scholarly journals The Lived Experience of Online Educators: Insights from Construction Management

2015 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 49-62
Author(s):  
Willy Sher ◽  
Anthony Williams ◽  
Maria Northcote
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Professional Development ◽  
Online Education ◽  
Lived Experience ◽  
Construction Management ◽  
Online Teaching ◽  
Course Design ◽  
Online Courses ◽  
Research Approach ◽  
Conflicting Demands

Academics in higher education institutions often experience the conflicting demands of teaching, research and administration. With the growth of online education these staff are frequently required to design, develop, teach, facilitate and, in some cases, administer online courses. Cumulatively these additional tasks challenge academics, not only in terms of the personal professional development but also in accommodating the range of tasks expected of them. This paper reports the findings of a study which investigated the lived experience of construction management academics teaching at universities in Australia. The study adopted a lived experience research approach that enabled the lives of construction management academics to be investigated through the collection of a mixture of qualitative and quantitative data. The study provides empirical evidence of a range of challenges facing those delivering online courses. Recommendations for online teachers and online course designers emerged from this study with application to both faculty-based and institution-wide practices. The findings are relevant to those in the higher education sector who are involved in online teaching, course design for online delivery and professional development related to online initiatives.

Taking a Hard Look at the Soft Skills of Online Course Design and Online Teaching in Higher Education

2017 ◽  
pp. 158-181
Author(s):  
Kevin P. Gosselin ◽  
Maria Northcote ◽  
Kristi D. Wuensche ◽  
Trudy Stoddard
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Online Learning ◽  
Online Education ◽  
Online Teaching ◽  
Course Design ◽  
Soft Skills ◽  
Online Course ◽  
Online Course Design ◽  
Post Secondary ◽  
Online Educators

Over the past few decades, substantial growth has occurred in online education in general, and this has been particularly true of the higher education sector. Most universities and post-secondary institutions now offer students the opportunity to enroll in online pre-tertiary, vocational, undergraduate and/or postgraduate courses. While some of these courses are successful for the learners who enroll in them, others have been found somewhat deficient, often criticized for their lack of humanization, interaction, communication and online presence. This chapter examines the role of the so-called soft skills of online course design and online teaching that are seen as vital for online educators who are responsible for the facilitation of high quality online learning. Along with a review of relevant literature about the soft skills of online teaching, the chapter presents three institutional case studies from which a set of practically-focused recommendations for promoting the design of humanized online learning environments has been developed.

scholarly journals Examining Higher Education Instructor Perceptions of Roles and Competencies in Online Teaching

2021 ◽  
Vol 25 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Florence Martin ◽  
Swapna Kumar ◽  
Liane She
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Professional Development ◽  
Online Teaching ◽  
Online Courses ◽  
Instructional Designers ◽  
Online Instructors ◽  
Teaching Online ◽  
Research And Practice ◽  
Lifelong Learner ◽  
Online Instructor

Online instructors adopt various roles and perform various competencies in the design and delivery of online courses. In this study, online instructor roles are categorized into eight types including Subject Matter Expert, Course Designer and Developer, Course Facilitator, Course Manager, Advisor/Mentor, Assessor/Evaluator, Technology Expert, and Lifelong Learner. Through survey-based research with 141 online instructors, this study examines competencies that online instructors perform based on various roles. When rating competencies, overall categorical means for all the roles were rated above 4.00, which showed that they used all these roles. The highest rated items and lowest rated items are discussed in addition to the connection between research and practice in online teaching. Online instructors who participate in training and who collaborate with instructional designers rated the frequency with which they perform the competencies to be higher. This study has implications for online instructors, instructional designers, and administrators who design and deliver online learning and offer professional development for online instructors.

scholarly journals Transformation of Higher Education into New Normal

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 125
Author(s):  
Osman Ferda Beytekin
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Online Education ◽  
Online Teaching ◽  
Online Courses ◽  
Teaching Style ◽  
Faculty Members ◽  
Experience Teaching ◽  
The Future ◽  
University Support ◽  
First Time

The purpose of this qualitative study was to get a better understanding of faculty members' views on the future of higher education by their first-time online teaching experiences during the Fall 2021 academic semester, which was impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Due to the outbreak's rapid and widespread dissemination, it created a unique phenomenon that had a significant impact on faculty members who had no prior experience teaching courses entirely online. In order to conduct this qualitative research, purposive sampling was used to choose ten faculty members from a variety of disciplines who had at least ten years of experience teaching in a traditional classroom setting at a public university in Izmir, Turkey. Faculty members were asked about the future of higher education in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic. Apart from that, each faculty member was asked to discuss how the mandatory shift to online education altered their teaching style and how institutional help impacted their experiences throughout the pandemic. As a consequence of their observations and statements of their perspectives on events they witnessed and personally experienced, the key issue of "transformation of higher education with hybrid perspective" developed as a central theme. The data analysis revealed the following subthemes: "educators on the internet," "sustain and evolve," and "university support". These findings may be applied in a variety of contexts, including educational leadership and the design of hybrid and online courses, among other applications in higher education.

Designing Effective Online Instructor Training and Professional Development

2012 ◽  
pp. 1-25 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennifer R. Banas ◽  
Angela Velez-Solic
Keyword(s):  
Professional Development ◽  
Online Education ◽  
Online Teaching ◽  
Online Courses ◽  
Instructor Training ◽  
Online Instructors ◽  
Effective Training ◽  
Instructional Design Principles ◽  
Online Instructor

There are many ways to deliver engaging, effective, and efficient online instruction, but most higher education instructors do not know how. So while the demand for online learning has drastically increased, the efficacious training of instructors into how to deliver online courses lags far behind. In this chapter, the authors demonstrate how adult learning and instructional design principles, coupled with known best practices for online teaching, can facilitate the design of effective training and professional development for online instructors. Case study examples are used to illustrate key concepts, and a sample outline for training is offered. Administrators and trainers of online instructors will form the primary audience; other stake holders in online education will benefit as well.

The Analysis and Design of Internet Course Teaching System for Operation System

2012 ◽  
Vol 239-240 ◽  
pp. 1637-1640
Author(s):  
Qi Jun Du
Keyword(s):  
Online Education ◽  
Online Teaching ◽  
Design Theory ◽  
Course Design ◽  
Online Courses ◽  
Rapid Development ◽  
Practical Significance ◽  
Operation System ◽  
Analysis And Design ◽  
Teaching Learning

Based on the design theory of internet course teaching, combined with the course of operation system, some key technology has been introduced, such as the development process of teaching, network system, the curriculum and various network elements: learners, teaching objective, contents of teaching, learning environment, teaching strategies, evaluation, etc. Some construction of network course building should be noted, which all has strong and practical significance for others. With the rapid development of Internet and the gradual perfection of the modern education technology, the education philosophy and approaches have been keeping innovated. The Internet-based courses have aroused many people’s concern. Compared with traditional courses, it is much more flexible, efficient, interactive, and convenient. It can also meet the need of individual-tailored service. With regards to the target learners, forms of the contents, course arrangement and studying methods, online education is incomparably superior. Thus the application of online teaching is one of the most effective ways to improve the teaching level. Based on the online courses teaching design theories, combined with the course of the computer operation system, the paper introduces the key technologies related to online course design and development, which is suggestive to other online courses studies.

scholarly journals Teacher readiness for online teaching-learning during COVID −19 outbreak: a study of Indian institutions of higher education

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Manisha Paliwal ◽  
Archana Singh
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Online Education ◽  
Time Management ◽  
Structural Equation ◽  
Online Teaching ◽  
Goodness Of Fit ◽  
Course Design ◽  
Equation Modeling ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Teaching Learning

Purpose Coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak has utterly disrupted the worldwide education system and compelled an emergency immersion of unplanned and rapid online teaching-learning. The online teaching readiness would highly depend on the competencies of teachers and skills to adapt the pedagogy and new roles by the teachers. In this context, this study aims to assess higher education institutions (HEIs) teachers’ readiness to handle online education based on the online teaching readiness competencies model. Design/methodology/approach A structured questionnaire has been adopted to survey and collect data from 296 teachers of HEIs across India. The questionnaire consisted of 29 constructs. The constructs in this section were measured using a five-point Likert scale ranging. In the first step first-order confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) is carried out, by using the software IBM AMOS-26. The initial model is generated for five constructs and outcomes are used to analyze the model’s goodness of fit and construct validity. In the second step structural equation modeling (SEM) is carried out to do the path analysis of the proposed model. Findings The findings connote that the level of course design competencies, communication competencies, time management competencies are not sufficient among the teachers of HEI of India, whereas the technical competencies possessed by the teachers meet the requirements for readiness to handle online education. The research is an attempt to provide possible explanations for establishing relationships between the constructs and discusses the usage of information, which can be further used to enhance the online teaching readiness competencies for the teachers of HEIs of India. Practical implications The research is an attempt to provide possible explanations for establishing relationships between the constructs and discusses the usage of information, which can be further used to enhance the online teaching readiness competencies for the teachers of HEIs of India. Originality/value Teachers’ competencies are a vital part of teaching online which has become the need of the hour in this COVID-19 outbreak. Because of the need for emergency response and strategies to minimize learning disruption at higher education, the study identifies the online teaching readiness competencies possessed by the online teaching communities and provides guidelines to enhance their capacity to build up the longer-term resilience of education systems. The study will be a ready reckoner for online training competencies which can be used as training need analysis to make each teacher highly competent to impart knowledge using online teaching platforms.

Designing Effective Online Instructor Training and Professional Development

2014 ◽  
pp. 732-756
Author(s):  
Jennifer R. Banas ◽  
Angela Velez-Solic
Keyword(s):  
Professional Development ◽  
Online Education ◽  
Online Teaching ◽  
Online Courses ◽  
Instructor Training ◽  
Online Instructors ◽  
Effective Training ◽  
Instructional Design Principles ◽  
Online Instructor

There are many ways to deliver engaging, effective, and efficient online instruction, but most higher education instructors do not know how. So while the demand for online learning has drastically increased, the efficacious training of instructors into how to deliver online courses lags far behind. In this chapter, the authors demonstrate how adult learning and instructional design principles, coupled with known best practices for online teaching, can facilitate the design of effective training and professional development for online instructors. Case study examples are used to illustrate key concepts, and a sample outline for training is offered. Administrators and trainers of online instructors will form the primary audience; other stake holders in online education will benefit as well.

Helping Faculty Design Online Courses in Higher Education

2010 ◽  
pp. 779-794
Author(s):  
Victor M. Hernández-Gantes
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Online Education ◽  
Faculty Development ◽  
Adult Development ◽  
Online Teaching ◽  
Online Courses ◽  
Use Of Technology ◽  
Emerging Trends ◽  
Technology And Assessment ◽  
Faculty Transition

The steady growth of online education has created increasing demands for faculty to design and teach online courses. At issue is the limited pedagogical preparation of higher education faculty hindering motivation to participate or the quality of their online teaching experiences. To address this issue faculty development supports are needed to help faculty transition into online teaching. This article provides an overview of related issues and a sample of emerging faculty development models followed with a description of a promising model integrating design, pedagogical, use of technology, and assessment considerations and adult development, learning, and planning principles. Emerging trends stemming from the review of related issues are also highlighted.

scholarly journals Online Course Design

2019 ◽  
Vol 20 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sally J. Baldwin ◽  
Yu-Hui Ching
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Online Education ◽  
Course Design ◽  
Online Courses ◽  
The United States ◽  
Course Evaluation ◽  
Online Course ◽  
Evaluation Instrument ◽  
Online Course Design ◽  
Quality Matters

The evaluation of online courses is an important step in providing quality online courses. There are a variety of national and statewide evaluation tools used to help guide instructors and course designers of online courses (e.g., Quality Matters, OSCQR). This paper discusses a newly released course evaluation instrument from Canvas, the second largest learning management system (LMS) used by higher education institutions in the United States. The characteristics and unique features of the Canvas Course Evaluation Checklist (CCEC) are discussed. The CCEC is also compared to established national and statewide evaluation instruments. This review is helpful for those interested in online course design and developments in the field of online education.

scholarly journals Evaluation Instruments and Good Practices in Online Education

2017 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sally Baldwin ◽  
Jesus H. Trespalacios
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Best Practices ◽  
Online Education ◽  
Undergraduate Education ◽  
Online Courses ◽  
Good Practice ◽  
Seven Principles ◽  
Evaluation Instruments ◽  
Type Of Institution ◽  
Principles Of Good Practice

Chickering and Gamson’s (1987) Seven Principles for Good Practice in Undergraduate Education offers extensively researched and validated tenets for best practices in higher education. After a review of the literature, twenty-eight evaluation instruments currently used to design and review online courses in higher education institutions were collected and divided into categories, based on geographical reach and the type of institution for which they were developed. This study investigates how evaluation instruments used in higher education assess the Seven Principles for Good Practice in Undergraduate Education, and what other items are addressed in the evaluation of courses. Findings show that national and statewide evaluation instruments were less institute specific and more closely aligned to the principles of good practice, and that evaluation instruments often measure extraneous items (e.g., student services, navigation, resources, or institutional support). Additional findings and conclusions based on the analysis of the instruments are discussed.

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