INTRODUCTION

The course Online Mentoring is divided into two units.

The first unit "Facilitating an Online Course" is designed for people who are or will be doing just that. It is assumed that the course has already been designed, that many of the logistics have been taken care of, and that your role will be one of facilitating others through the course. The lessons that follow were designed specifically for those who will be facilitating the other courses in this series, Beginning Internet, Telecollaboration and Use of the Internet in the Classroom, and Creating a Telecollaborative Activity. However, the content of the lessons is sufficiently general for anyone involved in online teaching.

It is recommended that you complete at least the first four lessons before embarking on your own online teaching. These lessons will guide you through some important decisions that need to be made prior to the beginning of an online course. The next two lessons in the first unit deal with two specific skills that you may or may not need early on in the course depending on how it is structured.

The second unit "Creating an Online Course" is designed for those who are planning to design and deliver an online course from scratch. Hence it deals with a different set of skills. The first lesson looks at conferencing options. Based on the assumption that the lessons are to be posted on the World Wide Web, the second lesson deals with HTML language. Then some logistical issues are dealt with such as different options for establishing a conference in which students in your course can interact and obtaining university credit for the course. Finally issues of copyright and censorship are touched upon.