I have witnessed how advanced online learning has become and how much more students are offered today as resources.  I think it is a fantastic way for working adults to be able to further their education and reach their goals and dreams.  Online Learning hits very close to home especially now as my husband has returned back to school to complete his degree online.  He is able to do his school work at night after our children go to bed and still be at home in a relaxing environment.   Personally, I know that he would not have gone back and completed his degree if he had to go to a local campus and sit for hours in a classroom at night after working all day.  This is why so many more adults are returning to the classroom - because they can be in their own homes and with their families and still maintain a job to support themselves and their family.

In an online learning environment, there are some things that are so important and these include:

• Quick responses from faculty about homework questions or grading concerns.
• Quick turn around on grading. 
• Interaction in the discussion areas.
• Elaborating on personal experiences so the students can relate.

Faculty must be active in an online classroom to help the students learn.  This is their only way of interacting with faculty unless they make a phone call or send a personal email and I find that the students that struggle the most tend not to do that.  They want you to reach out more to them.  Once they find out you are willing to assist them, then they are more likely to make more of an effort and reach out to you.  There is nothing worse than a student posting a question and the faculty member ignoring the question or waiting until after the homework is to be submitted.  Many students do their work late at night or early in the morning so their questions might be last minute.  It is imperative that faculty respond within 24-48 hours.

Students want to hear feedback on their assignments as quickly as possible.  In an online learning environment, there are a lot less weeks to a course than in a traditional setting.  So, if grading is done two weeks later, the students will not know how they are doing to know if they are doing the work correctly and meeting your standards.  This grading has to be done quicker to give the students a chance to make changes when they still have time to do this.  Students really appreciate it when you grade their work within a day or two after it is submitted.

The discussion area is a place for students to interact with their peers and faculty.  As we all know, students are required to be in the discussion area on so many days of the week.  They find it very unfair if you are grading them on this requirement but you are not meeting your own requirements.  Also, this is the faculty member's chance to correct a student if they are not interpreting the material.  I like to include as many personal experiences of mine in the discussion area as I think the students learn a lot more when they can see how the concepts relate to what they might do in the real world.  Very often students become frustrated because they feel that the material they are learning is useless and they do not understand why they have to take the course.  It is our job as faculty to show them that this material will be used and how valuable it is to their career and future.

I hope that my experience in an online learning environment as a student has allowed me to be a better faculty member for my students as I can relate to what they are going through.  Many have families with small children which mean that last minute issues will come up.  It is my job to evaluate each situation and if possible work with the student. 

I look forward to impacting many more students as they reach their goals and move on to the career that they are working towards.

Faculty Spotlight:

Michelle Slabiak has an MBA with a concentration in Accounting from Keller Graduate School of Management and a Bachelor of Business Administration from Saint Mary's College, Notre Dame, Indiana.  Michelle was also a 2010 and 2011 GCU Faculty Recognition Award Recipient.

Michelle has 7 years of combined experience in public and corporate accounting. She truly enjoyed working in the investment industry as an accountant focusing on cash management and fixed assets responsibilities as well as preparing reporting packages for multiple entities.  In addition, Michelle helped implement Oracle Financials into the accounting department. 

However, Michelle has always been drawn to the field of education.  After obtaining her MBA online and having her first child, she knew it was time to explore this new career path.  Michelle has been teaching accounting courses online since 2004 and has been with Grand Canyon University since 2009 teaching courses such as Financial Accounting; Managerial Accounting; Intermediate Accounting; Accounting Practices; Advanced Managerial and Cost Accounting and Healthcare Accounting and Billing.   Currently, Michelle is also a course writer and subject matter expert helping to create new accounting courses for Pearson Education.