of the session, you may have to build in breaks. In long sessions, such as an all day workshop, the first session should be about 90 minutes. Thereafter you should allow 10 or 15 minute breaks every hour or so. Leave a printed message on the document camera saying exactly when you will resume. You can also use the break time as a transition to the next session by placing a message on screen such as a quote, question, related URL address, joke, or cartoon.
   
   
9. Combine activities with breaks... you can help soften the monotony of watching a TV screen by combining a break with an activity. Assign a 15 minute off-screen activity with a 15 minute break. Make sure you are clear about exactly how much time students have for the activity and the break, and announce the time when you will promptly resume the on-screen session.
   
   
10. Stagger starts... if one site has specific needs not shared by other sites, don’t be afraid to start that site earlier in order to provide whatever instructions, directions or content are needed. You can simply announce that Site Y will begin at 10, but sites X and Z won’t start until 10:20. It is far better to stagger your starts than have students at a site get the feeling that they are uninvolved in what is happening on-screen.
    
    
11. Change sites... where possible, alter the originating site. This helps to diminish the feeling that one site has special status. It also facilitates interaction and involvement. Try to rotate origination sites often, or at least once from each site early in the semester.
    
    
12. Invite guest speakers... try to build in variety, and thus increase student interest by inviting guests, including your students, to present to the class. Guest presentations need not be long. In those cases where the guest will need a longer period of time, try to stay away from a lecture format. If you can arrange an interview instead you will be able to better control the length, direction and content of the discussion.
    
    
13. Be flexible... as always, when using any technology, things can go wrong. Be flexible. Identify content or activities that can be omitted in case technical difficulties intrude on your session. Have hand-outs or activities ready in case the network goes down. Instead of sitting there worried, losing confidence, and wasting time, your students can be engaged in a productive content-related activity.

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1. Assignments... you can extend the continuum of learning while fostering greater student involvement by giving assignments that play to the strengths of distance education. For instance, you can assign paired activities with students from different sites that require students to use email. At the next on-line session these same students can give a group presentation jointly, even though at different locales. This will help to shatter the glass and unify the class.
   
   
2. Feedback... unlike the normal live classroom, it can be difficult for you to gauge the effectiveness of your instruction on remote students. Encourage feedback from them on what is working for them and what isn’t. You may even wish to make part of your first assignment a student report on how the video experience affected them. No matter how you do it, getting feedback on what works or doesn’t work is extremely important.

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