Explore Potential Online Instructors
When researching online programs, experts advise prospective students to check out the faculty who shape the academic experience.
In addition to speaking with alumni, current students and faculty themselves, and possibly sampling online classes beforehand, experts recommend reading up on faculty members’ research and background.
In the process, experts say prospective students should ask the following questions.
1. How responsive are they outside of class?
Students should determine how accessible faculty are outside the classroom, which varies, says Evie Cummings, assistant provost and director of UF Online, the undergraduate online arm of the University of Florida. They should also discover whether their instructor’s availability matches their own.
Consider asking, for example: “Are they available to answer questions, and how quickly will students get responses?” Cummings says.
2. Are they formally trained to teach online?
Experts say professors who teach online should receive training, development and support to become better teachers and improve the online student experience, especially because they aren’t in a traditional classroom setting.
Schools might, for instance, help instructors explore ways to integrate new technologies into their classes, one expert told U.S. News in 2014. Some online programs also pair faculty with trained staff members to improve course delivery.
3. Have they taught online before?
How much experience a professor has in an online classroom can impact the quality of instruction, some experts say.
“Generally, faculty that have had more experience in the online space are going to be a little better attuned to what are the high-risk areas,” including what works well and doesn’t, says Norman Bier, director of Carnegie Mellon University‘s Open Learning Initiative. “That’s definitely not to be dismissive of faculty taking that step for the first time.”
4. Were they ever an online student?
Even among younger professors, many faculty members tend to have more teaching experience in a traditional classroom, and even the best professors may not fully understand what it’s like to be an online student without firsthand experience. Usually, the only way to find that out is to ask.
“I think it has a profound effect on the way you think about teaching, because then you see what they see, you experience what they experience,” Jason Baker, associate vice president for teaching and learning at Regent University, told U.S. News in 2015.
5. Are they a good face-to-face instructor?
Though there are differences, teaching on site and online have more in common than not. Julie Uranis, director of distance learning and continuing and professional development at Western Kentucky University, told U.S. News in 2015 that an instructor’s in-person course will probably reflect the quality of what they’d find from that professor online.
“The traits that exist as far as having a great experience with an online faculty member are the same ones that really exist for face-to-face teaching,” she says.
6. What resources and technology do they use to teach?
In a good online course, an instructor should use tools like audio or video streaming and online forums, for instance, to make up for what students lose without the face-to-face interaction, experts say. But professors who merely teach off lecture transcripts and textbook PDFs are less likely to be engaging.
“If they try to wedge face-to-face and textbook learning into an online format, you should probably work your way out,” David Stysley, who earned his master’s in public administration online at the University of Baltimore, told U.S. News last year.
7. Are their expectations of students clear?
In online courses, syllabuses play an even greater role than in person because the student might be completing assignments on his or her own schedule and using a syllabus as a course road map.
A syllabus that fails to set clear expectations might indicate that a professor may not as effectively manage the online course, experts say.
8. Do they create a sense of community among online students?
Even though a program is online, experts say, students should still be able to engage with each other and build a sense of community as they would on a physical campus. It’s up to the professor, at least in part, to make that happen.
“I’d recommend students think about: Do professors encourage teamwork? Do they foster student-to-student engagement within the class and outside?” says Cummings, of UF Online.
9. What is their research background?
An important part of college, Cummings says, involves students finding their passions, and research in a given discipline is one way to do that.
Those interested in doing research with a professor should explore their instructor’s scholarly experience, she says. This information can often be found online.
10. What is their industry and academic experience?
Cummings says she recommends students — whether online or on ground — seek professors with a balance of industry experience and academic credentials.
“Faculty should be leaders in their academic field,” she says. “But faculty should also be able to teach students to think critically about real-world challenges.”
More About Online Degrees
Find more tips on how to choose a best-fit online degree program on the Online Learning Lessons blog, and get our complete rankings of the Best Online Programs.
For additional advice and information on how to navigate online program admissions, connect with U.S. News Education on Twitter and Facebook.
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Ask 10 Questions to Assess Faculty in Online Degree Programs originally appeared on usnews.com
