Although online education in postsecondary education is not new, the number of online
courses and programs has grown especially fast in recent years. This shift toward online
education has drawn strong supporters as well as critics: some see promise in the immediate and
flexible nature of the online environment, while others question the quality of online courses.
The debate, in fact, hinges on teaching, just as in face-to-face settings. However, little systematic
research has investigated online teaching through the eyes of instructors, and literature about
online teaching is based largely on speculation and lacks complexity and depth.
The central aim in this study was to examine online teaching from the perspectives of
instructors themselves in order to understand pedagogical decisions, views of online education,
and environmental factors influencing teaching. Case studies of four instructors at two
institutions were developed. Each instructor taught a fully online, asynchronous undergraduate
business course during Fall 2013. I gained access to course websites to view course materials and
observe communication between the instructor and students. During the semester, I interviewed
each instructor four times using a semi-structured interview format.
The four case studies were composed separately, each with thick description that helped
create a detailed and contextualized narrative. In addition to the case studies, I present a crosscase
analysis describing themes and offering insights into the constraints and affordances of
teaching online. The cross-case analysis contributed to the development of a theoretical
framework for studying online teaching. Specifically, I propose an ecology model of online
teaching accounting for contextual factors (e.g., institutional setting, instructor background)
shaping teaching decisions, experiences, and beliefs in the asynchronous online teaching
environment.
This inquiry has meaningful implications for practice and research. First, knowing how
instructors design courses and think about the online teaching-learning environment can inform
the work of faculty development staff who train and support instructors and shape institutional
culture related to teaching. Second, insights from this exploratory study can strengthen future
research seeking to answer evaluative or causal questions by revealing essential variables to
consider when examining the processes and outcomes of online education.PhDHigher EducationUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/111535/1/inbe_1.pd