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Strategies for successful e-teaching.

Article Excerpt
Abstract

E-learning has become more widespread as higher education institutions increased online course offerings and degree programs. Today, many colleges and universities in the U.S. offer Web-based courses or Web-enhanced courses, and the number of online learners has increased dramatically. Online learning offers many advantages to learners and instructors including flexibility and convenience. However, online teaching can also be frustrating and time consuming. This paper examines different strategies instructors might use when teaching an online course.

Introduction

The number of colleges and universities offering distance education courses has increased over the past few years (Charp, 2001). Also, higher education institutions offer a variety of degrees via distance. In addition, the number of online learners has increased dramatically over the last few years (Lewis, Levin, & Greene, 1999).

With the introduction of the Internet and the World Wide Web (WWW), distance education was transformed (Lau, 2000), and instructors were able to teach courses online. E-education is a form of distance education in which teachers and students can be separated by time and space (Belanger & Jordan, 2000). Here, educators utilize the WWW on the Internet as a medium or an intranet. An intranet is a network operating on a server within an organization.

Online learning offers many advantages for learners and instructors. Learners and instructors enjoy the convenience and flexibility of e-learning (Bolliger, 2002). Students can have access to materials online 24 hours, 7 days a week. Instructors can recycle materials from semester to semester, and they are able to update Web-based materials quickly. In addition, instructors can address different learning styles and can make use of a variety of multimedia elements.

E-learning can also have several drawbacks. Developing online courses is labor intensive and time consuming. If an online course is not managed properly, teachers can feel unproductive and might become frustrated. Bradburn (2002) reports the teaching load for faculty and staff who teach distance education courses is higher than for educators who do not.

Students have shown a concern about the quality of online courses (Navarro & Shoemaker, 2000). Experts are also concerned about quality in the online environment (Middleton, 1997). Many researchers have focused on comparing face-to-face and distance education courses; however, these media comparison studies are subject to debate (Clark, 1994a, 1994b; Kozma, 1994a, 1994b). Several flaws have been pointed out in many media-comparison studies. Many researchers focused on older distance education technology used in courses because researchers failed to include newer technologies available. In addition, many researchers conducted case studies, and the results are not generalizable to other populations. Some researchers do not use empirical research methodologies (Navarro & Shoemaker, 2000).

Successful Strategies

Course Management

As in any course that is taught face-to-face, organization for online courses is important. Students need to know what to expect and what is expected of them at the beginning of the course. A syllabus, a course outline, and details pertaining to required assignments should be posted in the beginning of...

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