This multicase study describes the unique experiences of online instructors within a novel context of grant-funded online course design assistance in a large Midwestern university. Five instructors reflected on their experience, from conception to implementation of their asynchronous online courses, in individual debrief sessions conducted by the…

The need for communication competence in the online environment has loomed large, made more apparent by the pandemic. Understandably, an immediate concern centers on instructors and their ability to deliver quality instruction. The authors have another educational mission, though, complementary in nature, involving the students. By designing and…

The impact of the COVID-19 global pandemic on schools was massive and unprecedented. Many schools were forced to close, and teachers were forced to deliver their instruction online with a very short notice. To assist K-12 teachers to teach remotely, a simple instructional design model, CAFE (Content, Activities, Facilitation, & Evaluation),…

This paper describes the design and development of a competency model for online instructors based on literature reviews, student surveys, and other artifacts. The first development phase included a literature review centered around researched-based competencies for online instructors and existing theories used to evaluate online instructional…

This literature review aimed to examine the status, trends and tendencies in publications about virtual classrooms, instructional design in the virtual classroom and instructional effectiveness in the virtual classroom, as indexed in the ERIC database. For this review, we examined 2680 publications indexed in ERIC between 1994 and 2018. We…

Instructional video is a dynamic and essential content-delivery tool in online courses. However, when providing support to faculty in the design of online instruction, instructional designers may not accurately understand faculty's expectations and perspectives. This study attempted to analyze the perspectives of the designer and those of the…

This article reports on the empirical results and practical aspects concerning the teaching and learning of first-year engineering mathematics at a distance. The investigation over two consecutive years (2020 and 2021) is meant to yield prospects and contribute to the development of suitable pedagogies for online mathematics teaching and learning…

Inclusive education in Australia has resulted in a concerted push for the differentiation of pedagogical teaching approaches by educators across Kindergarten to Year 12 (K-12) learning environments. Such approaches have been shown to meet a diverse range of learner needs found in today's classrooms. While progress is evident at the primary and…

As the sole librarian responsible for online instruction, there are many challenges and opportunities when developing a program almost from scratch. This case study will examine how an individual online instruction librarian developed a tool to conduct an environmental scan of a dormant online instruction program and utilized this tool to begin…

During the COVID-19 pandemic, online learning became a major alternative to college science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) courses in postsecondary education. Faculty members, although subject matter experts, often lack pedagogical knowledge and training on how to effectively teach new generations of students online, or…

The growth of online learning has created a need for instructors who can competently teach online. This literature review explores the research questions, program recommendations, and future research suggestions related to professional development for online instructors. Articles were selected and coded based on date of publication and the context…

This reflection essay focuses on the problems inherent in the design and development of an online public speaking course, which in part result from presuming the course must mirror its face-to-face counterpart. Based on our own experiences and background in designing an online public speaking course, we recommend that instructors and…

The Spring of 2020 saw educational institutions around the world abruptly convert to online teaching formats. While this transition may be unfamiliar--and even uncomfortable--the skills and techniques needed to engage and empower online learners can be learned and mastered to serve the current and ever-expanding need. This indispensable resource…

Visual scaffolding, a type of scaffolding provided in a visual format, is considered to have potential in web-based learning environments as it naturally includes tacit information, highlights the critical features of tasks and promotes learning through the spatial organization of tasks. However, systematic approaches to visual scaffolding design…

Guiding teachers to customize curriculum has shown to improve science instruction when guided effectively. We explore how teachers use student data to customize a web-based science unit on plate tectonics. We study the implications for teacher learning along with the impact on student self-directed learning. During a professional development…