Teaching Online: A Synthesis of Research Viewed Through the Lens of Technological Mediation and Change

• In Event: 16.058 - Roundtable Session 6
  In Roundtable Session: 16.058-8 - Online Education and Flipped Classrooms

Abstract

Online learning is a growing instructional form in higher education. Despite the rapid rise in online courses and enrollments, faculty have little information about what teaching online means for them. While many researchers have studied this issue, their reports appear piecemeal, spread across a number of journals, many of which are difficult to access. Educators need information about how this growing instructional form is altering faculty work. In a review and synthesis of more than 1000 extant research studies, I use the concept of technological mediation and change as a lens for examining this body of research. I present key themes from this synthesis, and I suggest ways in which faculty may manage the changes they encounter.

Author

• Claire C. Major, The University of Alabama