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The Online Journal of Distance Learning Administration is a peer-reviewed electronic journal offered free each quarter. The journal welcomes manuscripts based on the original work of practitioners and researchers with specific focus or implications for the management of distance education programs.

Winter 2022 - Volume 25, Issue 4

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Competency Model Development for Online Instructors

Jena R. Hartley

H. Quincy Brown

This paper describes the design and development of a competency model for online instructors based on literature reviews, student surveys, and other artifacts. The first development phase included a literature review centered around researched-based competencies for online instructors and…

Time Compression and the Online Student Simulation Experience

Terence L. Holmes

Edward C. Brewer

Simulations offer a proven way to enable experiential learning in business courses. Longer games enable both application of concepts and models learned during coursework and a framework within which students can experience teamwork and use data analysis to improve performance. Recent growth of…

Faculty Development for Online Learning: Sparking Transformation of Perspectives and Practice

Katalin Wargo

Faculty development for online teaching is an opportunity to reflect on and revise teaching perceptions and instructional practice. This study found written reflection activities aided instructors in questioning their instructional decisions. This, combined with dialogue with colleagues, became…

Student Perspectives on Dissertation Chairs’ Mentoring Practices in an Online Practitioner Doctoral Program

The purpose of this explanatory mixed methods study was to assess dissertation chairs’ current practices to support doctoral students in an online practitioner program from the students’ perspective. Findings from a 2020 study on dissertation chair experiences and current practices for meeting…

From the Editor

Greetings Readers,

Today I just left the first real holiday work party we've had since 2019, and I reflect on how this has been the first normal year in what seems like a long time. It's a relief, but a weary one. Like some sort of dreadful hangover in which we question our capacity to even fully recover. And then earlier in the week I watched a popular movie from 1999, and I was overwhelmingly struck by how truly different the world feels now. 1999 was in the very early days of this journal, and one year before our first annual Distance Learning Administration conference.

We blink and we've changed everything. And everything has changed us. We've brought accessibility of education to so many through distance education. (How many times have I written that sentence?) But at what cost? What would we do differently if we could go back to 1999? Most importantly, what can we learn from these last two or three years - NOT to return to what once was (that seems to be our default) - but to completely reimagine education, financial models, application of credit - and with an uncompromising emphasis on well-being and a healthy society. It's a tall but critical order.

Best wishes for a Happy New Year!

Melanie N. Clay, Ph.D.

Melanie N. Clay, Ph.D.
OJDLA Editor-in-Chief