Guidelines for Online Teaching (2022)
Recommendations from the Ad Hoc Committee on Online Teaching
Introduction: Defining the Challenge
History education does not exist in a vacuum but is part of the larger trends shaping teaching and learning in universities and colleges nationwide. Over the past 20 years, these trends have shown a pronounced shift away from the physical classroom and toward online learning, even as overall student enrollment in postsecondary institutions has declined.[1] As of 2016, nearly half of all undergraduates had taken at least one class online.[2] Over the previous decade, the percentage of undergraduate students enrolled in fully online degree programs nearly tripled—from 3.8 percent in 2008 to 10.8 percent in 2016—while students pursuing fully online graduate degrees quadrupled, from 6.8 percent in 2008 to 27 percent in 2016.[3]
In 2019, the AHA established an Ad Hoc Committee on Online Teaching to survey existing models of online instruction and use its findings to inform a practical set of guidelines for course design, implementation, and assessment. The COVID-19 pandemic made the committee’s task more urgent, as online, hybrid, and mixed-delivery teaching methods multiplied nationwide out of both necessity and invention. Though the quick transition required in spring 2020 from in-person to remote courses was not stimulus for these guidelines, online and hybrid courses are likely to remain common practice at the undergraduate and graduate levels, raising pressing questions about instructional staffing and workloads, faculty training and support, pedagogy and course quality, learning assessment and intellectual property issues—including who owns course content and fair use of copyrighted materials. Given this rapidly evolving landscape, it is incumbent on history faculty to inform themselves and adapt to the demands of online education.
The guidelines that follow are organized into four sections. The first lays out a wide-ranging index of recommended practices for teaching history online—a checklist of what a successful online course requires—from building the syllabus, to seeking support from administrators, to engaging students and evaluating their work. The second section provides a broader background: what online teaching is, how it has evolved, and its current variants. The third section—also a checklist of sorts—sets out the principles, rules, and responsibilities of online instruction, moving from the federal guidelines for financial aid, to the obligations of scholars and their departments, to the role and future directives of the AHA. The guidelines conclude with a glossary of common terminology instructors might encounter in discussions of online learning.
[1] Enrollment statistics show an overall decline of 6 percent from 2010 to 2017. National Center of Education Statistics, NCES online report, 2018, p. 207, accessed 5/25/22.
[2] As of 2016, the most recent year for which data is available, 43.1 percent. See National Center of Education Statistics, NCES online report, 2018, pp. 209, 270, accessed 5/25/22.
[3] National Center of Education Statistics, NCES online report, 2018, p. 270, accessed 5/25/22.
I. Teaching History Online: Best Practices
Whether they’re held online or in person, history classes should have the same learning objective: teaching students to “think like a historian.” This requires building the skills that distinguish history as a discipline, including the ability to read closely, think critically, weigh evidence, contextualize events and decisions, view issues from multiple perspectives, and make persuasive evidence-based arguments orally, in writing, and in other formats.
II. Varieties of Online Teaching
Before the pandemic, the most common remote learning options were massive open online courses (MOOCs). The pandemic altered the educational landscape across much of the United States; in its wake, the most common form of online learning was the traditional university or college class offered through an institution’s own website.
III. Designations, Rules, Responsibilities
Remote learning—sometimes called distance education, long distance learning, virtual learning, or e-learning—is an umbrella term that refers to the practice of students taking classes outside the physical setting of a university or college. Regardless of the medium, all remote learning classes must meet certain minimum requirements in order to qualify for federal financial aid.