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Browning
to fully realize each of the following seven principles. Good practice encourages student-faculty
contact; Good practice encourages cooperation among students; Good practice encourages active
learning; Good practice gives prompt feedback; God practice emphasizes time on task; Good
practice communicates high expectations and; Good practice respects diverse talents and ways of
leaning. These seven principles can serve as guideposts to ensure that undergraduate and
graduate level faculty functioning within a virtual office environment meet student learning
needs.
Related to the seven principles of good practice is Colvin’s work (1998). Colvin recognizes
interaction as an integral part of learning and suggests that faculty maximize their interactions
with learners to help facilitate learning. With the virtual office, faculty no longer have to rely on
face-to-face interaction with students. A cooperative learning environment is one where learners
work together in pairs or groups to achieve a learning outcome or objective. According to
Hatfield and Hatfield (1995), there are benefits to learners engaged in cooperative learning.
Faculty can create cooperative learning communities by promoting virtual student teams which
can be facilitated and monitored by faculty within their virtual office space.
The Embrace of Diversity: Ehrmann (1999) explains that technologies such as e-mail and phone
conferencing make it possible to draw together more diverse students and faculty. Ehrmann
further asserts that many feel protected by the facelessness. For example, faculty and students
who are physically challenged and unable to walk long distances to the on campus office space
may seek great comfort in the virtual office space. Also, with the wide range of religions and
days of worship in today’s society, the virtual office enables individuals to honor their spiritual
obligations without missing days from the physical workplace. One of the keys to respecting
diversity is in understanding. By engaging in dialogue before seeing, individuals are less likely to
make assumptions based on physical appearance. Race, gender, age, and other ways in which we
are physically different should be celebrated but are less likely to create barriers within the virtual
office setting. In the virtual office setting, there is an increased opportunity to focus on character
through dialogue. Such a focus paves the way for understanding, thereby making room for the
embrace of diversity including diverse beliefs and ways of life.
CHALLENGES
Technology: In the virtual office, the majority of faculty members utilize their own equipment.
To meet the rapid growth of technology, an increasing number of institutions issue lap top
computers, headsets, microphones and web cameras to faculty members as a resource for online
teaching and offsite work. Yet, every faculty member bears some responsibility for set up,
maintenance, and internet connection. Additional challenges arise for faculty members in rural
areas or limited internet connectivity. These inconsistencies diminish predictability and
dependability needed for quality faculty student interactions. The wide range of technological
challenges is present for faculty functioning within the traditional on-site office setting as well as
the home office setting. As such, the majority of institutions allocate substantial resources for
yearly improvements in technology.
Opportunity for abuse: Are faculty really working 100% when distracted by TV, family, perfect
weather and the like? Although abuses can happen in onsite workplaces as well, it may be less
common with management’s close presence. The issue here is trust. Institutions must hire
faculty members they can trust and, as pointed out by Tschannen-Moran (2001), trust is crucial in
facilitating cooperation. A review of the literature on trust (Tschannen-Moran & Hoy, 1998) led
to the identification of a host of different definitions. Most definitions are based on common
beliefs that individuals or groups would act in ways that were in the best interest of the concerned
party. In addition to reducing instances of abuse, an added benefit of trust is employee job
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