Posts Tagged ‘online instructors’
March 11 - Adjunct by Choice: Getting Past the Stereotypes of Online Instructors
By: Jennifer Patterson Lorenzetti in Online Education
We all are familiar with the stereotype of the professional adjunct: a harried and underpaid soul cobbling together a marginal income by racing from campus to campus, teaching a class here and a couple of classes there, using their car as a mobile office, and hoping for the day that someone offers them a “real” tenure-track job on a single campus.
October 28 - Online Teaching Tips for Leveraging Students’ Insights and Experiences
By: Errol Craig Sull in Online Education
Teaching any online class is time-consuming and can be a juggling act. The instructor must keep students engaged and motivated, adhere to a variety of deadlines, quickly answer all student emails and postings, react to in-class “emergencies,” stay on top of all school policies, and teach the subject in an easy-to-understand manner—while remaining a patient, upbeat, and constant presence through it all. This is no easy task, and while we each have developed approaches to help us, there is one often underused “tool” that online instructors can employ: the students in one’s course.
June 8 - Tapping Into Higher-Level Thinking in Online Courses
By: Anne Saxe in Online Education
One of the most important responsibilities online instructors face is teaching students how to think critically. Successful achievement of this task requires that instructors provide the right setting and the appropriate activities that will prompt a student on to higher-level thinking. Though this mission is not exclusive to online instruction, the online environment presents some unique challenges and opportunities that distinguish this type of learning environment from traditional face-to-face classroom instruction.
January 28 - Instructor or Professor, It’s Not Your Title but What You Do That’s Important
By: Errol Craig Sull in Online Education
In a recent conversation, an online teaching colleague complained that her school had wrongly listed her as “adjunct instructor,” rather than “adjunct professor,” in its faculty roster. “That term ‘professor’—it means so much more than merely being an instructor,” she complained. Au contraire, I countered: ultimately, titles—and one’s accomplishments—count for little throughout any online course one teaches and never equate to long-term respect.
October 28 - Tools of Engagement: Technologies and Strategies for All Learning Styles
By: Mary Bart in Online Education
How do you motivate online learners?
It’s an age-old question that continues to stump online instructors as well as the managers of distance education programs trying to solve the attrition problem that continues to drag down this otherwise thriving segment of higher education.
October 12 - Understanding What’s Needed for Online Teaching Success
By: Mary Bart in Faculty Development, Online Education
Larry Ragan, director of faculty development for Penn State World Campus, may have given a new spin to the old expression “If you don’t know where you’re going, any road will take you there.” Except, unlike the philosophical musing that’s become immortalized as one of those motivational posters, Ragan’s focus is on improving online learning.
September 30 - Reaching Online Students with Learning Disabilities
By: Mary Bart in Online Education
Students with disabilities are drawn to online courses for many of the same reasons as everyone else, but it’s often the anonymity that makes learning online particularly attractive to someone who’s spent his or her life trying to mask a disability. For online instructors, this can present new issues. After all, it’s hard enough distinguishing
August 14 - How to Train and Maintain Your Distant Faculty
By: Christopher Hill in Distance Learning Administration
When online instructors work off-campus, as many often do, it can pose unique challenges. The lack of contact with colleagues and the institution can lead to isolation, and drifting out of the main currents of technological and pedagogical innovation.
August 10 - Helping Your Online Faculty Succeed: Q&A with Kaye Shelton
By: Christopher Hill in Online Education
While many online programs struggle with student retention issues, Dallas Baptist University serves has achieved an impressive 92% student course completion across its 34 fully online degree programs. Kaye Shelton, Dean of Online Education at Dallas Baptist University, shares some secrets for success.
July 30 - Online Instructor Success: What’s It Take?
By: Mary Bart in Online Seminars
Did you know that there are currently more than 100 specific competencies that have been determined to be instrumental for online teaching success. If distance education is a critical part of your school’s future or your personal career path, this is one seminar you don’t want to miss.
Dr. Larry Ragan is the Director of Faculty Development for the World Campus at Pennsylvania State University. He has worked in online educational design and delivery for more than 11 years and has taught a variety of online courses and faculty development programs. He has presented internationally on the topics of instructional design, multimedia development, faculty development issues and instructional design for distance education.