The purpose of this study was to benchmark the workload of online instructional designers as third-space professionals at 4-year, public institutions. Interview data regarding design team composition, courseload, responsibilities, and decision-making processes was gathered from managers of online learning units offering a "white-glove"…

Regular and substantive interaction differentiates distance education from correspondence education and can have serious economic ramifications for institutions that fail to include it in their online courses. While ambiguities in its definition and a federal health emergency provided temporary flexibilities and exemptions from regulations, the…

As enrollment of students in online courses has steadily increased over the last few decades, very little attention has been given to online instructor evaluation. This is an area of online education that needs additional research to better ascertain the current state of online instructor evaluation as well as discover ways to improve its…

The increased demand for online courses correlates to increased workloads for faculty, staff, and leadership. Hiring, staffing, and other logistical matters often trump the emphasis on course quality. This paper introduces a strategic framework for creating and sustaining a successful distance education model. Tarrant County College Connect Campus…

The challenge of teaching online increases as the number of sections or courses increase in a semester. The tactics and techniques which enrich online instruction in the tradition of quality matters can be modified and adapted to the demands of multiple instructional needs during a semester. This paper addresses time management and instructional…

With the dramatic increase in the demand for distance learning opportunities in higher education, staffing demands have created a new opportunity for faculty members to teach full-time from remote locations. Previously, a significant portion of online instruction was taught by full-time faculty as part of their regular teaching load or as an…

As the modes of course development in universities shift to be more team-based, librarians are now contributing core components of course development operations. This article outlines the ways that librarians at Capella University have been integrated systematically into course development. Adding librarians to specific points throughout the…

Distance education across all levels of education is growing at a rapid rate. As institutions and governments attempt to guide distance education, working definitions and their meanings conflict. Perhaps this is in part because administrators and practitioners are working from definitions that are decades-old. This paper suggests new definitions…

Change management processes and learning adaptations that accompany quality assurance (QA) in higher education are an understudied phenomenon. This article describes a first-tier, phenomenological qualitative research study on the usability of the Continuum of Excellence in Quality Assurance (CEQA) model as a tool that institutions might use to…

With the growing demand for quality online education in the US, developing quality online courses and online programs, and more importantly maintaining this quality, have been an inevitable concern for higher education institutes. Current literature on quality assurance in online education mostly focuses on the development of review models and…

Higher education faculty have numerous responsibilities that are not limited to instruction of classes. While it is well established in literature that faculty have a diverse set of responsibilities that extend well beyond a 40-hour work week, this information has yet to be cohesively transferred into suggestions for institutions to utilize when…

Because funding for many higher education institutions is based on student persistence and graduation rates, and because competition for online student enrollments is fierce among public and private institutions, quality and competitiveness in online course development, instruction, and administration is imperative. Additionally, because distance…

Higher education remains embroiled in transition driven by cost of attendance, technological advances, globalization, hyper-competition, and stakeholder expectations. Concurrently, advances in online education have prompted increased integration within the educational enterprise. Not only are modern institutions faced with the necessity to respond…

The proliferation of the Internet, computers, and mobile devices means that students of all ages, socioeconomic statuses, geographical locations, and abilities have access to higher education institutions that were previously unavailable. As the population of the United States ages and the number of students with diagnosed disabilities grows,…

The COVID-19 pandemic has led to an unprecedented shift in how health science education is delivered (Sandars et al., 2020). With face-to-face learning, such as lab and classroom interactions, largely unavailable during the pandemic, institutions have been required to quickly shift the learning environment to a fully virtual format. While…