Topic B2.5: Orienting Students to Online Technologies

A Technology Skills Assessment
Students need to know what other skills they are expected to have when taking a particular online course. Students often come to online classes with great ambition but little actual experience with the technical skills necessary for success in online learning. A good way to allay student fears (or to give them a reality check) about their skills is to direct them to a technical skills self assessment, such as the one provided by MarylandOnline.

Once students know what they’re expected to do, instructors may then need to develop (or direct students to) tutorials that assist. Instructors may need to explain to students how to perform such basic tasks as the following. Luckily, most software and course management systems come with plenty of online help in the form of context-specific tutorials and explanations:

• How to bookmark items in the browser
• How to copy and paste selections from a word processing document or spreadsheet
• How to download images, text files, or plug-ins from the Internet
• How to print a web page, including those that are divided into frames
• How to attach files to an email message
• How to enter into a chat room and how to use the system to communicate

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