Operational Performance Guidelines for Online Instructors

Demand for online education continues to grow as technology provides viable methods for the delivery of a wide range of learning experiences. The growth in online education is largely driven by learner demand for flexibility and convenience, and widespread institutional response to meet that demand. According to Online Nation: Five Years of Growth in Online Learning, (Allen and Seaman, 2007), “The number of students taking at least one online course continues to expand at a rate far in excess of the growth of overall higher education enrollments. The most recent estimate, for fall 2006, places this number at 3.48 million online students, an increase of 9.7 percent over the previous year” (p. 5). According to Allen and Seaman (2007), more than two-thirds of all higher education institutions offer online programming, the majority of which expect to see a mean-growth of 30% in enrollments (p. 11).