Faculty development for online teaching is an opportunity to reflect on and revise teaching perceptions and instructional practice. This study found written reflection activities aided instructors in questioning their instructional decisions. This, combined with dialogue with colleagues, became an avenue for instructors to think deeply about…

This case study explored a university faculty development seminar that prepared instructors to design and teach online courses taking place at a mid-sized liberal Arts & Sciences university in the Southeastern United States. The purpose of this study was to examine how faculty development for online teaching may influence changes in thinking…

Research shows most teachers teach as they were taught. However, distance educators lack a model or benchmark for online teaching because many of them have not taken online courses as students. Indeed, many studies on teaching online point to the importance of training for online instructors. Few studies go into specifics about exactly what that…

Rapid growth of online education and the perceived difference between online and face-to-face instruction has necessitated training and support for instructors transitioning to online delivery. The research reported here resulted from an evaluation of a six-week fully online training program, "Preparing Online Instructors" "(POI)", to determine…

Academic administrators play a critical role in supporting and otherwise encouraging faculty to participate in web-based learning. In the fall of 2000, administrators at five academic institutions in the University of Texas System were surveyed concerning their attitudes on web-based learning. Administrators were defined as Chairs, Deans, and Vice…

Online courses at Bergen Community College (BCC) began in the late 1990's with an imperative from the college President to develop online courses. Senior faculty members who dared to experiment with this new mode of teaching had to learn how to design a course and how to use WebCT, a new course management system, on their own. As these faculty…

The success of distance courses has prompted universities nationwide to increase the number of courses offered online. As the number of these courses has increased, the challenges involved in developing and offering them have become more apparent. One particular difficulty when teaching in an online format is that it can be more time-consuming…

Higher education is currently undergoing what may be its most significant change since the advent of the printing press in the fifteenth century. A number of socioeconomic forces, primarily globalization, have increased student mobility and created a need for increased and more flexible access to education. At the same time, the recent vast…

Defined in its most basic form, distance learning occurs when the student and the instructor are logistically separated. The purpose of this paper is to propose a framework for the development and evaluation of online distance learning courses, based on integrating an adaptation of Tyler's principles within the levels of cognitive learning in…