You may have heard that some universities use graduate students to teach many classes. That’s not the Ball State way. We give you the advantage of learning from faculty who are leaders in their disciplines and nationally recognized for their work.
Since online classes are taught by the same professors who teach on our main campus in Muncie, Indiana, you can expect instruction from scholars who are committed to both research and teaching. They are master teachers with lots of experience derived from the real world.
Because of Ball State’s commitment to innovative educational delivery, our faculty have been pioneers in the online classroom. At Ball State, professors receive the resources and support to create engaging online classes and programs that earn national recognition.
Quality Matters
Quality Matters – or what we refer to as QM – is part of our “secret sauce” in assuring that our online courses promote learning engagement. Ball State uses the rigorous, research-supported standards of the Quality Matters program to provide you with skills and tools you need to be a successful learner.
Ball State is recognized by the QM Academic Advisory Council for its implementation plan. And we are the first university in the nation to earn QM’s Learner Support Program Certification, which “recognizes programs that provide all the critical student and academic services needed for learner success and use learner feedback to continuously improve those services.”
Personal Approach
Don’t be surprised about the ways your professor personalizes the online classroom for you and your classmates. Ball State instructors are passionate about teaching and mentoring online students.
Typically, your professor will respond to your messages within 24-48 hours. While much may be done through email, you may also have the opportunity to talk on the phone, Skype, or participate in larger discussion groups with the professor and your peers. You will appreciate their robust, hands-on style.
If you show genuine interest from the beginning of class, your professor will have more opportunity to mentor you as you share questions and your curiosities about the subject matter.
Trained Faculty Benefit You
Exciting classrooms make for exciting classroom experiences for you. Ball State faculty make their course work engaging, relevant, and memorable with the help of instructional designers. These technology specialists are your team behind the faculty team that you will have. Instructional designers are collaborators who work with faculty members to help them strategize and develop best-practice methods — based on research in producing desired learning outcomes – for delivering course content to you.
To energize their classrooms, faculty take certificate courses on sound practices for preparing to teach online, building course community, and other skills to help with their online teaching presence. Ball State faculty, who teach online, often tell us that the training they get to teach online also enhances their on-site methods of teaching.