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From The Chronicle of Higher Education<\/a><\/p>\n By Kevin Gannon<\/p>\n When I first began teaching online courses, I did so with\u00a0a fair amount of uncertainty<\/a>\u00a0and trepidation. Could I replicate in a digital environment what I believed was essential for an in-person course? What I learned, however, was that I didn\u2019t need to replicate my face-to-face pedagogy exactly. I could find different, albeit related, techniques and practices to achieve a similar outcome online.<\/p>\n That lesson \u2014 that an intentional and reflective flexibility was crucial for designing and teaching online courses \u2014 was an essential one for me, and the first of many I would learn as I gained experience in the digital realm.<\/p>\n When it comes to\u00a0online teaching<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0technology,<\/a>\u00a0however, many academics remain leery. They continue to suspect it\u2019s where good teaching goes to die. My own experience \u2014 as well as that of thousands of other faculty members who\u2019ve taught dynamic and meaningful online courses \u2014 offers a counternarrative. We\u2019ve found that elements of online pedagogy not only help us become better instructors in a fully digital learning space, but better at the craft of teaching in general.<\/p>\n It may seem obvious that what makes one a better teacher in one particular setting makes them a better teacher, period. But without thinking about why that\u2019s the case, you miss an opportunity to critique and modify, or affirm and expand, the way you operate in a classroom.<\/p>\n Three aspects of online teaching, in particular, have made me a better instructor, no matter the setting.<\/p>\n