In the Forward, Brent Muirhead provides an effective summary for this collection of contributions on the critical role that communication, teacher-student interaction, and systematic assessment play in successful online classes,

I am convinced that a key ingredient in assessment is communicationeffective communication between teacher and students is essential to sophisticated learning experiences and a vital factor that helps learners successfully negotiate online classes.

Patricia Comeaux has developed the book around the question, "How do we assess online learning?" In any area of teaching today, assessment is seen as an essential process to assure that educational outcomes are being achieved effectively and efficiently. While assessment is not new to faculty, many believe that online settings require different assessment strategies. One of the strengths of the different contributing authors' perspectives is that while they are framed in an online environment, they can be applied in any teaching setting. They demonstrate a fundamental commitment to student-centered teaching and learning and a constructivist approach to knowledge development.

Developing a repository of assessment experiences for faculty in the online setting, the contributing authors have shared their assumptions, processes and practices, and evaluation. This provides the background thinking and associated mental models as well as some of the practical tools that they used to develop their assessments. Each author provides valuable insights and offers the opportunity for other teachers to build on their experiences. These insights are not limited to teachers. Others in the academic community would benefit from seeing specifically how a faculty member thinks through the process of assessment in an explicit, systematic way. The material in this book could be used to foster conversations about assessment within and across disciplines.

Communication is fundamental to any teaching endeavor. Ideally, collaboration joins effective communication to create effective learning environments. This is true whether the learning space is brick and mortar or virtual. Comeaux et. al. suggest that in order to achieve the benefits that technology can offer for teaching and learning, we need to understand the communication issues that technology surfaces in human interaction. This compilation of experiences with technology in teaching and learning has, as a focus, communication and collaboration. Collaboration is one area of interaction where communication and technology issues intersect the preparation to teach, the act of teaching, and the evaluation of teaching and learning effectiveness. It is in these areas that the authors describe their experiences in the context of communication theories.

The authors share challenges, benefits and lessons learned from developing programs, creating and teaching courses, and teaching as visiting faculty. The purpose is to provide faculty, graduate students, administrators, and scholars in higher education with real experiences across disciplines (including Computer Science, Cultural Studies, English, Education, Business, Statistics, and Italian). One of the strengths of the book is the wide span of experience and disciplines from which the authors have come together to share their stories and analysis of those experiences.

Comeaux begins the text with a brief review of the literature relevant to communication, education, instructional technology, and distance education related to collaboration via interactive technology. The contributing authors responded to the following question in each chapter: "How have interactive technologies affected teaching and learning in institutions of higher education?" Dividing the chapters into three sections, the authors first address program development. Case studies offer insights gained from collaborating within departments and with key stakeholders in the community and explore issues such as managing detractors, facilitating effective project management, and creating dialogues around teaching and learning.

The second section focuses on collaboration in course design and teaching as visiting faculty in online courses. Benefits of collaboration as visiting faculty are described and demonstrate the value of interactive technologies in enhancing the learning environment through opportunities such as providing content and experiences that the primary course faculty do not have access to. Collaboration in preparing for course content and teaching strategies is seen as paying big dividends even though navigation and negotiation via unfamiliar or, sometimes, unavailable technology is problematic.
 
The third section deals with the development of learning communities. In a sense, this last section brings together the essence of communication and collaboration as faculty worked to create cohesive learning communities using interactive technologies. Practical issues like sizes of groups, availability of resources, and time management are explored. Interestingly, these are the same fundamental issues in face-to-face environments. Effective teamwork aimed at a common objective seemed to create similar challenges for this set of faculty. The lessons learned in this section provide a rich source of areas to focus on proactively by anyone attempting to create online learning communities.

In the final chapter, Comeaux argues that the authors supported and extended the themes identified in the Introduction; dialogues about teaching and learning with interactive technologies are increasing and being supported by key stakeholders in the teaching-learning community; teaching is "a complex communicative process"; collaborative learning occurs in both traditional and online classrooms; and collaborative learning is a viable approach in interactive environments. She notes that as we gain experiences in online or virtual environments our language will better reflect the key foci for understanding teaching and learning and it will, in all likelihood, not be on the particular space where instruction occurs. Rather, the focus will be, as this book has demonstrated, on communication and collaboration between all of the players in the teaching-learning environment.

This book adds to our understanding of teaching via interactive technologies by providing faculty experiences that they have analyzed for risks and benefits in developing, providing and evaluating teaching via interactive technologies. For faculty developers, the cases can provide starting points for faculty or groups of faculty and administrators interested in using interactive technologies. For those interested in the use of interactive technologies framed within the context of communication and collaboration, the cases and faculty experiences provide a means of surfacing, exploring, validating their assumptions, and experiences in online environments.

I found the book to be an interesting read. Practically speaking, the case studies are relatively short and organized in a way that it was easy to follow the case description and subsequent analysis. This arrangement allowed me to read the sections quickly taking about eight hours to read the book. The breadth of faculty experience and expertise provided a rounded view of some of the challenges that faculty face at different times in their own growth and development as teachers.

I would recommend the book to faculty, administrators and faculty developers as a useful starting place for exploring how they use the notions of communication and collaboration in their classrooms. The cases could be effectively used to start the discussion and dialogue among faculty.

Donna W Bailey
UNC Chapel Hill