Dr. S. David Vaillancourt

About me

Dr. S. David Vaillancourt currently serves as the Vice President of Academic Affairs for the College of Health Care Professions based in Houston, Texas. Prior to this post he worked as an e-Learning consultant for companies across the USA. His primary research focus over the past four years has been the development of online learning Engagement Metrics. Dr. Vaillancourt’s 27 years of service in education includes multiple levels of experience in both private and public educational institutions. His professional positions include Online Campus President for Virginia College, National Dean of ITT's Online Division, Director of Education for Ultimate Medical Academy, President of a two-campus allied health college in Utah, Certified Cisco Academy Instructor, Master Certified Novell Instructor, and K-12 public school science teacher.

Dr. Vaillancourt’s BS and MS in Education were earned from Samford University in 1983 and 1989, respectively. He completed his Ed.D. in Instructional Technology and Distance Education from Nova Southeastern University in May 2004. Dr. Vaillancourt designed, founded and chaired the non-profit National Math Bee (2006-2011), which provided an online learning community for over 15,000 elementary school mathematics students in 37 states across the country. He was a US Army soldier prior to his career in education.

Activity

Discussion Comment

Engaging Learners in Discussion

Dr. M, Another excellent strategy. What are some of the parameters that you setup? Thanks.

Dr. S. David Vaillancourt

Discussion Comment

Will Online Learning Replace the Traditional Classroom?

Dr. M, I am aware there are several universities that have setup f2f classrooms in the Second Life space. Students walk down the street, walk into the building, then walk into the classroom (virtually) to attend a f2f, synchronous, class session. This aspect provides for physical proximity to be removed as a barrier for class attendance while maintaining many of the benefits of f2f learning. These are interesting times. Like you, I expect the technology to further propagate distributed learning environments.

Dr. S. David Vaillancourt

Discussion Comment

Faculty Expectations

Donna, The philisophical approach you identify is well aligned with pedagogical theory and much research. Well stated! Please share any specific goals, activities and/or statements that you use (and have found work particularly well) to implement this approach in your online classroom.

Dr. S. David Vaillancourt

Discussion Comment

Faculty Expectations

Dr. M, These are great examples of effectively using the LMS chat feature to set online classroom expectations. Setting the expectations up front and consistently reinforcing them at appropriate times, though various access means (posted announcements, email, live chat, recorded chat, feedback in the grade) is a very comprehensive approach. Nice job!

Dr. S. David Vaillancourt

Discussion Comment

Will Online Learning Replace the Traditional Classroom?

Reyna, Your experince and sentiments as an online student reflect my experience. However, the more 'hands on' educational sectors like medicine, mechanical and culinary have a ways to go, yet in the technology development. Nevertheless, current technology makes an online physical education course feasible. Using the Wii technology with web-video and biomonitoring (heartrate, temp, etc.) software it is now feasible to provide online PE courses. Who would have thought it possible 25 years ago?

Dr. S. David Vaillancourt

Discussion Comment

The Responsibilities of Teaching Online

Dawn, From your description, this may be a symptom of our "customer service" orientation in education going beyong its point of usefulness and possibly harming the educational process. We must remember adult learners need flexibility, but they must also meet the requirements of the class. Meeting deadlines is a 'real world' component of many industries and is an important objective of the educational process for those content areas. I'll paste an earlier posting of mine, from another thread, that may be helpful here: Our calling as teachers is to help all students succeed. Life happens to us all. Adult learners… >>>

Dr. S. David Vaillancourt

Discussion Comment

Faculty Expectations

Mohan, Your approach is excellent! The students must be able to count on us to enforce policy in a fair and equitable manner. Setting those expectations up front is critical. Encouragement and reminders are very helpful to many students. Follow through on policy confirms integrity and a secure learning environment. Therefore, policy should be written to provide for exceptions when they are warranted. Very good points, Mohan.

Dr. S. David Vaillancourt

Discussion Comment

Will Online Learning Replace the Traditional Classroom?

Mohan, There are many who agree with your perspective. I definitely agree that human interaction is a significant component in much of the human learning that occurs. Many educational learning theories emphasize the importance of human interaction. Do you think advancements in technology could enhance the interaction to the point where all students could learn in a virtual classroom? (Maybe in 100 years?)

Dr. S. David Vaillancourt

Discussion Comment

The Responsibilities of Teaching Online

Dawn, Your sentiments are in agreement with the general concensus for this thread that instructional responsibilities are approximately the same for f2f and online and that fulfillment is likely to be more difficult for online. Additionally, you point out that the affective (emotional) component may have a stronger positive impact within the 'actual' classroom, especially when it comes to meeting deadlines. I believe this is a valid insight. Do you think there may be ways in which online instructors could be more effective at tapping into that component?

Dr. S. David Vaillancourt

Discussion Comment

Managing Learner Behaviors - 2

Antonio, Excellent guidance for your students! It's like the old riddle/proverb (How do you eat an elephant?-One bite at a time.) Getting them to believe it's doable is a big step for some of them. Helping them get the big "P" (procrastination) out of their academic way can often open a whole new way of life for some. Great academic advising on your part.

End of Content