Off-Site Distance Education Faculty: A Checklist of Considerations

Case studies informed the development of a checklist for use in determining whether to engage in online educational practices whereby the family and consumer sciences (FCS) instructor teaches from a location distant from campus.Objective and subjective case details were recorded and analyzed for commonality and variance. From cross-case analysis, lists of enabling factors, benefits, communications issues, and challenges were created.These were further divided into categories relating to (a) administration,(b) curriculum and instruction,and (c) faculty characteristics. Additionally,a list of benefits of the use of offsite faculty was created to form a composite tool for use in decisions regarding using off-site faculty for online instruction.