Abstract:

COVID19 has presented notable challenges in education. One, in particular, is that of teachers being forced to expand their teaching practices to online or hybrid modalities for the health safety of themselves and their students. With the delta variant reigniting health concerns, the practice of teaching online may not be over, even for those not well-versed in applying best practices online.

Faculty development is a standard for improving practices in teaching, and teaching successfully online is no different. Unfortunately, there is very little teacher training for online teaching, including curriculum design considerations, teaching strategies, and engagement practices. One frequent concern of online educators is that of engagement. Students have struggled with the modality change as well and teachers must know how to encourage self-regulation and engagement, as these factors can affect satisfaction, as well as success and completion rates. Our research in the area of teacher development focuses on the online learning environment and offers practices that have suggested results of sustainability, in the applications of the practices as well as improved retention and success factors.

This virtual presentation will review the research findings and share practical applications to support online educators, whether new or tenured, K12 or in higher education. The practices are based on the Community of Inquiry model (CoI) (Garrison et al., 1999) and will encompass three areas of instructor presence (IP): teaching presence, social presence, and cognitive presence. Research for the past two decades has suggested that applying premises of each of these areas of presence can increase engagement. However, since a lack of training options has been noted, our team has developed training that provides online and hybrid educators specific and effective practices to improve their courses immediately, as well as prepare for any future events that could make the necessity of online learning again mandated.

Keywords:

Online Teaching, Instructor Presence, Community of Inquiry, Sustainability, Education, COVID19.