ABSTRACT

This chapter reviews the critical issues online educational program development raises in relation to the faculty and faculty development. It explores the challenges in recruiting and retaining faculty for online programs. The chapter describes the ways in which faculty members have to interact effectively with other stakeholders in the university to build high quality online educational programs. Developing online educational programs requires institutions and departments to actively work to recruit faculty to teach online. As online courses, along with hybrid courses and traditional in-class courses become part of the regular mix within the schedule, institutions have to make clear to students the differences between those modalities. With regard to online programs, different administrative and governing structures have emerged. This kind of administrative structure reflects the separation of professional and continuing education from the primary academic efforts of many traditional non-profit colleges and universities. Developing a tenured faculty team that teaches online on a continual basis can have an unintended consequence.