Abstract
Distance education is often used as a cost-efficient way to train employees. This research focuses on training for teaching online. A comprehensive literature review revealed the scarcity of scholarly work in this area. To determine best practices in training for teaching online, a faculty training program was examined and experts were interviewed. Both educational organizations and corporations offer online education programs, and there are enough similarities in the way in which these programs are presented to extrapolate the findings of this study to corporate training. This study found that successful online training programs are led by faculty trained to teach online. Training programs are successful when faculty have computing skills before enrolling in the training, are trained using the course delivery system with which they will be teaching, have ongoing institutional support, and are motivated to work in this environment.
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ABOUT THE AUTHORPatricia D. Wolf is Director of Faculty and Distance Education Services for the University of Maryland University College where she oversees the departments that provide contracts for adjunct faculty, deskcopy fulfillment for faculty, and administration of proctored final exams, placement exams, and makeup testing for UMUC’s 130,000 students. Dr. Wolf also coordinates the Academic Support Program (ASP) for UMUC’s School of Undergraduate Studies. The ASP employs approximately 200 people as teaching assistants, graders, and tutors to assist UMUC faculty. Dr. Wolf is a Collegiate Associate Professor in the Information Systems Management Department of the School of Undergraduate Studies at UMUC. She completed her Master’s in business at The Johns Hopkins University and her PhD in management at UMUC. Dr. Wolf is also immediate past-president of the Maryland Distance Learning Association.
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Wolf, P.D. Best practices in the training of faculty to teach online. J. Comput. High. Educ. 17, 47–78 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03032698
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03032698