Spring 2021 - Volume 24, Issue 1
- Professional Learning Communities as a Faculty Support During the COVID-19 Transition to Online Learning
- Identifying and Removing Barriers Influencing New Students’ Decision to enroll in an online course
- Does Instructor Quality Affect Student Performance in a College Statistics Course?
- Delivering Virtual Labs in Rehabilitative Sciences During COVID-19: Strategies and Instructional Cases
- Improving the “Other Side” to Faculty Presence in Online Education
- Rapid Online Teaching and Learning (ROTL), Leading with Action During a Worldwide Pandemic
From the Editor
Greetings,
It was one year ago today that we began working completely from home. One year ago that all of our classes moved online. And one year ago that Walt Disney World closed its gates for months.
As vaccinations give us a greater sense of safety and our hearts long for the way we were, it's no wonder that we are racing to get back to life before the pandemic.
But if anything good is to come from this, we should not throw away some of the lessons that we learned over the past year.
In education, we must be more student-centered than ever before and not see online versus face-to-face as a binary choice. Rather, take the best of both and create more hybrid classrooms as appropriate. It's also a superb time to shift our thinking from attendance as a punitive portion of grading to a true emphasis on competencies and outcomes. And finally, we can do the same for our work environments - nourishing hybrid environments that maximize space, productivity, engagement and creativity.
This issue includes some articles that highlight some of the lessons learned. Our upcoming Distance Learning Administration Conference at the end of July will also have many related presentations. This is our 21st meeting in Jekyll Island, and I can't wait to see you there this year face-to-face!
Melanie
Melanie N. Clay, Ph.D.