| The problem. Because of the increasing influence of the Internet and the World Wide Web, online instruction is fast becoming an instructional environment that holds much potential. Higher education faculty members are using the Web as another way to teach, but little research has been completed to identify instructional methods and strategies that work in both an online and traditional learning environments.; Procedure. A survey was electronically e-mailed to 52 higher education faculty members who had experience teaching in an online and a traditional teaching environment. Descriptive statistics, frequency counts, and percentage data was used to analyze the faculty sample and the instructional methods and strategies sample. Spearman correlation coefficient was utilized to analyze the rankings of the instructional methods and strategies. Qualitative data was utilized to clarify and add depth to the findings of the study.; Findings. The mean for teaching experience was 19.4 years for the sample in this study. Experienced faculty are teaching online courses at the university where the study took place. The perceived usefulness of instructional strategies and methods in each teaching environment were identified and ranked. The following instructional methods were found to have a significant relationship with the instructional environment: Student Collaborative Projects, Student-to-Student Electronic Discussions, Lecture (Direct Instruction), Portfolio Projects, Questioning and Feedback to Students, and E-mail Communication with Instructor. This study has helped to confirm that online instructional methods and strategies are having an impact on the traditional teaching environment.; Recommendations. Additional research is needed to identify specific pedagogical and design elements used in an online environment to explore the effects that course design has on creating success for online students. Encouraging faculty to be reflective about their teaching practices, to participate in professional development opportunities that are supported and rewarded by the administration, and to work in collaborative teaching efforts to model, learn, and take teaching risks with colleagues are suggested for future research efforts. |
