Richard G. Fuller

Fostering Meaningful Interaction in Health Education Online Courses: Matching Pedagogy to Course Types

This research study examined the best interactive practices of effective health care education faculty from six major universities that offer online health care programs. Program directors from six major universities identified effective faculty, from which twelve faculty members were interviewed to uncover effective practices and an additional thirty faculty participated in a Delphi study to identify and prioritize effective practices. The findings for this study indicate that different types of facilitation approaches are needed to generate adequate interaction in four distinct types of health care courses, i.e., foundational classes, skills classes, analysis/synthesis classes, and hybrid type courses.

Building Empathy in Online Courses: Effective Practical Approaches

This research study examined the empathetic practices of effective higher education faculty from seven universities that offer online programs. Using a phenomenological approach with a purposeful sample of fourteen faculty interviews identified eight common themes of practice that faculty employ to promote empathy in the online higher education arena.

Distinctive Distance Education Design: Models for Differentiated Instruction

Distinctive Distance Education Design: Models for Differentiated Instruction attempts to gather the traditional models of teaching and learning and present them in a way that is useful to both new and experienced online teachers in a manner that can assist in increasing the overall effectiveness of online courses and training sessions and provide a greater impact for both the teacher and the learner.

Team Teaching in the Online Graduate Environment: Collaborative Instruction

Team teaching has long been thought to have positive benefits for learners and teachers in a variety of educational settings. Using an action research model the authors describe the outcomes of team teaching an online graduate level disaster research and statistics course. Separated geographically, two online instructors taught at a distance over the course of five semesters using an interactive team teaching model that allowed for greater interaction and instructor presence. Data was reviewed from instructor reflective logs and student responses to the team teaching model. Results of the study indicate that there was a positive benefit in developing synergy in content and pedagogies, continued instructor learning and continuous reflection on instructional design. Students also reported greater instructor presence and a greater understanding of the research and statistical process through immediacy of feedback and the added access and clarity that resulted from the team teaching process. The use of an interactive team teaching model provides greater clarity and interaction with students and should be considered as an online pedagogical opportunity.