The Joyful Online Teacher: Finding Our Fizz in Asynchronous Classes
Apr 2026 · Teaching, Engaging, and Thriving in Higher Ed Book 8 · University of Oklahoma Press
Ebook
194
Pages
infoThis book will become available on April 21, 2026. You will not be charged until it is released.
About this ebook
The happier the teacher, the better the learning experience—for instructor and student alike. With this equation at its core, The Joyful Online Teacher provides practical guidance for making distance learning infinitely more enjoyable and effective, and for improving the online teaching experience in asynchronous classes that often take place in Learning Management Systems (LMSs) like Canvas or Blackboard Learn, and where instructors and students rarely interact in real time, contributing to low completion rates.
One of the most pervasive challenges in distance learning is the absent online instructor; and one clear reason for this problem is the often unsatisfying nature of teaching online. A leading voice on online education, Flower Darby draws on the sciences of learning, emotion, and motivation, three decades of her own teaching, extensive research on online student experience, and the stories of joyful online teachers to present concrete tips for making online teaching more rewarding.
The key, Darby suggests, is learning to love teaching online. To that end, her book offers instructors accessible, inspiring, common-sense hacks for connecting with students, finding passion, navigating the structural inequities of higher ed, and more—all with a focus on building rapport and relationships, the central ingredients of happiness and satisfaction. These time-tested strategies and hard-won insights promise to help online teachers find meaning, purpose, and, yes, joy in their work—and, consequently, to fulfill the enormous, largely untapped potential of online education.
One of the most pervasive challenges in distance learning is the absent online instructor; and one clear reason for this problem is the often unsatisfying nature of teaching online. A leading voice on online education, Flower Darby draws on the sciences of learning, emotion, and motivation, three decades of her own teaching, extensive research on online student experience, and the stories of joyful online teachers to present concrete tips for making online teaching more rewarding.
The key, Darby suggests, is learning to love teaching online. To that end, her book offers instructors accessible, inspiring, common-sense hacks for connecting with students, finding passion, navigating the structural inequities of higher ed, and more—all with a focus on building rapport and relationships, the central ingredients of happiness and satisfaction. These time-tested strategies and hard-won insights promise to help online teachers find meaning, purpose, and, yes, joy in their work—and, consequently, to fulfill the enormous, largely untapped potential of online education.
About the author
Flower Darby is Associate Director of the Teaching for Learning Center at the University of Missouri. She is coauthor of Small Teaching Online: Applying Learning Science in Online Classes and The Norton Guide to Equity-Minded Teaching.
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