Abstract
Novice or pre-service teachers are significantly concerned about
delivering successful online learning.
Although an ever-increasing selection of e-learning tools exists, and
processes to deploy them, more initial emphasis should be placed on teacher
preparedness, and identifying the skills needed to achieve the desired learner outcomes. Using technologies with "bells and
whistles" cannot guarantee effective learning. Likewise, effective teaching must include
plans for ongoing professional development, reflection upon one's teaching
strengths and weaknesses as well as a process for identifying and addressing
personal challenges to teaching adults online.
Training in an Online Environment
Teaching online requires faculty development that depends
upon employer and employee-centered responsibilities, which assures that faculty
are trained who use sound educational theory and principles for course
development and delivery (Barker, 2003, p. 278). "Faculty development activities are not
singular or sequential, but involve an ongoing commitment of time and money"
(Barker, 2003, p. 278) by the teaching facility, and the instructor. Because designing and generating an online
faculty training program includes daily changes in technologies (Barker, 2003),
developing faculty and institutional course delivery systems quickly is
critical to successful e-learning. The
Professional Development Plan (PDP) provides such utility.
Professional Development Plan (PDP)
This paper addresses issues relative to
developing a PDP, and includes an assessment of the strengths and
weaknesses that the PDP will take advantage of or resolve. Maximizing the development of
strengths would logically improve the instructor's teaching effectiveness. Furthermore,
consideration of an instructor's specific challenges additionally affects
whether the PDP contains a
complete set of elements that can secure successful learner outcomes. After identifying the
instructor's weaknesses, strengths, and challenges, the process to improve online teaching
effectiveness can be devised. Completing
the Career Development Plan Template is recommended as a first step, which is located at http://www.careers-advice-online.com/support-files/sample-career-development-plan-worksheet.pdf.
Although Knowles, Holton, & Swanson
(2005) offer guidelines to be addressed later for instructors contemplating
professional development, developing a plan to facilitate improvements in some
of their "competencies" (p. 273) appears to list skills that may or
may not materialize (or be applicable) as part of a teaching assignment. That being said, a professional development
plan provided by an employer for an adjunct professor teaching adults online
should impute the following according to Hill (2008): an "effective,
integral and continuous opportunit(y) for professional growth" (p. 174),
which integrates "part-time instructors more fully into the university community,
instills a greater sense of commitment, and maintains consistency and rigor of
teaching and learning" (p. 174).
Likewise, Hewitt and Powers (2007) wrote that university employers
should employ "an increasing understanding of professional development and
teacher mentorship in online environments via theoretical and empirical research grounded in a practical appreciation of assessing
what works in various online settings" (p. 3). Velez (2009) also encouraged a Community of
Practice within online institutions, which gives "online
faculty a place where their stories are shared and their voices are heard"
(par. 7), and imparts an improved connectivity to others who also teach at one's
university.
Hewitt
and Powers (2007) wrote that instructors using "online media to teach and
train are insufficiently or non-optimally prepared for online work settings"
(p. 4) but can "self-select and determine their own readiness for online
instruction—a necessary first step for teaching effectively in online settings"
(p. 8). According to Hewitt and Powers
(2007), learning new technologies is a skill set specific to the
institution. However, additional caveats
include:
Teaching
online involves a deepening knowledge of how students respond to and learn in online settings…(and) requires becoming a student again in the realm of
educational technology—listening to
our inner voices where, as learners in relatively uncharted learning environments, we alternatively
teach others and allow them to teach us. Every encounter
with online teaching and learning thus becomes a sort of informational interview or experiential research project with
the online media, the course work, our own
pedagogies, and—of course—the students and their learning processes. (p. 2)
Kennedy
(2010) reported that the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE)
supports teachers' participation in local and global learning communities to
discover distinctive methods to improve student learning such as by individualizing
and personalizing "activities and
assessments based on students' learning styles as well as promoting student reflection
for deeper, analytical understanding" (Kennedy, 2010, p. 23). When teachers individualize and personalize
instructional strategies, students become engaged with "real-world issues"
(p. 23), and begin thinking outside the box, which results in "authentic,
creative ways to solve problems using digital tools" (p. 23).
Another professional
development plan component could include a pairing with virtual school teachers
at institutions of higher learning such as at the Florida Virtual School, which
uses the pairing within an online learning environment for four to seven weeks
(Kennedy, 2010). The school's objective
is to impart knowledge to pre-service students about how to teach a traditional
class as well as a virtual class (Kennedy, 2010). Teaching standards by the "SREB, iNACOL,
NEA, and ISTE" (Kennedy, 2010, p. 26) make certain that online students'
experiences are focused upon a quality learning experience, and clarifies
future guidelines in order for online instructors to "promote meaningful
learning in online and blended learning environments" (p. 26).
Santovic (2004) wrote that "experiential
learning — specifically having online educators use
online professional development — is successful in changing teaching
practices" (p. 4). Experiential
learning improves instructors' abilities to develop online "time
management strategies,
is more likely to support a virtual practicum, and continues learning and reflecting
on their
practice" (Santovic, 2004, p. 4). Interventions
affecting progressive development for teaching
online includes experience as an online learner, comfortably using technology,
and skill in managing and modifying technologies that appeal to
"one’s personality, content, style and other behavioral characteristics"
(Santovic, 2004, p. 4), all of which enable an online instructor to accept ownership
when using online environments. Santovic
(2004) wrote that schools can educate, inform and expand their visions by
preparing
instructors to teach online by encouraging self-assessment of "beliefs
about teaching and the role of the teacher; providing hands-on learning opportunities;
modeling methods and capabilities of online environment for learning; expanding
the vision of what can be done and displaying the possibilities; and providing
administrative support" (p. 5).
Reflection of Online Teaching: Weaknesses
During the pursuit of three academic
online programs, observations of over 45 instructors' practices provide insight
relative to the issues impacting online teaching. The most surprising and discomfiting component
employed by universities that provide an online education relates to
spoon-feeding curricular materials to instructors. Such materials are chosen by universities to
assure that the learning modules meet with their accrediting agency's
requirements. "For reasons
of…accreditation, it is incumbent upon institutions of higher learning to
support all instructors and nurture a professional learning community" (Hill,
2008, p. 176). Necessitating very little if any course design by instructors, learning
is negatively impacted because the curriculum does not factor in an
instructor's expertise. As reported by
Easton (2003), "the instructor steps into a course that is already
developed, and then the role becomes one similar to the mentor’s" (p. 100). Institutions that design and control
curriculums cause other issues that result in de-motivating learners: using
dated syllabi, textbooks, and e-tools, not fixing broken links, repeating
assignments from course to course, presenting assignments that do not reflect
required textbooks' information, and not using state-of-the-art technologies.
In effect, instructors are not empowered to
change instructional practices as they see fit.
An entire "practice" includes a welcome message to students,
assessment and grading of assignments that often includes prewritten commentary
(rather than being customized to the student), periodic solicited advice, and
posting of a final grade. Such
institutional practices allude to schools that make cakes from scratch, and use
instructors to merely ice the finished products with icing that is already
formulated. Other detractors for online
adjunct teaching include "compensation issues, intellectual
property ownership issues, more work to develop and teach online (which is
possibly counterproductive to professional advancement), technical
difficulties; inadequate training, support, and the addition of new roles"
(Shea, 2007, p. 75).
Reflection of Online Teaching: Strengths
Strengths gained from
online learning include experience interacting with a variety of online
students and instructors, appreciation for the flexibility of online learning,
expanded knowledge base relative to online technologies, and expanded
opportunities for professional recognition and research (Shea, 2007). As noted earlier, Knowles, Holton, &
Swanson (2005) proffered specific competencies that instructors need for
teaching adults. As a non-practicing
online instructor, considering at length the competencies that could be
addressed in a professional development plan was an ambiguous effort. Since completing a Master's in Education with
a specialty in Distance Education, and now being at the conclusion of the
required courses for a doctorate in education with a specialization in
e-learning, an assumption must be made that all of the instructional
competencies noted by Knowles et al. (2005) have to some extent been
gained. Therefore, to devise a
professional development plan to augment the competencies seems secondary to
the greater objective, which is to practice teaching. Every course and university where practice
might be conducted have their own customized systems in place. Therefore, to provide a professional
development plan for competencies that my programs should have provided to me
at some extent carries less value to me than creating a PDP that encompasses
the other subjects addressed in this paper.
To clarify, leveraging the assistance of practicing instructors such
as mentors to increase my network, increasing the monitoring of the many online
job posting sites, and so forth as discussed next, are the components of my PDP
rather than a PDP to heighten competencies in skills that are already
competencies.
Identification and Plan to Address Personal Challenges
Naturally, the PDP must address personal challenges. Two such challenges include not teaching in a
traditional or online classroom, and lacking to date an opportunity to observe
an online class before teaching such a class. A study by Shea (2007) found that
"less experienced online teachers may be more dissuaded by their
unfamiliarity with effective online pedagogy, absence of face-to-face
interaction, lack of opportunity to observe online teaching before trying it,
lack of opportunity to experiment with online technology before adopting it,
and inadequate time to learn about online teaching suggests that future growth
and quality is contingent on the availability of training" (p. 84). Leveraging the assistance of practicing
instructors such as mentors to increase my network, increasing the monitoring
of the many online job posting sites, and increasing activity in other online
teaching social networks will increase my potential in retaining an online
teaching post. Increasing the
possibility of retaining an online teaching position also includes applying for
non-teaching online jobs in the educational field. Retaining such a position even if
under-employed can provide opportunities for employers to use my educational
achievements, 35 years of work experience, and online technical expertise to fill
better positions, and help "less experienced online instructors to
confront the challenges they identify as demotivating" (Shea, 2007, p.
85).
Process to Improve Online
Teaching Effectiveness
Improving effectiveness as an online teacher
refers to improving learning outcomes. Addressing processes to improve
effectiveness requires a review of the latest curriculum and teaching competencies (CTCs). Villar and Alegre (2008)
discussed the knowledge emerging from innovative higher education institutes
relative to teaching educators, who were mostly interested in "accessibility
to grades, online forum discussions and constant and immediate feedback"
(p. 170). Teaching excellence equated with faculty
participating in voluntary CTC courses, which offered collaborative forum discussions
with colleagues, raised sensitivity levels regarding the diversity of learning
approaches, created a positive virtual environment, and helped instructors to
find the "deep meaning behind learning to teach" (Villar &
Alegre, 2008, p. 179).
Glahn and Gen (2002)
recommended that the next step needed
to improve student achievement
is the "development,
implementation, and refinement of collaborative learning, learning communities,
and individual learning strategies" (p. 777). Progenies from technological
innovations, and traditional practices in education is pushing educators and
administrators to relook at course design and delivery. Many of the "contemporary enterprise
solutions for online course management" (Glahn & Gen, 2002, p. 777)
have resulted in a variety of teaching instruments becoming standardized. As the
"current ad hoc nature of process innovation gives way to an emphasis in
structure, best practices, and the codification of those practices, the online
teaching delivery systems will become more rigid and their operation will
become formalized and universal" (Glahn & Gen, 2002, p. 777). Consequently, an online instructor's challenge
is to create better uses of existing e-tools as a means to understand, and
create process innovations that focus on andragogical instructional practices
(Glahn & Gen, 2002). Teaching online
converts to spaces for social interactions, and shared learning. Another technique to improve online teaching
effectiveness involves the "Just-in-Time" concept that requires
participants to perform pre-class activities, which increases student
preparedness for upcoming classes, and teacher preparedness due to student
feedback (Glahn & Gen, 2002).
Hill
(2008) suggested instructors improve teaching effectiveness by undergoing online
seminars, and taking advantage of professional development websites, which preserves
reliability and rigidity in student learning outcomes as gains are made in
improved teaching materials and resources as well as explicit, specialized
expertise. As Hill (2008) explains,
full-time faculty members develop the curriculums, maintain courses, and
oversee participants' work, which includes:
Focused
asynchronous discussion forums about university policies, curricular changes and developments, teaching adult
learners, online instructional methodologies, onsite classroom strategies and activities, or other issues
specifically related to the course content
or assignments. The asynchronous nature
of the discussions provides more consistent
opportunities for participation, for
revisiting previous postings, deeper levels of
reflection, access to a broader spectrum of ideas, more concrete connections to
theory and practice, and more
ways for the facilitators to model higher order responses and offer clarification. (p. 181)
Retaining
an online adjunct teaching position in the future, and being successful at
achieving effectiveness in teaching, should come after a sense of collegiality
with the potential employer is demonstrated.
When universities deliver a "sense of
belonging, and a sense of collegiality with the university and other faculty"
(Velez, 2009, par. 2), involve "faculty in academic decisions, and recognize
them in some way for a job well done" (par. 2), which is a challenge for virtual
universities, an instructor gains a supportive system. Supporting faculty gains a strong
infrastructure that enables instructors to teach effectively.
Conclusion
Effective
and successful online teaching requires several considerations. This paper addressed issues
relative to not only developing a PDP but also included a preliminary assessment of the
strengths and weaknesses that a PDP would advantageously take advantage of or
resolve. Maximizing the development of
strengths would logically improve the instructor's
teaching effectiveness. Accepting a
personal responsibility for self-development should remain at the
forefront for pre-service and practicing instructors. Furthermore, a careful consideration, and
ongoing reconsideration, of an instructor's specific challenges additionally affects whether a
PDP encapsulates a complete portfolio of all factors that can affect achieving successful learner outcomes. "Success on any
major scale requires you to accept responsibility . . . . In the final analysis, the one
quality that all successful people have is the ability to take on responsibility" (Korda, 1977, p.
14).
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