At present, the integration of online technologies in educational practice is providing new opportunities for teaching and learning, it is known that instructors who have taught fully online courses have acquired new skills and have had the opportunity to implement novel pedagogical practices in the online environment. However, it is unclear if direct exposure to fully online teaching helps in the integration of technology in the classroom, and no previous research study has explored if this direct experience in online teaching plays a role in the transfer of new pedagogical practices to the face-to-face course. The purpose of this study was to examine how online teaching experience may influence upcoming classroom teaching practices. This research study followed a qualitative research design, more specifically it was a collective case study that included the participation of four faculty members who had taught online and face-to-face for over ten years. The results of the study showed that (a) the experience acquired in online teaching influenced the instructors' perceptions and understanding of online learning, and (b) the transfer of pedagogical strategies back to the classroom will depend on different factors besides the experience of teaching online. Those factors include the instructors' teaching style, their satisfaction working in the online environment, and the similarity of content and context between the online and the face-to-face courses. The results from this study have the potential to inform innovations in faculty training and development, and to encourage further research in this area.
