Resolving Instructor Challenges in the Online Classroom

The rapid growth of online education has led to expanded opportunities for students while introducing instructors to new teaching challenges inherent to virtual learning environments. The practical responsibilities, once confined to the traditional classroom, such as handling student records, class size, teaching assistants, and instructional material now require a new mind set as well as sufficient technical knowledge. The online instructor faces additional opportunities and challenges once the class is online and students have enrolled. How to merge the best of the traditional classroom including teaching and practical responsibilities with the best of an online teaching opportunity become paramount to the online instructor. These issues and corresponding suggestions for the online instructor will be discussed in this paper.