Faculty Profile: Dr. Dongsong Zhang

“An online learning environment doesn’t mean that students should not still feel the existence of their online instructors.”

Dr. Dongsong Zhang has a well-rooted philosophy about online education. The Assistant Professor in the Department of Information Systems here at UMBC developed many of his views about online education and what online students expect after conducting extensive research on e-learning—the focus of his doctoral dissertation.

Says Dr. Zhang, “I understand what students desire in an online environment. They still require a human element or connection to the education. An online learning environment doesn’t mean that students should not still feel the existence of their online instructors.” Zhang continues, “As instructors, we need to also put ourselves in the shoes of online students and empathetically evaluate how to make the online student learning experience as beneficial as possible.”

To that end, when teaching online classes, Dr. Zhang is extensively involved in course material and exam preparations. He requires the associate faculty who help facilitate his online courses to respond to students' emails within 24 hours. He has also made a practice of joining online course discussions periodically to help make students aware of his involvement and to provide feedback to them.

Dr. Dongsong Zhang, whose research has been supported by Google and NIH, has published numerous articles in a number of prestigious journals and conference proceedings. He is a supporter of ensuring e-learning stays relevant and rigorous especially as the number of online education options continues to sharply increase. "We as educators need to employ efforts to minimize current perceptions that online programs are less rigorous than traditional on-campus programs." Says Dr. Zhang, "We need to consistently improve the quality of online education by giving clear course requirements. Not only does commitment such as this ultimately benefit the student, but it enhances the human relationship in the virtual classroom as well"

Additional information about Dongsong Zhang can be found at http://www.research.umbc.edu/~zhangd/.