Major concepts encountered during the journey of learning that may be considered “akin to passing through a portal” or “conceptual gateway” that opens up “previously inaccessible way[s] of thinking about something” (Meyer & Land, 2003 AU206: The in-text citation "Land, 2003" is not in the reference list. Please correct the citation, add the reference to the list, or delete the citation. , p. 1 AU207: Anchored Object 106 ). The major concepts encountered on the journey of learning about online teaching and course design, from a faculty’s point of view, can be seen as threshold concepts.
Published in Chapter:
Taking a Hard Look at the Soft Skills of Online Course Design and Online Teaching in Higher Education
Kevin P. Gosselin (Texas A&M University, USA),
Maria Northcote (Avondale College of Higher Education, Australia), Kristi D. Wuensche (Texas A&M University, USA), and Trudy Stoddard (Tabor College of Higher Education, Australia)
Copyright: © 2017
|Pages: 24
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-5225-0968-4.ch008
Abstract
Over the past few decades, substantial growth has occurred in online education in general, and this has been particularly true of the higher education sector. Most universities and post-secondary institutions now offer students the opportunity to enroll in online pre-tertiary, vocational, undergraduate and/or postgraduate courses. While some of these courses are successful for the learners who enroll in them, others have been found somewhat deficient, often criticized for their lack of humanization, interaction, communication and online presence. This chapter examines the role of the so-called soft skills of online course design and online teaching that are seen as vital for online educators who are responsible for the facilitation of high quality online learning. Along with a review of relevant literature about the soft skills of online teaching, the chapter presents three institutional case studies from which a set of practically-focused recommendations for promoting the design of humanized online learning environments has been developed.