Association for the
Advancement of Computing in Education
Celebrating 30+ Years of
Service to the IT in Education / E-Learning Community
Celebrating 30+ Years of
Service to the IT in Education / E-Learning Community
The novice online instructor is faced with a multi-faceted challenge of mastering the technology interface, understanding what "teaching" online really means and operating the various administrative tasks required to complete the course. Although a successful online teaching and learning experience is dependent upon several factors, instructor performance is perhaps the most critical. The "12 Steps to Online Teaching Success" provides an easy to understand guide for preparing to successfully conduct the online class.
Dr. Ragan directs the design and development of a wide range of faculty development services and systems for Penn State's Academic Outreach. Academic Outreach serves learners via online (the World Campus), Continuing Education, and the video learning network. Dr. Ragan designs and delivers professional development programs, establishes a faculty development learning community, and conducts research including the articulation of strategies to help faculty manage the online workload (SMOW) and the definition of competencies for online teaching success (COTS).
Dr. Ragan has been a part of Penn State's World Campus since the start of the initative in 1998 serving as Director of Instructional design and Development for thirteen years before becoming Director of Faculty Development in 2008. He has presented internationally on the topics of instructional design, multimedia integration, faculty development programming, and instructional design for distance and blended education. He has served in leadership roles as co-director of the EDUCAUSE Learning Technology Leadership program (2005-2006), and currently co-director of the PSU/Sloan-C Institute for Emerging Leadership in Online Learning.
