With the rapid increase in online education enrollments, the need for experienced and skilled online instructors has also increased. Research confirms that novice online instructors encounter barriers to high-quality teaching, including a lack of pedagogical knowledge, skills, and low self-efficacy. Providing training and mentoring within the…

At the start of the 2020-21 school year, six months after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic changed the lives of everyone, the author and the other instructional coaches in her district were temporarily reassigned to virtual teaching positions. In this article, the author shares what she learned about the kinds of support teachers need and how…

The COVID-19 pandemic has created many problems in our society today from psychological, political, economic and educational standpoints, just to name a few. This is a generational event that we will look back on as creating "the new normal" for our society. In March of 2020, Purdue University transitioned from teaching students in a…

"Work-based learning experiences" is a broad term applying to an array of in-school or after-school learning opportunities, from career awareness, exploration, development, and application. Through WBLEs, students will learn about work, gain employability skills, and connect their school experiences to real work settings. WBLEs can also…

The need for communication competence in the online environment has loomed large, made more apparent by the pandemic. Understandably, an immediate concern centers on instructors and their ability to deliver quality instruction. The authors have another educational mission, though, complementary in nature, involving the students. By designing and…

The remote instruction context presents many challenges for teachers, including managing student behavior. The practice of defining and teaching expectations is considered a high-leverage practice in special education, and should be applied to the remote setting to support the learning of students with and without disabilities. We present four…

How can teachers create opportunities for student choice while using the Integrated Performance Assessment framework? Differentiation of assessment allows students to have greater agency over their learning and bolster their proficiency journey. Additionally, by utilizing a framework for student engagement in a personalized learning model,…

Memory palaces are effective tools for learning vast amounts of information in a canonical order using mnemonics. However, our review of the literature revealed a lack of implementation and user study of memory palace in Virtual Reality (VR) for neuroscience education. VR technology enables us to build highly interactive virtual learning spaces…

This article details the journey of a Theatre and Performance team working in Australian higher education during the COVID-19 pandemic. Using reflective practice informed by Social Constructivism, we addressed the dilemmas of building and shifting an online community of learners. Act One considers the unknown as we shifted online, and the new year…

The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 put enormous pressure on educators to quickly adapt course materials for online delivery. In my case, a naturally humorous teaching style clashed with the arid world of computers in a virtual environment, leading me to believe in a reduced teaching effectiveness under such conditions, and that my students…

As distance learning continues to grow, ads continually appear seeking instructors to teach online. Many have experience teaching online, yet some also apply who have a solid education and great experience in a specific field--but have never taught online. This latter group of potential online instructors should not be dismissed merely because…

Distance education provides rich opportunities for students in remote or rural areas attending tribal colleges and universities (TCUs) to pursue academic enhancement that contributes to career development. While many TCUs launched distance and online learning opportunities in early 2020, few were prepared with faculty training, development, or…

This paper shares lessons learned and effective practices in online teaching and learning from veteran faculty and students in an online graduate therapeutic recreation program at SUNY Cortland, now in its sixth year (2020-2021). The number of students in online learning is growing and consists of a diverse group of adults working full and or…

In this "Distance Learning" Special Issue, Errol Craig Sull introduces the "Try This" series of articles to assist with Becoming a Better Distance Learning Instructor. Sull notes, in this article, what the distance learning educator does in the first few days in a course can go a long way in setting the tone for the entire…

This article describes the development and impact of a faculty development program on improving the readiness of Indonesian educators to teach online. While online learning is seen as a potential solution to increasing access to higher education in Indonesia, most higher education faculty in Indonesia lack the necessary skills to teach online…