Virtual Academy for Teaching and Learning

Now in its twenty-second year of publication, Online Learning (OLJ) continues to provide scholars, practitioners, administrators, students, and policymakers with rigorous, peer-reviewed research in the field. Published quarterly, “the journal promotes the development and dissemination of new knowledge at the intersection of pedagogy, emerging technology, policy and practice in online environments.” (Online Learning Consortium, 2016). Oftentimes the publication schedule includes special issues that focus on pertinent topics in the field such as learning analytics, accessibility, and k-12 online learning, along with the annual conference edition which features papers from selected presentations at OLC conferences over the course of the given year. More recently, Online Learning has partnered with the American Education Research Association’s (AERA) Special Interest Group, Online Teaching & Learning, to publish a special issue that features the top SIG papers presented at the annual AERA conference.

In the past five years, the journal has undergone a name change (formerly the Journal of Asynchronous Learning Networks), a merger with the Journal for Online Learning and Teaching (JOLT), the flagship publication of the Multimedia Educational Resource for Learning and Online Teaching (MERLOT), and an expansion of the editorial board, including editor-in-chief Dr. Peter Shea, who continues to act in this role. Other members of the editorial board have a broad range of expertise in online, blended, and digital education which brings me to the focus of this eBook. Many of the Online Learning editorial board members are Routledge authors and, when we look at our great Online Learning Consortium (OLC) community of members, volunteers, and friends, we have additional Routledge authors in common. This eBook is a collection of the work of Online Learning editorial board members and OLC community members sourced from recent Routledge book publications.