Teaching Online Will Make You a Better Teacher in Any Setting
From
By Kevin Gannon
When I first began teaching online courses, I did so with  and trepidation. Could I replicate in a digital environment what I believed was essential for an in-person course? What I learned, however, was that I didn’t need to replicate my face-to-face pedagogy exactly. I could find different, albeit related, techniques and practices to achieve a similar outcome online.
That lesson — that an intentional and reflective flexibility was crucial for designing and teaching online courses — was an essential one for me, and the first of many I would learn as I gained experience in the digital realm.
When it comes to Ìý²¹²Ô»åÌý however, many academics remain leery. They continue to suspect it’s where good teaching goes to die. My own experience — as well as that of thousands of other faculty members who’ve taught dynamic and meaningful online courses — offers a counternarrative. We’ve found that elements of online pedagogy not only help us become better instructors in a fully digital learning space, but better at the craft of teaching in general.
It may seem obvious that what makes one a better teacher in one particular setting makes them a better teacher, period. But without thinking about why that’s the case, you miss an opportunity to critique and modify, or affirm and expand, the way you operate in a classroom.
Three aspects of online teaching, in particular, have made me a better instructor, no matter the setting.
