About me
Hello everyone!
I have been an online instructor for many years now, and I have developed online learning platforms when online learning was new and novel. I have worked with state education departments and accrediting agencies about the essence of online education vis-a-vis the promulgation of laws and accreditation guidelines, in my capacity as an academic dean and education attorney.
Most of all, I love to teach, and online courses are great, because my students are from all over the country, and sometimes from various other parts of the world! In the end, taking all the bells and whistles and gadgets and tecchie terminology off the table, it all comes down to good ol' fashioned teaching. It's either good, or it's not.
The secret to a great college is: 1) finding administrators who ARE great teachers themselves, so that they know how to spot other great teachers, and 2) actually staffing classes with such great teachers. Fulfilling these two steps is all it takes - whether in a conventional or online learning forum.
It was a good course, though I would have liked to see a section on the role administrators can play in reducing faculty chores of sifting through repetitive emails - particularly for instructions whose only connection to the particular college is through teaching one course online.
As the course aptly points out, instructors who teach online often piece together a workweek consisting of multiple employers. In order to ensure that these faculty members pay attention to what's REALLY important, there should be a minimum number of emails sent out that obfuscate the entire inbox collection.