Communication Disciplinary Perspectives on E-Learning and Digital Pedagogy:: Recasting Challenges in the Online Environment as Opportunities! View Digital Media

Colloquium
Sherwyn Morreale,  Janice Thorpe,  Pam Shockley Zalabak,  Constance Staley,  Erica Allgood  

The general purpose of this program is to position communication scholar/teachers with extensive background in online education to support two critical goals of the e-Learning & Innovative Pedagogies Research Network, to explore “innovative digital pedagogies” and to build “linkages across disciplinary geographic and cultural boundaries.” Specifically, results are presented from a recent research effort comparing affective learning in a face-to-face public speaking course to an online course, along with lessons learned about course design and development, and well-informed administrative perspectives on these processes from a chancellor emeritus. These communication scholars have always studied teaching and learning and the assessment thereof, as a primary area of inquiry (Morreale, Shockley-Zalabak, Gaddis, Thorpe, Staley, & Allgood, 2020). Now they are facing the challenge, but also the opportunity, to help figure out how to competently teach what may be considered inherently face-to-face subjects in an online environment, public speaking, for example (Morreale, 2017;Morreale, Thorpe, & Ward, 2019; Morreale, Thorpe, Westwick, 2020). These communication education scholars are particularly concerned about the challenge of retaining the richness of the face-to-face classroom and ensuring high-quality teaching and learning as colleagues in other disciplines also mount the digital bandwagon, by choice or by mandate. They are equally concerned about reframing this supposed challenge as an opportunity in which innovative pedagogies are used to take greatest advantage of the capabilities provided in this different teaching and learning context – online education. The speakers will present their disciplinary perspectives on e-learning and e-teaching, highlighting best practices for other disciplines.