Online Teaching Best Practices: Faculty Preferences

Online education is a strategic initiative that has been applied for growth by a number of universities over the past decade. Establishing a quality online program, however, is easier said than done. The online learning system and infrastructure needs to be carefully designed to address not only the end-customers' (i.e., the students') needs but another important stakeholder's needs as well: the needs of the faculty who plays a major role executing the online production and delivery process. In this study, we analyze faculty preferences towards online teaching practices and related tools/techniques by investigating the differences with respect to factors like faculty demographics such as gender, age, as well as their job title (tenure status: tenure, tenure-track or non-tenure, status: full-time or part-time), the level of the course they teach and previous online teaching experiences. Best online teaching practices are being discussed in terms of ways of delivering the lectures, assignments, examinations, communication, class initiation, and attendance and participation requirements. These questions have been investigated via a survey conducted at University of North Carolina at Charlotte (UNC Charlotte). Based on the survey, faculty and student challenges with online teaching and faculty perception of ideal online-teaching environment are also discussed. The results show that there are some variations among these factors mentioned above.