After a final review of the articles in this edition, I'm pondering why we are still having to prove the worthiness of online learning.

Just as in face-to-face courses, there are engaged instructors who change students' lives. And others who clearly need or want an extended break from the classroom. Most students don't blatantly cheat - but those who do exhibit these same behaviors in the traditional course - and likely in other areas of their lives. Try as we may to provide faculty training, online tutoring and support systems that may actually give an online student an edge, we can't let go of that nagging feeling that it's just not good enough.

So we tend to overcompensate in online courses by cramming them with extraneous content and a dizzying array of busy, busy assignments.

And then we wonder why withdrawal rates are higher.

In the last article of this issue, Griffin looks at how removing some online assignments impacts student success. In the first article, Pina reminds us of the critical importance of substantive interaction.

What remains is what we've known for a long time now. The best online courses have carefully-curated content and assignments with a supersized dose of creative, personalized faculty interaction and presence. Add to that formula some elements of competency-based learning (multiple chances within a semester to demonstrate mastery) and you've created some online classroom magic . . .

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

September 15, 2023