Instructor Competencies for Teaching Online

Issues of Technology for Instructors and Development Time of an Online Course
Instructors who have never taught online find it to be new and often times challenging for the first go around. If they choose to use their own materials (rather than publisher content which we will discuss later), they have to convert their existing materials into a way that is suitable for online learning. Converting existing materials could involve creating (HTML) web pages, scanning images, digital video, discussion boards, multimedia, and email.  What do you need to know?
Baseline Technology Skills (Required Skills)

1. Ability to operate a computer operating system to launch applications, perform tasks, save, close, copy, paste and rename files.
2. Ability to use a word processor to save in native format and HTML.
3. Ability to send and receive email and email with attachments.
4. Ability to use a web browser to view and search the Internet.
5. Ability to navigate and effectively design, develop, and deliver instruction via an LMS.

Additional/Advanced Skills (Optional Skills)

1. Ability to scan images for use on the web.
2. Ability to work with digital video and/or audio.
3. Ability to use multimedia authoring tools.
4. Web Design skills.
5. Keep up with latest learning technology trends to enhance the learning process for students.

Instructor Interaction
Online classes aim to simulate the traditional classroom in many aspects including communication. Although the class is online, students need that “human touch.” Students will often complain that their instructor was never there or took a week to answer an email. This can put the student back a week if the instructor is not prompt so it is good practice to check in with your class often.  Insufficient interaction with the instructor is often the biggest complaint of students who had a bad online class experience.  Staying up with emails, or simply stating in your syllabus that you will answer emails once a day, or once every 2 days at a certain time will help set your students at ease.
Time Management
Instructors often ask about the development time for an online course. This all depends on the technological competency of the person developing the course and it also depends on whether they develop their course from scratch, if the materials already exist, or they use publisher content.

Online classes are known for taking up instructor time when teaching them because answering emails and discussion boards often requires a lot of reading and typing. You should be prepared to set aside a time(s) where you will check your course email and discussion areas.
Custom Courses
Some instructors choose to create their own content. The reason for this may be because the Course Pack content was not to their liking, they choose to develop their own content, the content is already developed from their traditional course, or they simply would rather take more ownership of their course. The time it takes to develop a course from scratch is probably a considerable amount of time when compared with Course Packs, but the advantage is that the content is laid out the way you wanted it.