Six years ago, Kristen Redfield of Forsyth Technical Community College in North Carolina was highly skeptical about teaching English composition online; she believed that it was necessary to do the didactic component of the course via face-to-face lecture in order to motivate many of the community college students she was teaching.

A few years ago, Linda Dunlap of Marist College in New York was similarly skeptical about the possibility of teaching her discipline online. "How could one possibly teach social psychology, or most psychology courses online? It just didn’t seem logical," Dunlap recalls. She thinks of psychology "as a very people-oriented field - the study of human interactions," so the idea of studying how individuals impact each other’s behavior without face-to-face interactions seemed "absurd."

Fast forward to the present: Dunlap developed two fully online courses and has taught them for the past two years; she has also incorporated some aspects of online teaching into all of her traditional classroom courses. Meanwhile, Redfield has not only taught several courses online for the past five years but has also earned a doctorate in distance education via distance education. As she describes her transformation, "I actually said, ‘distance learning will never work, especially not for teaching composition,’ and yet that is specifically what I do [now] and love it."

Dunlap and Redfield are part of a rapidly growing body of faculty for whom teaching online is a "conversion experience" of sorts. Initially highly skeptical about teaching online, something made them try it anyway, and they are now quite satisfied with teaching online.

Many Reasons for Skepticism

Like many of their colleagues who have not yet taken the plunge, converts to online teaching have a wide variety of reasons for their initial skepticism. In Dunlap’s case, her skepticism extended to her entire discipline, while Redfield thought that teaching English literature might work online but English composition would not.

Another common source of faculty skepticism is confidence in being able to use technology effectively. Dunlap describes herself as "very techno-challenged. Technology is not intuitive to me at all. You would have laughed hysterically watching me try to learn. I needed ridiculously detailed directions down to the last keystroke."

When Julie Dangel was asked during her second year of teaching for the University of South Dakota’s Department of Nursing if she would like to teach online, she "was terrified. I could just see me going into a screen and doing something that would shut the whole system down!"

Julie Hooper at Sheffield College in the UK "wasn’t so much skeptical about online teaching but thought it wasn’t for me" since she was an "English teacher who was totally intimidated by the technology."

Walter Neff, Program Director for Mercy College’s online master’s degree program in direct marketing, has seen the gamut of reasons for skepticism in his program faculty and in himself. "They’re afraid of the unknown; they don’t understand the technology, they don’t think that they’re going to have enough interaction. They think, ‘how am I going to lecture, which is my strong point?’"

From Skeptics to Believers

What motivated these faculty to try online teaching anyway despite their skepticism? For some faculty, it was the result of a unique combination of factors. Dunlap’s entry into online learning resulted from a unique one-on-one mentoring relationship with a former student who coincidentally was director of eLearning at her college. Dunlap "felt the need to individualize [the course] to meet her [student’s] needs," and the student in turn "encouraged me to meet the challenge - to work out of my comfort zone, to model leadership and innovation in this area," which matched Dunlap’s perception of her responsibility as a department chair. Dunlap’s student "believed in me and wanted me to excel in this new area," enabling Dunlap to become proficient with using technology and meet the challenge of teaching online.

Other faculty cite a variety of reasons for deciding to try online teaching. For Redfield, a stipend of "a month’s salary and the promise that we only had to try it once" got her started.

Lawrence Jerome, who now teaches online for five different institutions (Baker College, Capella University, Empire State College, Park University, and Southern New Hampshire University), wanted to "be able to work at home and still teach." Samantha Powers of Empire State College was attracted by the prospect of being able to teach "a fairly diverse mix of students - unlike your standard classroom teaching."

Some Common Desires

Examined collectively, from this variety of reasons some common desires begin to emerge:

Desire for flexibility - Like Jerome, David Mintzes was intrigued by the prospect of teaching from home "while sitting on my patio, or while on vacation" and was too busy to teach a course on campus during the summer three years ago when he initially agreed to teach an online course instead for Mercy College.

Desire to take on a new challenge - William Housel, who currently teaches online at Northwestern Louisiana State University and has taught online at several other universities, "received no training or assistance" in preparing his first online course but "won’t back down from a challenge, that just motivates me."

Desire to become a better teacher - As Dunlap notes, "I really love teaching and love learning ways about becoming a more effective teacher. I liked exploring new techniques and not becoming stale — one way to do this is to venture into new areas."

Willingness to change - Redfield sees herself as someone who is "willing to try new things and find new ways to teach" and is "not afraid to change with the times."

Faculty Satisfaction

What these faculty also share in common is that they now find online teaching highly satisfying, not only by fulfilling their initial desires but also by providing some unexpected benefits. Tony Munos, who teaches project management and computer-related courses for several institutions in the U.S. and Australia, found that "teaching online has provided me with opportunities to meet and interact with individuals that I would have not met previously. It provides a rich experience in being able to interact with individuals from different cultures, unique job positions, and with a wealth of experience."

Samantha Powers found that "the diversity factor [of teaching students online] is more than true, but I actually find that the students that are enrolled in online courses take things more seriously."

Jerome, who initially "didn’t see how it was possible to teach mathematics or computer programming online," has now "become very good at writing mathematics online via various math editors" and has found that he can be "a very active teacher, providing multiple tutorials on math, writing, and the use of Excel in Mathematics."

For Julie Hooper, satisfaction comes from providing a superior alternative for working students. For example, "a student enrolled in an evening class after being at work all day frequently come to class tired and unable to concentrate. The teacher talks, and the student takes in a fraction of what is being said. If they are not very sophisticated writers, they cannot get down information quickly. In contrast, online students work when it suits them — when they are not tired."

Walter Neff has also observed many students who "may not be at their best when the class is offered." For example students often take "night school classes in graduate programs while going without dinner," whereas "students can do better online because they can choose when it’s best for them." The same holds true for many faculty; as Redfield dryly notes, "not too many community colleges offer classroom courses at those hours" when she works best, between around 10 p.m. and 2 a.m.

Some faculty now love teaching online so much that classroom teaching no longer interests them. As Dangel describes it, "I love teaching on the Internet! I would, at this point, not want to return to the classroom. I feel I have more contact with the students as they know that they can reach me via internet, land line, cell phone. Let’s just say we are accessible to them in many different ways. I attend graduate school via the Internet, and those who can learn without being in the classroom have a different learning style. I feel I can relate to them."

Other online faculty continue to prefer face-to-face teaching for some situations. For instance, Dunlap prefers using the classroom to conduct role plays which challenge students to solve real problems on-the-spot in real time.

Recommendations to Colleagues

Not surprisingly, faculty who are happy converts to online teaching draw on their own experience to offer suggestions or advice for faculty who are still skeptical about teaching online. Mintzes recommends doing what he did: Take a course "with a good online instructor, one who is demanding and who makes you spend the time on the course. It will give you a taste of the online experience."

Based on her online experience as both teacher and student, Redfield emphasizes the need to be "flexible" and "willing to adapt what you’ve always known" to the online setting. Housel advises skeptical faculty considering online teaching to "think things through. Whatever you are skeptical about can be overcome. Good planning is essential. Nothing can replace good careful, thoughtful design."

Dunlap’s advice is to "challenge the biggest skeptics and then provide lots of support to help them successfully learn how to deliver."

A Rewarding Experience

Faculty who have undergone the "conversion experience" are also more than happy to reassure their colleagues that the journey is well worth it. As Hooper puts it, "I am still intimidated by technology, and I only use it because there is no better way to teach English than online or through blended learning."

What changed Redfield’s attitude about online teaching was "the experience of actually doing it. I’ve found that the students who persist actually learn better, have better command of the subject material and they enjoy their experience with me."

Experiences such as these illustrate how a growing number of faculty have changed from being skeptical about online education to finding that teaching online has satisfied their desires for flexibility, meeting new challenges, reaching new learners, becoming better teachers, and learning new skills —all of which make teaching a rewarding experience.

John Sener, contributing editor for Educational Pathways, is the founder of Sener Learning Services (www.senerlearning.com).