Overview

The rapid shift to online learning, accelerated by the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic, has brought both convenience and unforeseen hurdles. Despite the appeal of flexible education, the attrition rates in online courses remain persistently higher than in traditional face-to-face counterparts. This escalating issue impacts individual students and threatens the stability of entire learning institutions. The imminent need for a comprehensive solution to address the root causes of high attrition rates has never been more critical. Behind the statistics lies a more profound concern — many online learners, representing diverse demographic, ethnic, socio-economic, and cultural backgrounds, feel a disconnect. The sense of isolation and challenges rooted in economic and social factors have created an educational landscape where students are more likely to abandon courses. This jeopardizes individual learners' academic journey and undermines the sustainability of higher education institutions. In the face of these challenges, the book serves as a beacon, shedding light on the multifaceted issues contributing to attrition in online courses and offering actionable strategies for educators and administrators. Incorporating the Human Element in Online Teaching and Learning, meticulously crafted for college professors, researchers, graduate students, policymakers, instructional designers, and college administrators, provides a comprehensive roadmap for mitigating the attrition crisis in online education. The book equips educators with culturally responsive pedagogical practices by addressing the critical need for humanistic engagement in online courses, ensuring that online learning spaces become more inclusive and supportive. As a result, the strategies outlined in this book empower educators to create a sense of belonging for diverse student populations and offer a blueprint for colleges and universities to foster professional development opportunities. Ultimately, this transformative guide is a cornerstone in reshaping the online learning experience, ensuring that every student, regardless of background, can thrive in the digital classroom.

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Laura E. Gray, a Southern gal, was born and raised in Louisiana and on the Mississippi Gulf Coast. Laura grew up in Long Beach, Mississippi, and graduated from Long Beach High School in 1988. From there, she went on to college at the University of Louisiana at Monroe where she earned her Bachelor's degree in secondary education with credentials in social studies and English for grades 7-12. She taught a year of junior high in Louisiana, a year of Job Corps in Gulfport, MS, and four years at Hancock High School in Kiln, MS (most famous for being the home of Bret Favre of Green Bay Packers football fame). After finishing her master's degree in school counseling, she spent the next 8 years as the counselor of a large K-5 school back in Long Beach and was there when Hurricane Katrina blew the school away in 2005. By 2007, Laura was able to take early retirement, where she stayed home with her 3 children and worked on her doctorate in Instructional Design for Online Learning, which was completed in 2015. Since then, she has taught both undergraduate and graduate courses in instructional design and has developed a variety of courses and trainings. In the summer of 2019, after having lived in Belize for 2 1/2 years and the Yucatan for 6 years, Laura and her family moved back to the States where they chose the Treasure Valley near Boise, Idaho as their home. Since then, both of their sons, ages 25 and 27, have left Mississippi and joined them, and their daughter, who is 22, is going to college and figuring out what she wants to do. When she's not working and doing family things with the husband and kids, Laura enjoys traveling, shopping, reading, watching shows on Netflix, and spending time with friends and her two dogs, Dany and Lucy, as well as her cat Xander. Laura currently works remotely as a full-time faculty member and research methodologist in the Ed.D. program at South College. Shernette Dunn has been an educator for over two decades. She has experience working in the K-12 system and higher education. She is currently the Director of Student Success at The United States Air Force Academy Preparatory School in Colorado Springs, CO where she focuses on supporting first year college students. Her research interest included motivation, self-directed learning, instructional technology, students with varying abilities, and humanizing online teaching and learning. She is a lifelong learner and loves to research about, and present on the topics listed above. When she is not busy working, she enjoys spending time with her family and traveling.

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