The Joyful Online Teacher with Flower Darby

About this episode

Flower Darby discusses the importance of joy in online teaching and shares insights on effective teaching strategies.

Flower Darby shares about being a joyful online teacher on episode 620 of the Teaching in Higher Ed podcast. Quotes from the episode Higher education doesn’t do a great job of preparing faculty to teach, generally speaking, that’s not new, but especially online teaching. -Flower Darby If you’re not a meme person, don’t do that. Something that isn’t authentic to your personality is not going to be effective. -Flower Darby Sometimes you don’t need all the latest bells and whistles; you don’t need the latest iPhone. We can be effective with simpler tools. -Flower Darby We can’t be joyful if we’re always working. -Flower Darby Resources The Joyful Online Teacher: Finding Our Fizz in Asynchronous Classes by Flower Darby Michelle Pacansky-Brock The Spark of Learning: Energizing the College Classroom with the Science of Emotion, by Sarah Rose Cavanagh Dave Ghidiu Denise Maduli-Williams TextExpander Thor: God of Thunder gets a library card A Starting Point for Seth Godin’s Blog Feel Good Inc., by Gorillaz Muddiest Point Handout from Purdue Revitalizing the Muddiest Point for Formative Assessment and Student Engagement in a Large Class, by Amy Mackos, Kelly Casler…

People in this episode

Host: Bonni Stachowiak

Guest: Flower Darby

Topics covered

• online teaching
• faculty preparation
• joy in teaching
• asynchronous classes
• educational resources
• student engagement

Keywords

• online teaching
• joyful teaching
• faculty development
• asynchronous learning
• educational tools
• student engagement
• teaching resources

Mentioned in this episode

Products: TextExpander, Poll Everywhere

Books & works: The Joyful Online Teacher: Finding Our Fizz in Asynchronous Classes, The Spark of Learning: Energizing the College Classroom with the Science of Emotion, Feel Good Inc., Muddiest Point Handout, Revitalizing the Muddiest Point for Formative Assessment and Student Engagement in a Large Class

More episodes of Teaching in Higher Ed

• Naming the Urgency: Trauma-Informed Practices in Higher Ed · June 11, 2026 · 48 min
• Teaching Solidarity: Critical Race Reading with Malini Johar Schueller · June 4, 2026 · 28 min
• How to Engage Learners in Online Courses with Denise Maduli-Williams · May 28, 2026 · 39 min
• Can’t Stop, Won’t Stop: Teaching with AI Tools with Rebecca Fordon · May 21, 2026 · 45 min
• Why Mattering Matters with Jennifer Wallace · May 14, 2026 · 41 min
• The Public Scholar with David Perry · May 7, 2026 · 42 min