<p>The models stress online assessment that provides immediate feedback to instructors. Administrators can monitor tests given to students before the course redesign and after to measure their subject knowledge.</p> <p>The idea, says Carol A. Twigg, president and chief executive of NCAT, is to structure courses so that both student and instructor time is best used.</p>

NCAT has identified several <a href="http://www.center.rpi.edu/PlanRes/R2R_ModCrsRed.htm" target="_blank">redesign models</a>, all of which adhere to the principle that students need more than just traditional lectures.

<p>The EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative's (ELI's) <em>7 Things You Should Know About...</em> series provides concise information on emerging learning technologies and related practices. Each brief focuses on a single technology or practice and describes:</p> <ul> <li>What it is</li> <li>How it works</li> <li>Where it is going</li> <li>Why it matters to teaching and learning</li></ul>

They focus group energy, they permit real-time interaction (which can help develop group cohesion, especially for those less familiar with media-based learning) and, most importantly, they provide a familiar instructional environment that mimic many positive features found in the traditional classroom environment (i.e., synchronicity, verbal rather than text-based interaction, instructor presence, whiteboard presentation facilities, hand-raising for turn-taking, public and private messaging capabilities).

The CREST+ model, a model for writing effective online discussion questions, covers the cognitive nature of the question, the reading basis, any experiential possibility, style and type of question, and finally ways to structure a good question.&nbsp; This model encourages students to participate in online forum discussions, provides a template for new online faculty to use in creating effective discussion questions, and promotes a higher level processing of the material.

The CREST+ model covers the cognitive nature of the question [C], the reading basis [R], any experiential [E] possibility, style and type of question [ST] , and finally ways to structure a good question [+].&nbsp;

As it turned out, this was one of the best courses, online or onsite, I have ever taught. Not only did I witness enormous engagement among almost all of the students, but the level of learning was much higher than in previous years.

The feedback from the students on the course was very positive, better than I had received for the onsite course in previous years. One of my favorite written student comments was, "… I don't know how this course could be taught as effectively in the classroom."

<li>encourages contact between students and faculty,</li><li>develops reciprocity and cooperation among students,</li><li>encourages active learning,</li><li>gives prompt feedback,</li><li>emphasizes time on task,</li><li>communicates high expectations, and</li><li>respects diverse talents and ways of learning.</li>

Students perceived the course as having the most impact on their critical thinking skills, with 87% rating the course as extremely or very useful in developing these capabilities

Overall, 79% of respondents felt that this totally online course was extremely or very useful in fostering student interaction, a principle of effective teaching that students often fear will be lacking in their online courses (Bullen 1998; Ward 1998).

A technical report from a University of Houston <a target="_blank" href="http://grants.hhp.coe.uh.edu/%7Eclayne/HHPPage/main.html">Department of Health and Human Performance</a> researcher finds that students in a hybrid class that incorporated instructional technology with in-class lectures scored a letter grade higher on average than their counterparts who took the same class in a more traditional format.