Using Seven Principles for Good Practice to Teach Online Courses

Today, we are witnessing the rapid development of Web-based learning. The instructional strategies for Web-based learning are different from those of traditional classroom teaching. In order to identify a set of strategies to be used in Web-based learning environments, four online courses offered by a mid-western university in America were examined. Data were collected from document analysis and interviews with the online instructors. The author used the seven principles for good practice in undergraduate education by Chickering & Gamson (1987) as a framework for identifying instructional strategies on the Web. While seven principles are originally developed for the traditional course format, this study is an effort to identify the specifics of the principles to fit the Web environment. This paper describes the effective instructional strategies that were used in the online courses, and provides practical guidelines to teaching online for instructors.