As the student population becomes more diverse, university administrators are challenged with meeting those needs in a variety of settings. Specifically, most universities are offering courses through three delivery methods: face-to-face, hybrid, and online. Although all three methods have existed for quite some time, pedagogical concerns…

The purpose of this study was to examine whether a set of instructional practices commonly prescribed to online faculty in the higher education setting were consistent with the expectations of a group of experienced online student participants. Online faculty performance conventions were collected from 20 institutions of higher learning located in…

When higher education leaders give little thought or offer little mentoring to their faculty members, there is risk of driving faculty members from teaching online and of them having a poor experience in online teaching. Without mentoring support, faculty members may feel disconnected and unsupported. The purpose of the study was to examine the…

89% of colleges and universities in the United States offer online courses and of those institutions 58% offer degree programs that are completely online (Parker, Lenhart & Moore, 2011).Providing online student services is an important component of these distance programs and is often required by accrediting bodies. Health and wellness…

A change in the Community of Inquiry (COI) framework with an addition of an instructor social presence is suggested. The sample included 137 students in the School of Business of an online university. The independent variables were teaching and social presences from the COI framework and instructor social presence from an instrument developed for…

Four years ago, two online graduate programs at a mid-size university in the western United States implemented ePortfolios to foster communication and connectedness among students and faculty, develop community that extends beyond course boundaries, and promote professional goal formation and achievement among students. This article describes…

The need for online and blended programs within higher education continues to grow as the student population in the United States becomes increasingly non-traditional. As administrators strategically offer and expand online and blended programs, faculty recruitment and retention will be key. This case study highlights how a public comprehensive…

Administrators in higher-education institutions are faced with an often-conflicting landscape of laws, court cases, adopted practices, rules of thumb, and folk wisdom related to copyright concerns on their campuses. Ask any ten faculty member and receive ten different responses about what constitutes fair use, who owns content created for courses,…

There is increasing interest, if not demand, from universities and students for faculty to teach using online technologies. However, many faculty members are reluctant to teach online. In this paper, we examine data collected from a broad range of faculty (part-time, tenure track, new and more experienced, in education, business, and liberal arts)…

Faculty members play a central role in the development, implementation, and long-term sustainability of online and blended education programs. Therefore, faculty recruitment and retention strategies for these programs must align with the needs of the faculty. This article highlights the results of an institutional study conducted at a public…

Persistence rates in foreign language study have been historically disappointing. This also tends to be the case for many hybrid and online courses, especially when contrasted with comparable face-to-face courses. Therefore, when transitioning foreign language coursework to online and hybrid formats, increased persistence rates and a large number…

Growing numbers of historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) are entering the arena of online distance education. Some are seeking to grow large-scale programs that can compete for market share with historically White institutions and for-profit schools. This theoretical essay develops a composite model to assist HBCU administrators in…

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…

In light of the recent growth of online education and its disruptive impact on higher education, this study compared faculty attitudes toward teaching online across institution type, including community colleges and four-year public and private institutions, as well as across faculty with and without online teaching experience. While the data…

A review of distance education accreditation policies and standards written by the six United States regional accrediting commissions and two national accrediting organizations: the Middle States Commission on Higher Education; the New England Association of Schools and Colleges - Commission on Institutions of Higher Education; the North Central…