UMass Lowell faculty love to share their tips and strategies for managing their online classes. For example, their advice is spread throughout an online Introduction to Teaching Strategies course taught by Carolyn Siccama, UMass Lowell’s distance learning faculty coordinator. Here are four condensed examples concerning online assignment management:

From Instructor Lee Vorderer: Ask students to comment on the week’s discussion, asking questions such as what did you learn or why do you think I asked you to do this? Post their responses to the discussion board for all to see and comment on. It makes for nice interaction.

From Instructor Jim Sears: Insist on a limited number of ways that you will accept assignments. . . The strange and different ways that students will send things to you are unbelievable.

From Instructor Allan Roscoe: Control chat sessions at the start of your class by explaining etiquette in your syllabus.

From Instructor Fred Yao: Post an overall assignment schedule at the beginning. No one likes surprises. You don’t want surprises from students, and similarly students won’t like surprises from you.