Supporting Students Through Online Learning

Abstract

With the onset of a pandemic, there were opportunities and challenges for supporting learners. Schools and universities were physically closed while interaction shifted to a distance learning modality. In some instances, courses became asynchronous, while other courses met synchronously using video conferencing. Educators were adaptable when the pandemic occurred, quickly setting up home offices to meet their learners' needs. This occurrence showed that it was in educators' best interest to understand distance best practices. Distance learning has been utilized at institutions in the United States for the past two decades. However, it has not been widely adopted as mainstream because of the inequities that arise for learners. This chapter will address solutions for systematically addressing inequity from the educator's perspective, maintaining academic rigor, building a community of learners, creating a workflow for educators to interact with learners, and how to amplify learner engagement in the online learning environment.