At the Troublesome Edge of Recognising Threshold Concepts of Online Teaching

2019 ◽  
pp. 19-36
2019 ◽  
Vol 23 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria Northcote ◽  
Kevin P Gosselin ◽  
Peter Kilgour ◽  
Daniel Reynaud ◽  
Catherine McLoughlin

The professional development of online teachers is now commonplace in most universities. Alongside the relatively straightforward decision to provide professional learning support for novice and experienced online educators within universities, decisions about the nature and content of such support are not always as clear cut. The study aimed to gather evidence about the experiences and views of current students and staff which, in turn, informed a set of pedagogical guidelines that could be used as the basis of professional learning programs for novice online teachers. Using a mixed methods research design, data were gathered using questionnaires, reflective journals and focus groups to determine the threshold concepts about online teaching, and perceptions of ideal online learning contexts. As well as identifying threshold concepts about online teaching and perceptions of teachers’ and students’ ideal views of online learning contexts (reported elsewhere), the study produced curricular guidelines to inform the design of professional development outputs for online teachers in higher education contexts. This article reports on an example of how these professional development guidelines were implemented at one higher education institution to provide wide-scale implementation of a professional development program for academic staff engaged in online teaching.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Darci Taylor ◽  
Joanne Elliott

Professional development (PD) is essential to support teachers to transition to online teaching, yet there are few evidence-based guidelines to assist those designing PD to determine both its content and structure. This paper provides an example of the design of an evidence-based PD resource that drew on Kilgour et al.’s (2019) threshold concepts, Northcote et al.’s (2019) pedagogical guidelines for PD and various institutional inputs as a form of evidence. By combining these sets of evidence, the resource was designed to support teachers to develop skills for online teaching that was both evidence-based, and tailored to the educational context and needs of staff. The paper adds to the literature by providing those developing PD with an example of how institutional inputs can be combined with scholarly research to develop an evidence-based PD program that was readily adaptable to support staff teaching online during the COVID-19 pandemic.


2016 ◽  
Vol 20 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Kevin P Gosselin ◽  
Maria Northcote ◽  
Daniel Reynaud ◽  
Peter Kilgour ◽  
Malcolm Anderson ◽  
...  

As online education continues to expand across varied educational sectors, so does the demand for professional development programs to guide academic teaching staff through the processes of developing their capacities to design and teach online courses. To meet these challenges at one higher education institution, a mixed methods research study was implemented to identify the professional learning needs of academic teaching staff for the purposes of developing a tailor-made professional development program. The principles of self-efficacy and threshold concepts were used to inform the design of the study. Data were systematically gathered from the participants to determine self-efficacy, concerns, and questions and experiences of academic teaching staff with online teaching. Findings revealed that academic staff held threshold concepts, skills and attitudes about online teaching. Three groups of staff were identified, all with varying forms of professional development requirements. This case study account demonstrates how an evidence-based project provided the basis for a research-informed institutional professional development program that is currently guiding academic staff through their development as online course designers and teachers.


2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 52-60
Author(s):  
Robin Hailstorks ◽  
Karen E. Stamm ◽  
John C. Norcross ◽  
Rory A. Pfund ◽  
Peggy Christidis

2012 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Paula Mae Bigatel ◽  
Lawrence C. Ragan ◽  
Shannon Kennan ◽  
Janet May ◽  
Brian F. Redmond

This exploratory study examined teaching behaviors, attitudes, and beliefs (referred to as tasks) that reflect potential competencies for online teaching success. In this study, teaching tasks are those tasks performed during course delivery. Based on faculty interviews and a review of relevant research, 64 teaching tasks were identified and included in 7-point Likert scale survey instrument. It was distributed to experienced online faculty and staff asking them to rate the level of importance of a list of teaching tasks and resulted in a sample of 197 responses. Of interest was the fact that over half of the teaching tasks had a rating of 6.0 on the 7-point scale and more than half of the tasks that were rated 6.0 or higher did not load into categories using factor analysis. Further examination of the results is required to determine why highly rated teaching tasks did not fall (load onto) into any factor. Results of the importance of the tasks will form the basis of faculty development efforts aimed at providing faculty with professional development in critical competencies to ensure online teaching success.


Author(s):  
Jialu Chen ◽  
Yingxiao Han ◽  
An Li

In recent years, with the development of society and the progress of science and technology, online learning has penetrated into people's daily life, and people's demand for high-quality curriculum products is more and more strong. From a macro perspective, the continuous growth of national financial investment in education, the continuous upgrading of China's consumption structure, the development of 5G technology and the popularization of AI intelligence make online teaching less limited. The online education industry is showing an explosive growth trend. More and more online education institutions are listed for financing, and the market value is soaring. However, in 2019, except for GSX, the latest online learning platforms such as New Oriental, Speak English Fluently and Sunlands, have been in a state of loss. Most of these agencies seize the market by increasing advertising investment, but at the same time, they also bring huge marketing costs, which affect the financial performance of the company. With the enhancement of Matthew effect, large-scale educational institutions occupy a large market through free classes and low-price classes, while small and medium-sized institutions with weak capital strength are often unable to afford high sales costs, facing the risk of capital chain rupture. Taking new Oriental online as an example, this paper analyzes the problems existing in the marketing strategies of online education institutions. It also puts forward suggestions on four aspects, which are target market, differentiated value, marketing mix and marketing mode, so as to make sure that online education institutions can control marketing expenses and achieve profits by improving course quality, expanding marketing channels and implementing precise positioning.


2020 ◽  
Vol 58 (4) ◽  
pp. 151-180
Author(s):  
Hyeon-Ju Choi ◽  
Il-Soo Park ◽  
Yang-Hwan Sol ◽  
Moon-Sun Ha

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