Pedagogical Resources

You may have questions or concerns about the pedagogical implications of teaching online. What happens in an on-campus class will not translate directly to the online environment. Assignments, discussions, and lectures often need to be re-designed so that the students (and you!) get the most out of the experience. We can discuss these issues with you in person, but if you'd like to read about them on your own, a lot of information is available on this topic! Several fields, including education, library and information science, and technology-related fields, produce literature about it. The resources below may help you plan your course and syllabus so that they work both technically and pedagogically.

Books

Over the last ten years, scholars in both education and technology have published many useful books on the pedagogical, technical, practical aspects of teaching online classes at the college and university level. While parts of such texts inevitably become “dated” over time, their theoretical underpinnings usually remain sound and can be very valuable to instructors of current online courses. The following is a brief list of books that may interest iSchool faculty:

Catalog: Main LC subject headings

To search the UW Libraries catalog for items related to online learning and instruction, try one or more of the following Library of Congress subject headings (LCSH), which are closely associated with online learning topics.

  • Computer-assisted instruction

  • Distance Education

  • Educational technology

  • Internet in education

  • Internet in higher education

  • Web-based instruction

Databases

There is currently no one “best” database for articles related to online learning. That said, we have consistently found the following UW-accessible databases helpful when researching online learning topics.

  • Academic Search Complete. A scholarly, multidisciplinary database providing indexing and abstracts for over 10,000 publications, including monographs, reports, conference proceedings, and others. Also includes full-text access to over 5,000 journals.

  • Education Full Text. Provides indexing of periodicals and yearbook articles dating from 1983, abstracting of those dating from Jan. 1994, full text of those dating from Jan. 1996; covers English language books published after 1994.

  • Library Literature & Information Science. Covers more than 200 library and information science periodicals published internationally, and more than 600 books per year. Online version covers December 1984 to the present and includes full-text for selected periodicals.

Journals

Because of the interdisciplinary nature of online learning, there are many scholarly journals that regularly publish articles highly relevant to its study and practice. Many of these journals are national in scope, or focus primarily on one aspect of online education, such as statistics, practice, or social implications. Consequently, when evaluating a online learning-related journal, it is useful to browse its back issues, or mission statement, for clues to its biases, source, and scope. The following is a brief list of UW-accessible e-journals that may interest iSchool faculty.

Reference texts

Reference texts are excellent tools for getting acquainted with the major topics, issues, and terms in the field of online learning. The following is a short list of reference texts, broken down by reference category, that faculty might find especially helpful:

Annotated Bibliographies

Encyclopedias

Websites

Appropriately, the Internet is also an excellent resource for gathering news and tips about online learning and educational technology. To address the needs of iSchool faculty, this list of online resources is divided into two main categories: websites hosted by the University of Washington, which may be specific to on-campus e-learning options; and websites hosted by other groups and institutions, designed to address a broad audience of students, researchers, and educators.

UW Websites

Non-UW Websites