Who Is Teaching Online?

Document Type

Conference Proceeding

Publication Date

2005

Publication Title

Proceedings of the Southern Association for Information Systems

Abstract

The number of courses offered online is constantly increasing at institutions of higher education. One main issue surrounding online courses is the quality of education when it is compared to in-class teaching. All parties involved should be concerned about this: The institutions, including faculty and administrators, must consider if there is a possible lack of learning of students enrolled in online courses compared to in-class courses. The concern of students is the impact of online courses on their career opportunities and advancement. The concern of employers might be the quality of potential employees with only online courses on their transcripts. Many factors can impact the quality of online courses which include the adopted technology, the institution’s infrastructure, administrative buy-in, administrative support of faculty, communication between faculty and administrators, faculty motivation and incentives. One important factor that is not given much attention is the qualification of individuals who are in charge of offering an online course, faculty. Offering an online course involves two important components: preparation of materials and delivery. The purpose of this study is to investigate who is teaching in online education. An online survey of faculty teaching online courses is conducted for the purpose of this investigation.

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