To help ensure a successful first experience, Dr. Jazzar offers the following baker's dozen of recommendations for effectively teaching adult learners online (to read the complete article, see Faculty Focus): 

1. Online foundation classrooms need to remain as centers of encouragement where the professor's enthusiasm is contagious. 
2. Professors need to maintain a learner focus of support as the needs of students in the foundation course will greatly vary. 
3. The responsiveness of the professor to his or her students' needs is critical. 
4. Empathy needs to be extended to learners at all times. 
5. Oftentimes our online students are not traditional, full time students. 
6. Foundation course professors need to understand that adult learners have their own unique learning needs, interests, and preferences. 
7. The foundation course professor needs to be aware of the learning curve that many students are enduring. 
8. The instructor's daily presence and participation in the online classroom is critical to helping students learn, gain confidence, and feel secure in their new and sometimes foreign environment.
9. Faculty need to be mindful to always communicate in a supportive, professional, and set a positive tone. 
10. The foundational course professor needs to demonstrate a positive, proactive, and caring disposition at all times. 
11. The development of an online learning community is particularly beneficial to learners in foundational courses. 
12. The professor, along with each student, needs to honor and celebrate diversity of thought. 
13. The foundational course instructor needs to work closely with advisors in support of his or her students.