Filling the gap in online education

There is evidence in current literature describing how institutions have, in many instances, been slow to adopt properly resourced and supported online teaching endeavours (eg: (DiPaola, Dorosh, & Brandt, 2004; Hannon, 2008), and how time poor teachers often feel resentful and overburdened when asked to teach online (eg: (Bozarth, 2006; Ertmer, Addison, Lane, Ross, & Woods, 1999; McIntyre, 2008; Rabak & Cleveland-Innes, 2006; Walker & Johnson, 2008). While online teaching continues to become more common in universities, there can be gaps between institutional directives to provide quality online education, and the existing pedagogical support systems for those teachers who are actually being asked to do it. With this in mind, over the last decade, COFA Online, at The University of New South Wales (UNSW) in Sydney Australia, have developed a number of pedagogically focused professional development programs for teachers wishing to develop their online teaching abilities.