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Experienced online instructors: beliefs and preferred supports regarding online teaching

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Abstract

While online courses are becoming a mainstay of college course offerings administrators, staff, instructors and students have different perceptions about how online courses should work. While faculty members are expert in their discipline and institutions provide support for acquiring content expertise, how instructors develop skills in online teaching is neither systematic nor codified in higher education. This preliminary study reports findings from a Delphi study of expert online teachers who identified 11 institutional strategies that best supported their development of online teaching skills. Three major areas of most value were: training, external supports, and prolonged experience.

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  1. The University of Texas at San Antonio, San Antonio, TX, USA

    Patricia McGee & Maria Torres

  2. Trinity Christian College, Palos Heights, IL, USA

    Deborah Windes

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  1. Patricia McGee
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Correspondence to Patricia McGee.

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McGee, P., Windes, D. & Torres, M. Experienced online instructors: beliefs and preferred supports regarding online teaching. J Comput High Educ 29, 331–352 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12528-017-9140-6

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