Sally Beisser and Chuck Sengstock published a chapter, Investigating Online Instructor’s Experiences with Constructivist Pedagogy in a Private University in The Handbook of Research on Virtual Training and Mentoring of Online Instructors. Their research focuses on the significance of professional development for instructors to design and develop online courses. Findings support the need for online constructivist pedagogies, peer mentoring for instructors, formal and informal sharing opportunities, and support for the online students themselves.

Beisser, Levitt Distinguished Professor of Education, has been the director of the Drake Online Talented and Gifted Endorsement for 12 years, serving students in 28 states and 8 countries. She teaches courses in teacher education, qualitative research methods, and service-learning in the School of Education.

Sengstock, the director of continuing education and professional development in the School of Education, oversees the development and marketing of all online and video correspondence graduate courses providing training and support initiatives for both online and video conferencing instructors. In addition, he manages a multimedia production facility to create digital objects for their online, blended, and face-to-face courses.