The Theory and Practice of Online Teaching and Learning: A Guide for Academic Professionals: a Book that every Beginning Educator should have

 The Theory and Practice of Online Teaching and Learning: A Guide for Academic Professionals (Routledge, n.d.) is a sixty-page book about e-learning and teaching online. Engaging tips are provided to introduce educators and learners into online teaching and learning. The book starts from the basics answering some key questions about common doubts regarding the field and, as it continues, it presents a wide range of topics related to e-learning. As regards the language of the book, it addresses the reader directly and it is quite simple to follow.

The book is divided into six chapters. Each chapter contains a summary of different books that belong to the same recognized publishing house: Routledge. This guide can be considered a must for those who are starting to delve into e-teaching and learning although it can be highlighted that it needs some improvement regarding the connections between one chapter and the other.

Teaching Online. The Basics, chapter 1, is a summary of the book Teaching Online (Ko, & Rossen, 2010, cited in The Theory and Practice of Online Teaching and Learning: A Guide for Academic Professionals, n.d. ). In this chapter the reader can find intriguing questions about online teaching such as: “What can teaching online do for you?” (Ko, & Rossen, 2010 as cited in Routledge p.13). This chapter also offers some tips and pieces of information addressing the reader directly answering the previously mentioned queries. The content in this chapter may help instructors improve their online classes making the most of them. 

Orientation to Online Teaching and Learning, chapter 2, is a compilation of the most relevant parts of the book Essentials of Online Course Design (Vai, & Sosulski, 2015, cited in The Theory and Practice of…, n.d.). It invites the reader to merge into key factors of teaching online. It includes topics such as a comparison regarding timing in online and onset classes. It also deals with the topic of how to prepare, design and teach a course online.

E-tivities for Active Online Learning, chapter 3, is a summary of the book E-tivities: The Key to Active Learning, 2^nd edition (Salmon, 2012, cited in The Theory and Practice of…, n.d. ). In chapter 3, the concept that Salmon called ‘e-tivities’ is presented. These are “frameworks for enabling active and participative online learning by individuals and groups” (Salmon, 2012, as cited in Routledge,p. 29). These collaborative activities contribute to enhance the online lessons and can be adapted to different situations.

 The Varied Terrain of Online Learning, chapter 4, is a summary of the book Learning Online. (Means, Bakia & Murphy, 2014, cited in The Theory and Practice of…, n.d.). The authors present an interesting system that classifies online teaching features into four categories: context, design features, implementation, student-instructor ratio and intended outcomes. This classification may be useful for educators when thinking about creating an online course from the very beginning.

 Reusing Open Resources for Learning, chapter 5, is a summary of the book Reusing Online Resources (Littlejohn & Pleger, 2013, cited in The Theory and Practice of…, n.d. ). The authors explore how to use teaching and learning open resources. The differences between the concepts of gratis and libre are clearly highlighted. “Gratis refers to items available free of charge to users, easily discoverable and openly accessible. Libre refers to openness to more extensive reuse with freedom to change them based on permissions granted by the resource creator in the form of open licenses.” (Littlejohn & Pegler, 2013, as cited in Routledge p.47). Including these online resources to online lessons will contribute to greatly enrich them.

Teaching as a Design Science, chapter 6, is a summary of the book Teaching as a Design Science (Laurillard, 2013, cited in The Theory and Practice of…, n.d.). The author emphasizes the relation between education and technology. She encourages educators to understand that although technology is extremely important in the learning process, learners cannot do everything for themselves. Teachers need to be present in students’ learning process not only to teach them concepts but also to help them think critically and develop the new kinds of skills they will need for the digital literacies. “We have to articulate what it means to teach well, what the principles of designing good teaching are, and how these will enable learners to learn. Until then, we risk continuing to be technology-led” (Laurillard, 2013, as cited in Routledge. p.60)

As it was stated at the beginning of this critique, this book is a synopsis that contains engaging and useful information regarding theoretical and practical ideas, tips and options about online teaching and learning. A negative aspect is that it does not seem to be unified. Since the book does not follow a connection of ideas from one chapter to the other, it should have been better to go deeper into the content and present a smooth connection of ideas from one chapter to the other. What is more, as regards the design of the book, it lacks some basic parts such as the back cover. The book finishes at the end of chapter six and no back cover can be found.  Nonetheless, it is advisable to download the book to get to know more about teaching and learning online and enriching online lessons merging the teaching process with technology as well.

References

Routledge Taylor & Francis Group n.d. The Theory and Practice of Online Teaching and Learning: A Guide for Academic Professionals. A Routledge Freebook. Retrieved from: https://n9.cl/k85v2