在过去十年中, 教职员工Tanya Tarbutton和Lori Doyle ' 97, MA ’06, have been part of helping Concordia continue its long history of online education move into online education purposefully and with excellence. Recently, 两人开始联手合作超过14个项目, 包括书中的章节, 期刊文章, edited books, 以及专业会议演讲, 主要是关于什么在在线教育中最有效, and why.
“我们着眼于研究生课程特有的虚拟学习环境, 以及如何做到这一点,道尔说。, 教育学副教授和主任 教育领导文学硕士 program. “从设计课程和作业到聘用教员, we focus on the whole process of online learning and how educators can do that in the best possible way.”
Concordia’s graduate programs have helped set the standard nationally for quality online and hybrid courses. Around 2020, Doyle and Tarbutton became interested in researching best practices and sharing their findings with a wider audience.
“Many of the 教育学院 programs are online and are taught by adjunct instructors who bring invaluable contributions and unique perspectives to our virtual classrooms,塔巴顿说。. “We embraced opportunities to investigate and sharpen best practices for adult learners.”
“我们一开始就在想，‘我想知道这会带来什么? Is there a place for us to pour into others who might be working at universities?’”道尔说. “If someone had said in the next few years we would present or publish fourteen projects, 我想我们会很惊讶的.”
Doyle accepted a call to Concordia in 2015 after teaching English and theology at a Lutheran high school and serving as an adjunct professor at the college level for several years. She holds the distinction of being one of the University’s first full-time remote faculty members. 她还获得了菲律宾十大网赌网站的本科和硕士学位, 在完成心理学博士学位之前. Her parents, husband, and oldest daughter are Lutheran educators as well.
塔巴顿在加拿大出生和长大，嫁给了一位美国妻子.S. Marine and came to Concordia in 2016 as a full-time residential faculty member in the 教育学院. She completed a doctoral degree in Education Leadership and Management and is now senior director of the 教育学硕士 学位课程, 教育行政实习协调员, 教育学副教授.
这对搭档的第一个项目是一本书的一个章节, “Virtual Ancillary Faculty: A Model of Support to Avoid Burnout and Foster Self-Efficacy.” They concluded that adjunct faculty need to feel strongly connected to a university and share a sense of support and camaraderie with others there to have long-term success. Doyle and Tarbutton recommended offering plenty of professional development opportunities for instructors where they could learn and connect with others.
在一起工作, the twosome also realized they share a similar work ethic and are able to give critical feedback to each other.
“这是一个很好的工作关系，”多伊尔说. “我们在做事的方式上都非常有条理和系统. 我们玩得很开心，这是一个很好的组成部分.”
他们决定继续干下去, examining successful online education approaches and digging into the research to discover why the methods were effective and how to implement them.
“There are purposeful things a university can do to build an online program and make online learning the best it can be,道尔说。. “你通过课程的设计方式来培养成功, 作业是书面的, 教职员工也得到了培训和支持. It’s a lot of effort to make online programs successful, and that’s what Concordia has embraced. 我们做的每件事背后都有目的，这很令人兴奋.”
“Social, collaborative communities develop organically in traditional face-to-face settings, 但是在网络平台上, curriculum designers need to be intentional to create collaborative communities to reap those same benefits,塔巴顿说。.
她和多伊尔发现这是令人兴奋的程度 教育学院 approach to supporting instructors and students is aligned with the research on best practices.
A publishing company then accepted their proposal to write a 16-chapter handbook, Adjunct Faculty in Online Higher Education: Best Practices for Teaching Adult Learners, which was released in early 2024 and is described as “an essential handbook that delves into the pivotal role of adjunct faculty instructors in the booming realm of online higher education.他们第二本共同编辑的研究手册， Best Practices and Strategies for Online Instructors: Insights From Higher Education Online Faculty这本书将于今年秋天出版. 两者都有教科书的作用.
Improving the experience of adult learners is one of their primary motivations.
“You have to understand the needs and styles of adult learners, specifically,道尔说。. “成人学习者带着大量的生活经验来上课. 他们不是在谈论未来的职业生涯. They are in careers wanting immediate take-aways they can put into effect tomorrow. 你必须为他们提供机会，将他们的经历联系起来, careers, 个人生活和你在课堂上的表现. You also can’t assume anything about the adult learner population as you can with undergraduates who are dealing with typical things 18-to-22-year-olds are dealing with.”
Other research topics have included the importance of instructor “presence” in online courses, 在2023年的一篇题为, “虚拟教师在场促进学习,发表在《十大正规赌平台平台》上 & 教师教育国际会议.
“每个项目都为我们指明了新的、令人兴奋的方向，”道尔说. “We always laugh when we finish one and say, ‘I wonder what will come from this one?“我们从每个项目中学习，并对其他领域产生兴趣.”
塔巴顿补充说:“很容易看出上帝在其中的作用。. “我们刚结束一个项目，另一扇门就会敞开. 它是美丽的.”
All their research enhances and points back to Concordia’s own offerings, they say.
We feel honored to be representing Concordia in print and in person,” Doyle says. “It’s exciting for us to write a bio saying where we work, or to state it in front of an audience. We both see it as a privilege to represent our University in these different ways and put together textbooks other universities might use.”
Tarbutton says they often remark “how grateful we are that God is blessing us through these projects and the different people we get to meet, 以及我们作为同事的友情. 这是上帝赐予的珍贵礼物.”