Humanizing the Online Classroom

Dr. Caran Howard and Dr. Gayle Rhineberger reframe online teaching around student needs rather than content delivery. For example, Dr. Rhineberger's students, many of whom work full-time in criminal justice, can't attend synchronous sessions, so she's built a course structure around flexibility, personal connection, and transparency that respects their constraints.

Faculty teaching asynchronous courses will find immediately usable ideas here: structuring discussion boards around student-generated questions, offering flexible meeting times for working professionals, and sharing personality through low-stakes introductions. These aren't theoretical suggestions: they come from years of iterating with real online students.