12035

12035

General Session - Conference Presentation Only (20 minutes, no formal paper)

Melissa Holmberg, University of Phoenix Phoenix, Arizona mholmberg924@email.phoenix.edu Therese Kanai, Univeristy of Phoenix, Phoenix, Arizona, USA ,tkanai@email.phoenix.edu
 * Connecting with Students through the Instructor Bio**

Teaching in the online venue requires the instructor to put an individual “fingerprint” on their course prior to learners attending. One of the most powerful ways to orchestrate this is though the posting of the instructor bio. The goal of this session is to identify best practices when writing a faculty biography. The instructor biography can be used in the syllabi, student lounge, course café, university home page, and/or faculty webpage. Students are curious in relationship to their instructor wanting to view an instructor on a personal level as well as professionally. The purpose of this session is to demonstrate how a well-balanced bio can provide credibility while setting the tone for the online learning course experience. A welcoming professional bio helps to invoke learner participation in many ways such as feeling comfortable to ask questions and converse with others in the course. When connections can be made students are more likely to understand the curriculum and desire to continue their online education. The objective of this session is to demonstrate best practices in creating a balanced bio containing personal and professional examples that support a positive learning environment.

All Audiences faculty biography instructor