ALEXANDRIA - LSU of Alexandria liberal arts faculty member Dr. Ginger Jones has published an edited collection on current best practices in distance learning. The collection includes essays about online learning and teaching by sixteen international scholars and professors.
Jones, Professor of English, edited the collection of essays, Solutions for Distance Learning in Higher Education, which was released by Cambridge Scholars Publishing in 2022.
“When I began teaching online, I learned what I had to learn by trial and error,” recalled Jones. “The pandemic put many of my colleagues in the same position of shifting courses online, so I thought collecting best practice examples from LSUA online faculty would be valuable. Ultimately, responses came from college and university teachers across the country, as well as from Canada and overseas. One theme of the collection is that online education requires frequent contact because online students expect the same commitment, standards, and involvement they would receive in a face-to-face class.”
Dr. Holly Wilson, Chair of the LSUA Department of English and Humanities, published the essay, “Challenges and Opportunities in Online Teaching and Online Programs” in the edited collection.
"I wrote my article because there are many professors in traditional universities who do not teach online courses because they are skeptical about the quality of education that the students receive in online classes,” said Wilson. “We work with professionals to create test security standards for high-quality classes in which genuine learning is occurring. One advantage of distance learning is that our on-campus students have the opportunity to interact with 100% online students in the same class. In this, they learn from students and professors who are in many different parts of the US and across the world.
LSU Alexandria is committed to expanding access to education across all platforms, offering over 80 associate and bachelor's degree programs with options for on-campus and online enrollment.
Dr. Elizabeth Beard, Dean of the College of Liberal Arts, said, "I'm proud of our faculty's focus on the scholarship of teaching and learning. Dr. Jones's editing of this publication demonstrates the attention to best practices that makes LSUA liberal arts a stand-out experience for students, whether online or in the classroom."
Written by Adam Lord
Cover Art - Chase Dyess
Image credit - LSUA Division of Strategic Communications