Many online instructors have not taken many online classes as students. This is certain to change over time. But at this point, most faculty teaching online have not experienced “the apprenticeship of observation,” a phrase first coined in 1975 by Dan Lortie. The 2002 second edition of his book Schoolteacher describes the unique experience found in the teaching profession (Lortie, 2002, p. 61). Lortie
