TOPcast: The Teaching Online Podcast

TOPcast: The Teaching Online Podcast


Latest Episodes

Episode 65: Field Report #2: Preparing for the Post-COVID Future
May 04, 2020

Hosts Kelvin and Tom ponder the long term effects of the coronavirus on higher education.This episode is the second in a mini-series of monthly “field reports” offering collegial advice in getting through the current era of “remote teaching” necessitat...

Episode 64: Principles for Humanizing Online Education… and Remote Teaching/Learning
April 20, 2020

Hosts Tom and Kelvin are joined by guest Dr. Michelle Pacansky-Brock (“Brocansky”) to discuss the importance of “humanizing” education. Humanizing is important generally for the design and teaching of actual online courses/programs,

Episode 63: Field Report #1: Making #RemoteTeaching Happen
April 06, 2020

This episode is the first in a mini-series of monthly “field reports” offering collegial advice in getting through the current era of “remote teaching” necessitated by COVID-19. Hosts Kelvin and Tom offer principles for launching and sustaining remote ...

Episode 62: DL Course Fees and the Funding of Online Education
March 16, 2020

About Episode 62: In this episode, hosts Tom and Kelvin are joined by guest Dr. Tamara Powell, from Kennesaw State University, to discuss the role of course fees in funding online education. The importance of showing a return on investment is emphas...

Episode 61: Beyond the Coronavirus: Continuity of Operations and Online Learning
March 02, 2020

In this episode, Tom and Kelvin consider the valuable role online education professionals can play in helping their institutions maintain or resume operations when faced with crises.

Episode 60: Growing [As] Leaders in Our Online Learning Field
February 17, 2020

Dr. Kelvin Bentley joins co-hosts Kelvin Thompson and Tom Cavanagh to discuss how our field and its leaders are growing in strategic importance. The value of strengthening personal and organizational networks is emphasized.

Episode 59: Online Faculty Development
February 03, 2020

Tom and Kelvin devote an entire episode to one of the pillars of successful online education programs: the preparation of faculty for online course design and teaching. Varieties of faculty development approaches are discussed.

Episode 58: “Fun with Regulations”
January 20, 2020

In this episode, hosts Kelvin and Tom learn to have “fun with regulations” as guests Russ Poulin and Cheryl Dowd from WCET provide an update on timely topics from the US higher education policy context. Russ and Cheryl’s enthusiasm for the topics is in...

Episode 57: “Do You Want a Degree with Those Fries?” Education as an Employee Benefit
January 06, 2020

Tuition reimbursement programs have been around for many years. In this episode, though, join hosts Tom and Kelvin as they uncover how modern education as an employee benefit programs align with the aspirations of online higher education.

Episode 56: “The Last Mile:” Getting STEM Online
December 02, 2019

About Episode 56: Many of us in online education have struggled to implement online course design in STEM disciplines. In this episode, hosts Thomas Cavanagh and Kelvin Thompson discuss reasons for this disconnect and how we might work together to i...