Abstract
Research in distance and online education has focused on how to improve students: learning and support services. Faculty satisfaction, as one of the five pillars in Sloan-Consortium's quality framework for online education, has received less attention in research. Besides online teaching, little research has examined the experiences of academics working in institutions where the faculty is dispersed geographically. Outside the academy, teleworking or telecommuting has become quite popular in recent years. Most research to-date has been conducted in information technology-related corporations and government departments, but hardly any in post-secondary educational institutions. Drawing on a literature review of research in telecommuting or teleworking, this paper discusses the potential benefits and drawbacks of telecommuting for academics and their families, and the potential opportunities for -- and challenges faced -- by their distance and online education institutions.
Highlights
Distance education has emerged as an important form of education in the last few decades
Distance education universities have been striving to enhance learning effectiveness and student satisfaction. Academic journals such as the International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning and the Journal of Distance Education devote to the academic exchanges of ideas and research on how to enhance learning effectiveness for students
With rapid advances in information and telecommunication technologies, teleworking or telecommuting has become quite popular in recent years
Summary
Distance education has emerged as an important form of education in the last few decades. In a study examining part-time telecommuters, their supervisors, and non-telecommuters from different organizations, Belanger, Collins, and Cheney (2001) reported that availability of information system technology, availability of communication technologies, and work-related communication patterns within their work groups, positively impacted telecommuters' productivity, performance, and satisfaction. Managerial Support: To be effective in the telecommuting context, managers must establish a relationship based on confidence and trust with their workers, facilitate good communication between telecommuters and non-telecommuters, ensure adequate resources (e.g., ergonomic furniture and computer equipment at home offices), keep telecommuters informed and active in organizational activities, treat telecommuters like any other employee, and provide training for the whole organizations, including safety and security issues (Pinsonneault and Boisvert, 1996). In an educational environment where the faculty is dispersed, faculty and university administration may explore the same strategies that they use to communicate with learners (e.g., conferencing tools) to form faculty support groups (Yick et al, 2005) and to facilitate collaboration and idea exchanges
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