In this "Distance Learning" Special Issue, Errol Craig Sull introduces the "Try This" series of articles to assist with Becoming a Better Distance Learning Instructor. Sull notes, many folks who teach online have the opportunity to give a live webinar to colleagues and/or students. This is a great way, of course, to help fellow…

Online educators are always on the search for another teaching strategy to improve that number one goal of all online educators: to engage the students. Once this is accomplished assignments of better quality appear, assignments are submitted--and on time, students are more inclined to pursue and peruse all components of the course, and they will…

The blog and distance learning: the former can enhance, enlighten, and elevate the educational experience for the student and the teaching experience for the instructor. And blogs are especially suited for the asynchronous environment where nearly everything is written and remains throughout the course, so students can continually refer to the…

Labor-based grading: for many instructors in the world of distance learning this is a new concept, yet it is one that is rapidly growing in acceptance and popularity. First introduced in 1993 by English professor Peter Elbow, the premise of labor-based grading is that instructors weigh assignments based on how much labor--how much…

As courses can get stale in the world of online education, it can become easy to teach the same old same old. Educators want courses that are fresh, that reflect the latest research, that meet and engage their students, and that offer stimulating and interesting information. When approached in a methodical step-by-step manner, successfully…

In this "Distance Learning" Special Issue, Errol Craig Sull introduces the "Try This" series of articles to assist with Becoming a Better Distance Learning Instructor. Sull notes, in this article, what the distance learning educator does in the first few days in a course can go a long way in setting the tone for the entire…