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…

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…

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…

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…

The advent of online learning has created the medium for cyber-bullying in the virtual classroom and also by e-mail. Bullying is usually expected in the workplace and between students in the classroom. Most recently, however, faculty members have become surprising targets of online bullying. For many, there are no established policies nor is…

The potential impacts and implications of technology on the professional lives of instructors in higher education, and the role of leadership in integrating educational technology, present a variety of complexities and challenges. The purpose of this paper is to identify the reasons why faculty members are not fully embracing technology and what…

This study identifies the professional development needs of instructors teaching online using quantitative and qualitative methods. Twenty-six participants from a convenience sample at the University of Colorado, Boulder's Division of Continuing Education (CE) were surveyed in a Faculty Needs Assessment (FNA) that was open to participants…

In the last two decades, distance education has grown worldwide and is now established as a reliable educational method. Accompanying this development, questions about low rates of student persistence have come to interest governments, institutions, and university management. This article is based on an original local study at a university in…

Using Fuller's concerns-based model for teacher development, this study identifies concerns and strategies experienced by 103 online instructors in a six-week online professional development course offered multiple times over a three-year period. The study reveals that online instructors identified concerns related to self, task, and impact. In…

The incredible growth rates and increased enrollments in virtual physical education (VPE), otherwise known as K-12 online physical education, continue to rise. VPE has the potential to service K-12 student learning in independent and self-paced curriculum. However, VPE brings a healthy skepticism among the profession. To this point, it is…

The primary purpose of this study was to address the dearth of research in the area of educating students with disabilities through distance education (DE). Corollary research questions investigated perceptions, beliefs, and expectations of secondary school principals and special education teachers. Data were analyzed to determine the existence of…

This study summarizes the results of a program evaluation of the Distance Education Mentoring Program (DEMP), an ongoing initiative at Purdue University Calumet, Indiana (USA) designed to enhance the development of online courses by mentoring faculty in instructional design principles and technology. The evaluation covers a four year period and is…

This pilot study was conducted in order to explore factors that facilitate and inhibit the teaching of online courses from an administrative perspective. A random sample of community college and public and private universities was selected, and administrators working closely in online education were invited to participate. A qualitative…

This study identifies how higher education institutions are preparing their faculty to teach online using a qualitative methodology. Six participants, three experienced and three non-experienced online faculty members, were purposely selected and interviewed. Participants were asked questions regarding their preparation experiences, the activities…