Humanizing Online Teaching and Learning in Higher Education

The surge in enrollment for online courses is continually increasing. However, beneath the convenience lies a challenge that demands a resolution. Educators, administrators, and instructional designers must ensure that the human element is not lost in the virtual corridors of learning. Students with diverse backgrounds and learning needs require more than a simple virtual classroom. Research reveals a concerning trend: high attrition rates in online courses, often attributed to a lack of engagement and insufficient human interaction. To reverse this trend, deliberate measures must be taken to humanize the online learning environment. This book provides several solutions, offering an array of tools and strategies to promote engagement and infuse the human touch into online spaces. To confront this multi-layered challenge, it becomes paramount to undertake deliberate measures aimed at humanizing the online learning environment. Humanizing Online Teaching and Learning in Higher Education steps forward as a guide, offering an extensive array of tools and strategies meticulously crafted to foster student engagement and infuse the essential human touch into the digital educational landscape. In an era marked by the emergence of technology, this book also serves as a pivotal guide for colleges and universities in their pursuit of forming comprehensive professional development opportunities for online faculty and staff. It offers nuanced insights into leveraging cutting-edge educational technology, including AI, to facilitate deeper and relevant learning experiences that connect students seamlessly to the real world. Ultimately, its aim is to humanize the online learning environment, fostering a more inclusive, engaging, and successful educational landscape that transcends the boundaries of the virtual realm.

About the Author :
Laura E. Gray , a Southern gal, was born and raised in Louisiana and on the Mississippi Gulf Coast. Laura grew up in Long Beach, Mississippi, and graduated from Long Beach High School in 1988. From there, she went on to college at the University of Louisiana at Monroe where she earned her Bachelor's degree in secondary education with credentials in social studies and English for grades 7-12. She taught a year of junior high in Louisiana, a year of Job Corps in Gulfport, MS, and four years at Hancock High School in Kiln, MS (most famous for being the home of Bret Favre of Green Bay Packers football fame). After finishing her master's degree in school counseling, she spent the next 8 years as the counselor of a large K-5 school back in Long Beach and was there when Hurricane Katrina blew the school away in 2005. By 2007, Laura was able to take early retirement, where she stayed home with her 3 children and worked on her doctorate in Instructional Design for Online Learning, which was completed in 2015. Since then, she has taught both undergraduate and graduate courses in instructional design and has developed a variety of courses and trainings. In the summer of 2019, after having lived in Belize for 2 1/2 years and the Yucatan for 6 years, Laura and her family moved back to the States where they chose the Treasure Valley near Boise, Idaho as their home. Since then, both of their sons, ages 25 and 27, have left Mississippi and joined them, and their daughter, who is 22, is going to college and figuring out what she wants to do. When she's not working and doing family things with the husband and kids, Laura enjoys traveling, shopping, reading, watching shows on Netflix, and spending time with friends and her two dogs, Dany and Lucy, as well as her cat Xander. Laura currently works remotely as a full-time faculty member and research methodologist in the Ed.D. program at South College. Shernette Dunn has been an educator for over two decades. She has experience working in the K-12 system and higher education. She is currently the Director of Student Success at The United States Air Force Academy Preparatory School in Colorado Springs, CO where she focuses on supporting first year college students. Her research interest included motivation, self-directed learning, instructional technology, students with varying abilities, and humanizing online teaching and learning. She is a lifelong learner and loves to research about, and present on the topics listed above. When she is not busy working, she enjoys spending time with her family and traveling.