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Higher education faculty have many responsibilities, with teaching as arguably the most public of those yet also the task for which many are least prepared. Professional development around teaching and learning can provide faculty with the knowledge and skills needed to improve student learning while also improving job satisfaction. The present paper describes the use of faculty learning communities as a best practice for professional development around teaching. Such communities engage a group of participants over time and provide a way to impart knowledge and resources around teaching and learning, encourage application of new skills in the classroom, and evaluate and refect on the effectiveness of those trials. Research shows that time spent in faculty learning communities translates into improvements in both teaching effectiveness and student learning. Resources are provided for administrators interested in developing and supporting faculty learning communities around teaching and learning.

The purpose of this paper is to describe the precursors to and development of the School of Kinesiology's portal, which is used to deliver multimedia content to the approximately 7,000 students annually enrolled in physical activity and wellness program courses. Grounded in research, the paper addresses the initial rationale for changing the physical activity program focus, the implementation of a new delivery system of course content, and the benefits to students and instructors that have been realized. Research possibilities are also outlined. The paper concludes with an examination of issues that faculty at other institutions might consider when developing an online component within their physical activity and wellness programs.

Many universities have limited resources yet aim to provide worthy learning opportunities to their students. This goal can be met through the offering of alternative delivery methods and service learning. Alternative delivery methods have evolved as technology has advanced. This paper addresses the benefits of blended learning for students, faculty, and universities. Through an institutional grant emphasizing innovative teaching strategies, the authors explain how a kinesiology course that includes service learning was transformed from a face-to-face class to a blended learning environment. Two flagship assignments are explained and comments from students are shared.

The purpose of this article is to provide background information related to the development of the 2014 American Kinesiology Association (AKA) Leadership Workshop titled “The Future of Teaching and Learning in an Online World”. A brief description of online education is provided, along with a synopsis of the advantages and challenges confronting instructors and administrators in institutions of higher education who are increasingly implementing this form of instruction. An overview of the articles included in this special issue is also provided.

The rapid growth of technology allows tertiary-level education to develop alternative ways of instruction to effectively support student learning. Although a face-to-face class is still powerful, online learning has been advocated as an innovative instructional way to confront constraints such as distance, time, space, and diverse student characteristics. This article introduces a brief overview of online threaded discussion (OTD) in a blended course in physical education teacher education (PETE), and provides insights into how to effectively design, manage, and teach online courses. In particular, contextual information that relates to a specific university, PETE program, course, and students are discussed in this article. Second, the blended model and OTD implemented by the authors are introduced. Finally, the article discusses the blended model's contributions, issues, and strategies, and provides implications for physical educators to improve their online courses in higher education settings.

At many institutions introductory exercise physiology courses are required for all kinesiology students. The laboratory portion of these courses usually involves development of knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSAs) connected with content presented in lecture. Due to scalability issues, the Kinesiology Department at California State University Monterey Bay cannot offer traditional laboratory experiences. Therefore, online and hybrid laboratory experiences were created to provide similar opportunities for students, address scalability issues, and enhance student engagement and learning. Creation of these carefully crafted laboratory experiences allowed instructors to (a) highlight and explain key foundational principles, (b) provide experiences involving practical application of material presented in lecture, and (c) present students with additional learning experiences while maintaining high learner expectations. The following article outlines the process used to create these virtual laboratory experiences for students in an undergraduate introductory exercise physiology course.

A framework to advance and sustain the American Kinesiology Association community's capabilities to put educational innovations into practice through the use of MERLOT's open educational services and resources (www.merlot.org) is presented through the metaphor of a folk tale, Stone Soup. The American Kinesiology Association can use MERLOT's free and open library services to build a quality collection of peer-reviewed instructional materials in kinesiology, design a custom “teaching commons” website for their community to share exemplary practices, use MERLOT Voices online community platform to enable asynchronous discussions and collaborations, and create new open educational resources with MERLOT's Content Builder tool. Leveraging the California State University's Course Redesign with Technology program and the Quality Online Learning and Teaching (QOLT) project can become part of the American Kinesiology Association's strategy as well.

Administrators of kinesiology departments (N = 101) completed a survey that requested information about online education, funding for online courses, and administrator perceptions of the rigor and future of online courses. More master's (n = 18) than undergraduate degree (n = 9) programs were totally online. Forty-nine percent of institutions provide funding to faculty and 37% provide funding to departments for online offerings. Respondents indicated concern about the rigor of online courses. Sixty-one percent indicated that academic rigor is a concern of faculty, 42% did not feel that totally online courses were as rigorous as face-to-face classes, and 65% indicated tests for online courses are not proctored. Despite concerns, 76% indicated they expect to have some or many online courses in the next 5-10 years. Few respondents indicated they expected to have no online courses or almost totally online delivery of courses. Online delivery of instruction is impacting kinesiology, and expansion of online education is likely.

In this paper, we ethically examine the value of dichotomies to the endurance community or any sports community bifurcated by attitudes of superiority in one qualitative method of experiencing an activity over another—as Pearl Izumi's 2007 advertising campaign “We are not joggers” has done by dividing the bipedal ambulatory endurance community into “runners” and “joggers.” Using the writings of American pragmatists William James and John Dewey, we will describe the endurance sports community in terms of “unsympathetic characters” and “sympathetic characters.” We will then layer conceptions of the “static” self and the “dynamic” self on top of this dichotomy. The results of this examination will not support Pearl Izumi's dichotomy in “static” ways. However, if these perspectives are viewed as exemplifying a temporal measure of the “dynamic” self, as part of the endurance athletes' personal narratives, then actions and attitudes based on these dichotomies can be seen as part of meaningful personal and community growth as well as a potential source of virtue.