The Excellent Online Instructor: Strategies for Professional Development

The Excellent Online Instructor is a guide for new and seasoned faculty who teach online, those responsible for training and developing online instructors, and administrators who must evaluate online faculty performance. This comprehensive resource describes the qualities of and explains how one can become an excellent online instructor. Written by Rena M. Palloff and Keith Pratt―noted experts in online instruction―the book

• Includes models based in adult learning principles and best practices

• Offers guidelines to test instructors' readiness to teach online

• Contains ideas for overcoming faculty resistance

• Reveals how to develop an effective mentoring program

• Shows how to establish a long-term faculty development effort

Praise for The Excellent Online Instructor

"Palloff and Pratt have a profound understanding of the online educational milieu, its complexities and challenges as well as the potential it opens up to serious educators dedicated to exploiting its full value. Practical and down-to-earth strategies are at the core of what the authors offer the reader in this engaging book."
―Michael J. Canuel, CEO, LEARN Quebec

"This book examines best practices for effective online teaching and instructor engagement and provides a concise plan for faculty development and effective training methods. Rena Palloff and Keith Pratt have provided another essential resource for the field of online teaching and learning that is a must-read for anyone working with faculty or teaching online in either higher education or K–12."
―Kaye Shelton, dean, Online Education, Dallas Baptist University

"Whether you are guiding departmental faculty or looking to improve your own online skills, Palloff and Pratt provide practical steps, tools to organize your processes, best practices to emulate, and valuable resources to help you achieve excellence online."
―Lynn Olson, dean, Graduate and Professional Studies, St. Joseph's College Online

Rena M. Palloff and Keith Pratt are the managing partners of Crossroads Consulting Group, working with academic institutions and organizations on the design and development of effective online distance learning programs. Rena and Keith are also program directors and faculty in the Teaching in the Virtual Classroom program at Fielding Graduate University. They are the authors of Assessing the Online Learner, Collaborating Online, Lessons from the Cyberspace Classroom, The Virtual Student, and Building Online Learning Communities all from Jossey-Bass.