Benefits and Challenges of Online Teaching: A Chair's Perspective

I will explore the benefits and challenges of online offerings from a department chair's perspective. We need to keep in mind the needs of our students who balance school with work and family obligations, while keeping an eye on high academic standards and authentic learning. Scheduling the right proportion of online courses with the appropriate number of seats sometimes places the chair between faculty who want to teach well and administration with an eye on cost effectiveness. We have worked hard to keep our university's mission as a regional campus of Purdue University in mind while engaging area students both online and in the classroom, all while facing competition from the new fully online Purdue Global.