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Critics of online education often assume that traditional classrooms offer the most meaningful form of learning. Some instructors equate physical presence with intimacy, engagement, and effectiveness, though others like myself have discovered that presence and engagement are equally available in an online setting. It is time to reassess what counts as “effective” learning and consider how online education and online technologies can enhance rather than diminish student learning. This development in my own thinking as a once firm believer in the face-to-face classroom came from a one-year experience of developing and teaching my full-time course load from a distance. In addition to discovering new possibilities in online teaching, I found that best practices applied in the online classroom can be transferred to the face-to-face classroom to enhance student learning in any environment. For example, online discussion boards, consistent ecommunications, course content videos, and online conferencing are tools that can be implemented into the face-to-face classroom—merging the benefits of embodied presence with the less limited boundaries of technology. When guided by a pedagogical focus on creating effective student learning, online technologies offer higher education a meaningful way to meet the needs and expectations of 21st century learners.

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