Five Roles I Play in Online Teaching: Revisited

Abstract

In 2005, I published an article entitled Five Roles I Play in Online Courses (Headley, 2005). Those roles were space planner, pace setter, host, connector, and mirror. After more than a dozen years, I have revisited those roles and reflected on what it means to be an effective teacher after a twenty-year span of online teaching. What continues to be crucial, in my view, is the role of relationships between the faculty member and students, and among students in the online environment. This paper explores the changes in our technological and educational context in the last 12 years, and whether there is a continuing need for these five roles for online teachers.