Leadership and Distance Learning

Author(s):  
Don S. Stumpf

Distance learning programs have influenced nearly all aspects of higher education. Extended campus locations at many colleges and universities have been assigned administrative responsibility for distance learning programs. The merger of these highly visible programs creates an educational leadership paradigm shift that draws attention to itself. This merger requires a re-evaluation of the current educational leadership practices associated with efficient operation of the extended campus location.

NASPA Journal ◽  
2003 ◽  
Vol 40 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Joan B Hirt ◽  
Darrell Cain ◽  
Brad Bryant ◽  
Eric Williams

As colleges and universities develop distance learning programs, administrators have scrambled to provide on-line services for distance learners. But do learners need such services? The present study examined how important services were for distance learners and how satisfied they were with the services provided to them. Data were collected through a national on-line survey and threaded discussion. Results revealed that services overall were not particularly important to participants, though there were significant differences by age and class status.


2003 ◽  
pp. 1-20 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joseph Barjis

This chapter provides an overview of virtual university studies pertaining to issues, concepts and trends. Although numerous papers, reports and booklets are published with respect to that, there is still lack of an overview of virtual universities. In this chapter, the author tries to draw basic directions of the virtual university studies and developments. These basic directions grasp virtual universities’ issues, concepts and trends in general, model, definition and basic characteristics of virtual universities in particular. The author goes on giving some educational and financial features of future higher education. It is discussed that virtual universities and distance learning are currently lacking in some areas that need to be paid attention to in the future. The chapter concludes with some recommendations for the future designers of virtual universities and distance learning programs.


Author(s):  
Claire Sinnema ◽  
Larry Ludlow ◽  
Viviane Robinson

Purpose The purposes of this study are, firstly, to establish the psychometric properties of the ELP tool, and, secondly, to test, using a Rasch item response theory analysis, the hypothesized progression of challenge presented by the items included in the tool. Design/methodology/approach Data were collected at two time points through a survey of the educational leadership practices of school principals (n = 148) and their teachers (n = 5,425). The survey comprised seven effectiveness scales relating to school-wide dimensions of leadership, and one scale relating to the effectiveness of individual principals’ leadership. We undertook validation of the hypothesized structure of the eight ELP scales using the Rasch rating scale model. Findings We established constructs that underpin leadership practices that are more and less effectively performed and determined the nature of their progression from those that are relatively routine through those that are more rigorous and challenging to enact. Furthermore, a series of analyses suggest strong goodness-of-model fit, unidimensionality, and invariance across time and educator group for the eight ELP scales Research limitations/implications This study focused on experienced principals - future studies could usefully include school leaders who are new to their role or compare leadership patterns of higher and lower performing schools. A useful future direction would be to investigate the predictive validity of the ELP tool. Practical implications Originality/value This study reveals the ELP is a useful tool both for diagnosing leadership effectiveness and, given that it is essentially stable over time, may prove useful for charting the effectiveness of leadership development interventions.


2018 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 160940691881640 ◽  
Author(s):  
Markus Ammann

Research on the link between educational leadership and student learning employs a variety of quantitative and qualitative research designs. Surprisingly, there are relatively few studies on methods for researching educational leadership practices. This article addresses this gap in research and discusses how the experiences of different participants can constitute potential starting points for learning processes. This leads to the question, how and to what extent the educational leadership practices manifest in students’ experiences and how “Leadership for Learning as Experience” can be empirically researched. The phenomenologically oriented vignette as research method for studying educational leadership practices will be introduced. Vignettes are narratives that are based on the experiences of participants. In vignettes, the co-experienced observations in the field are captured in form of vivid narratives. Vignettes thus open up a new, supplementary perspective, in which the traces that leadership practices have left on school participants are revealed.


2016 ◽  
Vol 45 (3) ◽  
pp. 402-418 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Grootenboer ◽  
Ian Hardy

The importance of leadership for improving educational outcomes in schools has been widely promoted. However, the nature of leadership practices, in context, has received less attention in the educational leadership literature. In this article, we present a case study of the specific leadership practices that developed in one school site serving the learning needs of students in a complex, diverse, low socio-economic community in south-east Queensland, Australia. Rather than focusing on the person/role of ‘the leader’, or various leadership qualities/traits, we examine the nature and particularity of the leadership practices as praxis, across a variety of roles and dispositions, as developed within the school. To help make sense of the praxis and particularity of educational leadership practices, we draw upon recent neo-Aristotelian practice theory to reveal the specific actions (‘doings’), dialogue (‘sayings’) and relationships (‘relatings’), which constituted leadership-in-practice, as praxis. These ‘doing’, ‘sayings’ and ‘relatings’ for praxis were evident in: formal leadership practices responsive to the context and history of the particular school site; formal and informal leadership practices involved in establishing a ‘leadership group’ within the school to address students’ needs, and; and informal leadership practices focused on cultivating teacher learning for student learning. Such an approach does not simply reinforce sedimented notions of what constitutes ‘educational leadership’, but sheds new light upon the nature of ‘leading practices for praxis’.


Author(s):  
Faisal Al-Jarrah

This study aimed at overcoming the obstacles of implementing educational leadership standards in the distance learning program in light of Corona pandemic from the school principals’ point of view in the Directorate of Education of the Northern Mazar District / Jordan. To achieve the aims of the study, the researcher purposefully selected the research sample (44 principals) in the Directorate of Education of the Northern Mazar. The descriptive-analytical approach was used. The study emphasized the importance of implementing the educational leadership standards by school principals in the Directorate of Education of the Northern Mazar. Moreover, the study revealed that there were no statistically significant differences at (α ≤ 5.0) between the responses of the study sample in the practice of school principals to the following educational leadership standards: leading the development of the school, the directorate development program, the community school. In addition, the study concluded that the leadership in the educational system is based on standards in the Directorate of Education of the Northern Mazar in the distance learning program according to the Gender variable. The study recommended that the standards of educational leadership should be implemented in distance learning programs, as an advanced technological system, to meet the challenges of the educational process. Keywords: Standards, educational leadership, obstacles, distance education program, school principals


Author(s):  
Michael B. Cahapay

The school principals play a pivotal role in leading educational institutions. Their lived experience as educational leaders in the context of a virulent crisis, however, is largely unexplored. This paper sought to discover the essence of educational leadership practices of school principals in the context of the current COVID-19 crisis. Following phenomenology as a research design, the researcher explored the world of six Filipino school principals through interview procedures. The analysis method developed by Colaizzi (1978) was used. The results revealed six emerging themes of educational leadership practices during a crisis as follows: 1.) navigating the crisis with adaptive leadership; 2.) cultivating practices in crisis management; 3.) managing through the machine; 4.) freezing the standards and patterns; 5.) promoting inclusivity in the new normal, and 6.) caring first for what is essential. These themes form the basis of the description and structure of the phenomenon offered at the end of the paper. Considering the present scarcity of knowledge on how school principals respond in times of crisis, this paper provides insights into educational leadership practices within the context of the COVID-19 situation


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