Issues in Web-Based Pedagogy: A Critical Primer

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There has been an explosion of Web-based courses in higher education. Aiming at an interdisciplinary audience, the contributors draw upon diverse philosophical and empirical backgrounds to make claims about Web-based pedagogy. Among the points they raise is the concern that education is more easily commodified through Internet technologies, implying that traditional faculty roles in teaching (and research) are at risk. Moreover, current understandings of what it means to be a teacher or a student are undergoing redefinition as a result of these new distance-learning technologies. The contributors note that Web-based pedagogy is associated with sound instruction when particular strategies are adopted. As a corollary, this form of teaching is least effective when attempts are made to directly translate traditional styles of teaching. Political, social, and economic interests are competing to shape the direction that online education will take. The authors argue that opportunities exist for administrators and faculty to define the terms under which Web-based learning will occur in their institutions.

Reviews

"This book presents pioneering approaches to online education by some of its early practitioner-scholars....It should be must reading for those of us who wish to learn from the early experience of our colleagues."-William H. Dutton Professor of Communication University of Southern California Author of Society on the Line
[T]he collective expertise of the authors makes this compilation a helpful starting point for faculty who are relatively new to teaching online, graduate students, and web-based instruction decision-makers. It is not a book just for other web-converts. For educators interested in the Web for teaching and learning purposes, this book is a good place to initiate professional reading.-Education, Communication & Information
Issues in Web-Based Pedagogy offers a much-needed and very useful collection of critical essays on a rapidly developing area of pedagogy....A number of the essays offer very helpful historical backgrounds that help orient readers not already familiar with the role web pedagogy and distance learning in general play in American education....The articles address key issues such as technology integration, the large up-front demands of time and resources of web-based teaching, how to encourage active learning, teaching effective research skills, building online learning communities, and facilitating productive online discussion....A particular strength of the collection is the extensive and varied treatment of the vast poltical implications of web-based pedagogy for education. College and university teachers, administrators, and support staff who wish better to understand the quiet revolution that is transforming American higher education would we well-served by reading articles such....-Communication Research Trends
"The collective expertise of the authors makes this compilation a helpful starting point for faculty who are relatively new to teaching online, graduate students, and web-based instruction decision-makers. It is not a book just for other web-converts. For educators interested in the Web for teaching and learning purposes, this book is a good place to initiate professional reading."-Education, Communication & Information
"[T]he collective expertise of the authors makes this compilation a helpful starting point for faculty who are relatively new to teaching online, graduate students, and web-based instruction decision-makers. It is not a book just for other web-converts. For educators interested in the Web for teaching and learning purposes, this book is a good place to initiate professional reading."-Education, Communication & Information
"Issues in Web-Based Pedagogy offers a much-needed and very useful collection of critical essays on a rapidly developing area of pedagogy....A number of the essays offer very helpful historical backgrounds that help orient readers not already familiar with the role web pedagogy and distance learning in general play in American education....The articles address key issues such as technology integration, the large up-front demands of time and resources of web-based teaching, how to encourage active learning, teaching effective research skills, building online learning communities, and facilitating productive online discussion....A particular strength of the collection is the extensive and varied treatment of the vast poltical implications of web-based pedagogy for education. College and university teachers, administrators, and support staff who wish better to understand the quiet revolution that is transforming American higher education would we well-served by reading articles such...."-Communication Research Trends

Author Bio

ROBERT A. COLE is Assistant Professor, Department of Communication Studies, State University of New York at Oswego./e