The significant growth of online education in higher education institutions since the COVID-19 pandemic (Ren, 2023) has brought attention to various challenges faced by both online instructors and students. These challenges include insufficient communication, time constraints, student engagement issues, and technological problems. To address these, online instructors require comprehensive support in several areas: general pedagogical, technological, and administrative assistance, as well as specific tasks such as using the learning management system, providing reference content, developing assessments, creating and integrating multimedia content, and incorporating open educational resources (Alamri, 2023; Ren, 2023). Instructors play a crucial role in designing and delivering online instruction, making their preparation and support essential.
This Digital Research Pathfinder project aligns seamlessly with my role as an instructional designer, where I focus on providing professional development training for online instructors. The project aims to offer valuable insights into learning design principles, instructional strategies, and tools for instructors, particularly in the context of continuing studies where I currently work. By doing so, it will enable online instructors to prepare and offer high-quality, relevant, applied, and engaging learning opportunities for their students in both asynchronous and synchronous online courses.
The primary focus of my research is to provide learning design principles and resources to assist instructors in creating and delivering engaging online learning environments. The Digital Research Pathfinder will serve as a repository for key researchers, scholarly sources, and online artifacts specifically related to my research interests. This will ultimately promote student interactions and engagement, fostering high-quality learning experiences.
References
Alamri, H.(2023). Instructors’ self-efficacy, perceived benefits, and challenges in transitioning to online learning. Education and Information Technologies, 28 15031–15066. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10639-023-11677-w
Ren, X. (2023). Investigating the Experiences of Online Instructors while engaging and empowering non-traditional learners in eCampus. Education and Information Technologies, 28, 237-253. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10639-022-11153-x
