The prevalence of online learning continues to spread. Recently, Education Week reported on a district in Wisconsin that requires its students to take an online course for graduation. This is not a new trend, but one that has been expanding through K-12 as districts look to prepare students for the 21st Century workplace and/or continued schooling. In both cases, part of that continued education will most likely lead to an individual taking a course through electronic means, so the preparation is more than appropriate.
As this trend grows, colleges and universities that prepare students for the education field have started offering courses and concentration areas in best practices in online teaching. With guidance from organizations such as iNACOL, International Association for K-12 Online Learning and SREB, Southern Regional Education Board institutions of higher education have gained a clear and solid picture of the attributes needed in order to be a successful educator in an online environment. This understanding has helped mold stronger teacher candidates graduating from these innovative programs - an impressive and necessary occurrence.
My focus shifts to the educational leader. How are colleges and universities preparing leaders in the online environment? I've found examples of guidance for current leaders who begin overseeing online programs, and there are current administrators who are successfully overseeing online programs, but the link that I am missing, or cannot find, is how higher education is preparing aspiring leaders to lead in the online environment.
How can we embed leadership in the online environment into educational leadership programs, just as we have been embedding teaching in the online environment into teacher preparation programs?
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