Bullying. This term evokes images of an angry confrontation in the schoolyard.
Extensive research exists on student-to-student bullying in school environments. The online classroom presents unique risk factors that increase the likelihood of such bullying behaviors among students.

But what if the online teacher is the target of student bullying? This form of bullying has been less studied. Yet its existence compromises the goals of a safe classroom environment as well as the opportunity to forge positive teacher-learner communication.

This virtual presentation will address online faculty bullying by students, including risk factors and proactive steps faculty can take to prevent it.

It will begin with the increasing phenomenon of workplace bullying in general, as well as some misunderstandings regarding the actual legal status of such bullying. Workplace bullying targets may assume it is currently illegal in the United States, when in fact no nationwide legal protections exist against it.

Next, the negative consequences of workplace bullying will be identified. Bullying affects the physical and mental well-being of the targeted individuals. However, concurrent damage is done to the organization, especially if bullying behaviors continue unabated.

The recent pandemic necessitated a shift of organizational operations, including educational institutions, to online settings. Virtual schools existed even prior to COVID-19 and continue to flourish. This online environment has unfortunately become a breeding ground for cyberbullying. As mentioned earlier, we may initially think of cyberbullying as harassment of one student by another using virtual means. Cyberbullying will be explored, including trigger factors that can fuel its prevalence. They include the greater ease of hiding behind a computer screen instead of communicating face to face. This anonymity, also called the toxic disinhibition effect, facilitates being discourteous and disrespectful to the other party. Disagreements can also quickly devolve into name calling and attacks when done from behind the protection of that computer screen.

Some trigger factors that increase the likelihood of bullying by students will be identified. One trigger is the consumer model of education, where students see themselves as paying customers entitled to get what they want. This factor is coupled with a general decline in civility of communication. Furthermore, some students confuse effort with performance (“but I worked so hard on this paper, so it deserves a top grade”). Disappointment can manifest in angry emails and escalation of student concerns to administrators.

Why are these risk factors especially concerning for online faculty? The increasingly bleak job market for online professors means bullied faculty members thinking they must tolerate it to keep their jobs out of fear of student dissatisfaction being escalated to administrators who determine future teaching assignments. “I’ve just got to take it” is an inevitable reaction.

What can bullied online faculty do? Proactive steps include initiating problem-solving meetings with the student with a trusted observer. They can also apply school policies on safe classroom climate and codes of conduct. They can also lobby for change, such as strengthening school policies or for overall workplace legislation. Above all, faculty should put an isolated bullying incident in overall perspective, refusing to let it define their overall competence.

Keywords: Education, technology, online teaching and learning, cyberbullying.