Book Review: Small Teaching Online: Applying Learning Science in Online Classes

If there was one book I could give to faculty that taught them strategies for online learning and teaching, Small Teaching Online: Applying Learning Science in Online Classes would be that book. Flower Darby and James Lang have written a book that reflects the advice I currently give to faculty plus some. The guidance that Darby and Lang provided elevate online courses from correspondence courses to those with substantive human interaction.

Small Teaching Online is 252 pages spanning nine chapters. The chapters are arranged in three parts:

• Designing for Learning
• Teaching Humans
• Motivating Online Students (and Instructors)

After reading Small Teaching, Darby approached Lang with the idea to write a Small Teaching book for online learning. Lang had little experience with online courses thus Darby provided most of the online guidance.

Throughout the book, Darby presented excellent examples of how to implement small teaching practices in an online environment. I will certainly be sharing these ideas with my faculty.

Small Teaching Online is heavily influenced by Universal Design for Learning (UDL). A lot of what I read reflects that influence. The book also encouraged active learning wherever possible.

What to Expect in Each Chapter

Each chapter is laid out with similar elements. These elements include:

• Introduction
• In Theory
• Models
• Principles
• Small Teaching Online Quick Tips
• Conclusion

The consistency in the chapter design helped make it easy to read and understand. But at times, the authors repeated points to the point it became a noticeable distraction.

I really enjoyed reading the introduction. Darby and Lang highlighted the stress a student feels entering an unfamiliar environment only to find it in disarray and poorly constructed.

Designing for Learning

Most online faculty never took an online class and did not receive instruction on how to teach one. They often were given a course and expected to teach it. As we have come to learn, there are learning strategies that are more effective than others because they align with how one actually learns. This book featured these learning strategies.

The three chapters focusing on designing for learning stressed the importance of using learning outcomes and objectives as guides for course development. The first chapter started with backward design principles. As the authors noted, you are trying to answer three primary questions:

• Where do we want to go?
• How will we know if we have arrived?
• What will we need to help get us there?

In Instructional Systems Design lingo, this translates to objective, assessment, and instructional content. You first must decide what you want your students to be able to do after instruction. Next, you design the assessment to measure if the students have achieved the objective. Finally, you create the instructional content to help students meet the objective. Most of the instruction I have seen does not really do this well.

Keeping the end in mind also helps the students understand why they are doing specific activities. As the authors noted, you should have the students start working on the final assignment on day one of the class.

Throughout the book, Darby and Lang stressed the importance of reflection. They provided insightful activities that you can use throughout your course to keep students thinking about the objectives.

When designing learning in an online environment, it is important to manage cognitive load. You can do this by chunking content, releasing content strategically, and scaffolding learning. Students should master previous content before learning new content. The authors shared ideas to support these concepts.

Darby and Lang also addressed the use of technology in an online class. Principles of emphasis included ensuring that the tool served the purpose of the objective, not causing more stress and confusion by using the tools, and ensuring that you had alternatives for the technology so that no one was left out.

In the technology chapter, they presented a number of great tips for using video in an online class. They demonstrated ways to better humanize the course.

Teaching Humans

Darby and Lang began the second part of the book by focusing on building community. They outlined the elements of a community of inquiry, which includes:

• Cognitive presence
• Social presence
• Teaching presence

Dialogue is important for learning. Students must engage with the content, fellow students, and the instructor. Students need to reflect on the content provided and how it relates to the objectives for the course. Instructors also need to be active participants in the course. Students want and need them involved. As I reflect on all the online courses I have taken, I recognize that there were many courses where the instructor was noticeably absent. It became nothing more than a correspondence course. Finally, you need to foster interaction between students. As they noted,

“Would you rather attend a professional conference or complete a self-paced online professional development module” (Darby & Lang, 2019, p. 102)?

As a part of teaching presence, it is essential that instructors provide timely and meaningful feedback. Darby and Lang provided ideas for using technology as a way to provide meaningful feedback. It is difficult for students to improve if they receive no input from you.

Darby and Lang also shared ideas for increasing student persistence and success in an online course. Targeted emails are one such strategy. Not only do you want to reach out and provide encouragement to students but also provide reassurance to students who are doing well. Another strategy is to scaffold the release of new content after students demonstrate mastery of previous content.

Motivating Online Students (and Instructors)

You just don’t have the same energy in an online class that you can generate in a face-to-face class. As the instructor, you feel it. The students also feel it. But it is possible to change the energy in an online class. I know it is possible because I have had students let me know. One of the strategies is to give more agency in the class. You can do this by providing them more choice in assignments. This strategy ties directly back to UDL.

Darby and Lang also discussed specifications grading. Specifications grading is all or nothing grading. Either the student met the standard or they did not. I am personally a fan of this type of grading. Here are some articles that dive deeper into this type of grading.

• Yes, Virginia, There’s a Better Way to Grade
• What is Specifications Grading and Why Should You Consider Using It?

One of the concepts that the authors kept coming back to throughout the book was the idea of Why. They stressed the importance of reflecting on why something was being done and how it related to the course objective. They also took this to another level by encouraging students to find connections outside of the classroom. If students are excited about a topic, they can develop a personal learning network around it.

The authors also provided ideas for developing as an online instructor. Some of the ideas include taking an online course, attending workshops and researching ideas, and participating in an online quality review. Darby and Lang also shared many resources from books to websites for gaining extra insight into online teaching.

Small Teaching Online is well researched. Throughout the book, Darby and Lang shared reports and other books to read. I will be adding these books to my must-read list.

Darby and Lang also shared ample examples that you could immediately implement in your classroom. Currently, I am prepping two courses for the fall term. I plan to review Small Teaching Online for ideas. As I was reading this book, I recognized areas that I could improve and strategies I could use.

If you are an online instructor, I would definitely recommend that you pick up a copy of Small Teaching Online. I am confident that you will find techniques that will make your courses more engaging

Photo by Startup Stock Photos from Pexels

Additional Reading

• Book Review: Teaching Naked Techniques: A Practical Guide to Designing Better Classes
• Book Review: From Telling to Teaching: A Dialogue Approach to Adult Learning
• Book Review: Classroom Advice for New Teachers: A Proactive Approach for Meeting the Daily Challenges of the Profession

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