ABSTRACT
Around the world colleges have recognized the importance of online courses to their students and steadily increased online course offerings over the past two decades. More and more students take a mix of online and in-person classroom courses, and those who do often progress to graduation faster than students who rely solely on either classroom or online courses. The demand for online courses is such that many new faculty are rushed into online teaching, often with the expectation that they develop their own online courses with little time to prepare and paltry institutional support and pedagogical guidance. The online environment is unique, offering many advantages over traditional classroom teaching, but also constraints that teachers must address to produce effective online courses. Students learn to think critically in online discussions. The chapter also presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in this book.
