A New Best Practice: Online Instructors as Researchers

Though online teaching is a rapidly growing trend in Twenty-first Century educational institutions, best practices for effective teaching have not changed to meet the learning outcomes of virtual classroom students. Online instructional have changed, but new best teaching practices have not been re-defined. Online instructors tend to transfer the best practices they acquired in traditional classrooms to the virtual environment. Online instructors participate in the development of syllabi and the creation of activities focused on course objective standard designed to enhance student learning outcome but a limited number of online instructors contribute to the field of emerging online best practices research. One new best practice for online instructors may be to contribute to research on best practices for online teaching. Online instructors may be the critical link in closing the gap in the redefining of online best practices for teaching.