ACADEMIA Letters

What is Effective Online Teaching and Learning

in Higher Education?
Jace Hargis

What is effective online teaching and learning in higher education? This question has been
asked by many in higher ed over the past decade, resulting in some action, but mostly pro-
crastination. In the spring of 2020, this question quickly turned into a mandate for the world
due to the COVID pandemic. At that point, it seemed many universities hurried to migrate
their face-to-face (F2F) courses into an online environment. As with most emergencies, quick
decisions based on fast and easy solutions, often made by leaders with little experience in the
online teaching, prevailed. Sadly, and ironically, many in the decision-making roles did not
take the approach, which they would have typically taken in their own academic discipline,
which is to review the literature. If they had, they would have found that online teaching is
not new and most of the questions and concerns around this topic have been extensively ex-
amined, resulting in effective research-based teaching methods. Indeed, there were additional
variables encountered, which included the rapid timeframe; the large number of faculty and
students involved; lack of infrastructure; lack of online teaching experience; unknown per-
spectives and attitudes towards teaching online (including faculty self-efficacy and student’s
ability to self-regulate learning); and for some, significant time zone differences for students.
This was an opportunity to use online methods known to be effective to explore these variables
and continue to populate the literature.
In addition to these variables, there were highly varied perspectives on how to, or even if to,
implement online courses. Some believed the situation was temporary, so they did not commit
to creating an updated model to education. Some even thought that students would return to
F2F before the end of the term and everything would return to “normal.” Others found a way to
complete the spring academic term, creating temporary grading policies and providing course
credits to students. Most believed everything would be resolved over the summer and autumn

Academia Letters, November 2020 ©2020 by Academia Inc. — Open Access — Distributed under CC BY 4.0

Corresponding Author: Jace Hargis, jace.hargis@gmail.com

Citation: Hargis, J. (2020). What is effective online teaching and learning in higher education? Academia
Letters, Article 13. https://doi.org/10.20935/AL13

1
classes would resume as “normal,” so the question of what is online teaching and learning
was again placed on the back shelf. There were a few exceptions to this approach, one being
the California State University (CSU) system, who in May 2020 determined they would offer
classes online for the autumn 2020 term (and most recently continued that response to offer
courses online in the spring 2021 term). They also compensated faculty for their engagement
in professional development in the summer 2020 to assist their redesign of courses online—
in a less frantic tempo. Other universities took a more risky approach and did not consider
the contingency plan of preparing faculty and courses to be taught online. These universities
opened around the world, some full F2F, others partial, which resulted in reclosing the campus
and repeating the emergency mode, which we survived in the spring 2020 term. At the time of
this writing, there are still many universities that have not made a decision to offer all courses
online for this term or the next and have kept students and faculty in academic limbo, as they
continue to hope and expect the old normal to return. In addition to creating anxiety and
stress, this approach has caused significant financial challenges for students who have had
to lease apartments and then attempt to cancel the lease; learn online from their apartments
(located blocks from the campus, being discouraged to return to their hometown for fear of
spreading COVID); or drop classes because they were not provided sufficient support or the
online courses were inadequately designed for all learners.
I share the above brief preface to set the stage for the background of this reflection for
online teaching and learning. I have been fortunate to be an active researcher in the field for
over two decades, so when we all needed to migrate courses online, although deeply saddened
by the cause, I was relieved that at this time in history, we had substantial research in the area
of effective online learning, including recent research [2, 3, 7, 8, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 18].
Although I firmly believe that effective online teaching should always focus on pedagogy
(andragogy) first, we now also need to understand the mechanism of technology to be able
to offer similar learning opportunities. Recently, Weller (2020) published a metastudy book
entitled, 25 Years of Ed Tech (1994 to 2018). In this, the author described the introduction
of technologies in education. I share this to reinforce that integrating technology is not new.
For over two decades we have researched and identified how technology can support, enhance
and at times create engaging learning environments. At this point, the challenge seems to be
working with faculty to help them integrate technology to enhance learning through course
design and a critical approach to identify appropriate, relevant and meaningful (ARM) tech.
Online learning has also been part of a blended learning (BL) environment. Garrison and
Kanuka (2004) define BL as the thoughtful integration of F2F learning experiences with online
learning experiences. In Zhonggen’s 2015 meta-study entitled, Blended Learning Over Two
Decades, the author reviewed 30 articles to explore the definition, advantages and problems

Academia Letters, November 2020 ©2020 by Academia Inc. — Open Access — Distributed under CC BY 4.0

Corresponding Author: Jace Hargis, jace.hargis@gmail.com

Citation: Hargis, J. (2020). What is effective online teaching and learning in higher education? Academia
Letters, Article 13. https://doi.org/10.20935/AL13

2
of BL, arriving at the conclusion that institutions may be wise to innovate their pedagogy
towards a BL. The analysis identifies major findings of BL, some which include:

• BL assigned different weights to different instructional methods, stimulating teachers

to create courses with a variety of teaching methods [1];

• Interaction should act as an active process which requires learners to do rather than
passively absorb information [4];

• Enhanced blended learning incrementally improves pedagogy, and creates fundamental

paradigm shifts [6];

• Teachers’ internet self-efficacy about web-based learning were important predictors of

their attitudes toward web-based development [9]; and

• Interactive learning activities in BL effectively help students achieve learning outcomes [10].

I was fortunate to begin my research career in 1998 and work with faculty to integrate
many of these technologies in various academic areas to determine if and how they could
be effective. As recently as this past spring term, I worked aggressively with colleagues to
integrate some of these technologies to identify how we could create engaging learning ex-
periences online. Afterward, many faculty and students shared comments on how surprised
they were of how easy it was to use online tools and that many of the tools allowed them (and
their students) to interact in ways they had wanted to, but found difficult to do in a F2F setting
(mostly due to the artificial, traditional “school” infrastructure of desks in rows, 50 minute
classes and sterile settings).
There are many resources to help faculty and institutions take steps to integrate functional
online teaching and learning. During the spring term 2020, I wrote a step-wise guide entitled
“Rapid
Rapid Course
Course Conversion
Conversion into
into an
an Online
Online Modality:
Modality: A
A Focus
Focus On Pedagogy”
Pedagogy which could pro-
On Pedagogy
vide an advanced organizer. In this white paper, I shared

1. Review Face-to-Face (F2F) Course Design

2. Integrate Instructional Methods

3. Engage in Professional Teaching Development

4. Identify General Practices for Teaching Online and ARM Tech

5. Build Online Modules, Habits and Schedule

Academia Letters, November 2020 ©2020 by Academia Inc. — Open Access — Distributed under CC BY 4.0

Corresponding Author: Jace Hargis, jace.hargis@gmail.com

Citation: Hargis, J. (2020). What is effective online teaching and learning in higher education? Academia
Letters, Article 13. https://doi.org/10.20935/AL13

3
 6. Design Interactive Modules

7. Revisit and Align ARM Tech into Several Modules

8. Continue to Build Modules Connecting All Prior Components

9. Review, Reflect, Update, Practice

In early May 2020, I shared an an article

article on
on my blog addressing the topic of Mixed Mode,
my blog
as many universities were finishing a chaotic term and trying to plan for an uncertain summer
and autumn term. There were many challenges of mixed-mode teaching (equity, time, course
design, student choice and selection), early anecdotal results have confirmed the challenges
as well as increased uncertainties on how to manage the challenges. Some educators perceive
their roles have increased without sufficient resources or support. Most institutions have seen
that identifying and supporting a specific mode is most beneficial to students and faculty.
In conclusion, I do hope that the lesson learned from the pandemic is not one of holding
our breath, treading water and waiting for the routine of “school” to return. Instead, we should
take this opportunity to completely rethink education, especially to be more inclusive and
accessible to all of our students. To accomplish this, we will need to maintain our insightful
academic lens in reviewing the vast literature on effective online teaching and learning, then
select the ones that align with specific institutional missions.

References
[1] Carbonell, K. B., Dailey-Hebert, A., & Gijselaers, W. (2013). Unleashing the creative
potential of faculty to create blended learning. The Internet and Higher Education,
value(19), 29–37.
[2] Chun, H. & Hargis, J. (2020). Linear algebra online learning objects a focus on peda-
gogy. The Online Journal of New Horizons in Education, 10(4).
[3] Cossovich, R., Hargis, J., & Chun, H. (2020). Working with electrons: integrating “kits”
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[4] Dias, S. B. & Diniz, J. A. (2013). Fuzzyqoi model: a fuzzy logic-based modelling of
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[5] Garrison, D. R. & Kanuka, H. (2004). Blended learning: uncovering its transformative
potential in higher education. The Internet and Higher Education, 7(2), 95–105.

Academia Letters, November 2020 ©2020 by Academia Inc. — Open Access — Distributed under CC BY 4.0

Corresponding Author: Jace Hargis, jace.hargis@gmail.com

Citation: Hargis, J. (2020). What is effective online teaching and learning in higher education? Academia
Letters, Article 13. https://doi.org/10.20935/AL13

4
 [6] Graham, C. R. (2006). Blended learning systems: definitions, current trends, and future
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[9] Kao, C.-P. & Tsai, C.-C. (2009). Teachers’ attitudes toward web-based professional de-
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Academia Letters, November 2020 ©2020 by Academia Inc. — Open Access — Distributed under CC BY 4.0

Corresponding Author: Jace Hargis, jace.hargis@gmail.com

Citation: Hargis, J. (2020). What is effective online teaching and learning in higher education? Academia
Letters, Article 13. https://doi.org/10.20935/AL13

5
[19] Zhonggen, Y. (2015). Blended learning over two decades. International Journal of
Information and Communication Technology Education, 11(3), 1–19. doi:10 . 4018 /
IJICTE.2015070101

Academia Letters, November 2020 ©2020 by Academia Inc. — Open Access — Distributed under CC BY 4.0

Corresponding Author: Jace Hargis, jace.hargis@gmail.com

Citation: Hargis, J. (2020). What is effective online teaching and learning in higher education? Academia
Letters, Article 13. https://doi.org/10.20935/AL13