10. Management
Management of online courses requires understanding of the learning content and when diverse components of the course will be undertaken/focused on. Learners rely not only on your content and motivational related support, but also on your organisational support. It is critical to discuss with the course/programme leader on the organisational implementation before the course start to ensure a smooth cooperation with the offering organisation. You may also want to go over the course before its start and test your knowledge of the content. Group processing and group building are important in online course management. To achieve effective management in online courses you may do the following:
- Clearly mark important dates in your calendar and remind learners about these dates.
- Develop a routing on when to respond to learners' questions and queries within 48 hours. You may check your emails and the discussion forum several times a day to note pending learners' questions.
- Organise learning teams and assignment groups
- Defuse emerging conflict by temporarily banning the catalyst (triggering learner(s)) from making contribution. In this case, you will need to discuss the situation and the measure with the Course Leader.
At the end of the course, you will administer the end of course survey on learners’ experience with the courses and their opinions/recommendations to improve the course. You will also give farewells to learners, giving impression that you enjoyed learning with them as well as supporting their learning. You will report to the offering organisation learners who met the requirements for the certificate. To be able to produce this report, you have to keep track of each learner’s progress and achievement. You will also report on the group overall performance.