"Never has the conversation on how to enact equity-based online teaching and learning been more critical than during the current COVID-19 pandemic. The crisis forced a dramatic shift to online teaching for faculty and other higher education instructors, who often possessed only minimal training and limited (or no) prior experience teaching online. The particularly timely book Advancing Online Teaching: Creating Equity-based Digital Learning Environments, by Kevin Kelly and Todd Zakrajsek, provides a foundation on which to develop and deliver equity-focused online courses during and long after the COVID-19 disruptions to higher education. As part of the Excellent Teacher Series, the aim of this book is to provide instructional resources for higher education faculty. Specifically, Advancing Online Teaching accomplishes this aim by centering the discussion of online learning around topics of inclusivity, equitability, and compassion, with recommendations grounded within prior research and frameworks on universal design, design for equity, and human connections. Advancing Online Teaching provides a helpful framework for designing and teaching online courses equitably. One of the notable strengths of the book is the ability to connect and speak to online instruction during COVID-19 due to its publication timeline. Although the focus of the book is the use of online instructional tools, much of the content covered also describes best practices that transcend the virtual education space and are equally applicable to a more traditional, face-to-face context.
For this reason, newer higher education faculty or instructors are likely to find the insights in this book most helpful, although more experienced educators new to online teaching and/or those looking to refine existing online courses may also benefit. [This book] fully accomplishes the authors' goal of providing a solid framework for designing and teaching a quality, equity-based online course. In conclusion, Advancing Online Teaching is a timely, relevant book that many--most notably new online higher education faculty--will find a welcome addition to their reading lists and office libraries.".