This site was founded to create a place for discussion, collaboration, information, planning and promoting student success in online education. I’m Joanna Miller, the site’s owner for want of a better word.

The idea grew from my two-year study on what creates and hinders success for online students. I completed the study in 2012 for my doctorate in education. I’ve taught online since 2005 in various forms that have included fully online, hybrid, and hybrid with reliance on videoconferencing.

Most educators – though some students have trouble believing this – really want their students to succeed. And with more emphasis placed on success rates by administrators, the instructors now have an even greater incentive beyond the pure notion of teaching as a means to facilitate real learning. I was sometimes dismayed and often intrigued at which of my students would succeed and which would not, what assignments or features of my classes seemed to enable and engage them, and what assignments or features seemed to discourage or hinder them. That’s what my study was about. But like any scientific study – and this was a quantitative analysis overseen by my Dissertation Chair, CSUN Professor of Business Management Dr. Rick Moore – it began with a thorough review of the current literature, including studies, papers, articles, state reports and programs, and anything written on distance or online education that I could get my hands or eyes on. I continue that reading now, and will add regularly to the list of sources here.

This site and any accompanying initiatives, are based on the results of my own study, the literature on which it was based, and the ongoing update to the rich and growing body of literature dedicated to improving student success in online education.