Anniversary Book Project

5th

Towards a theoretical framework for professional development in online teaching

An instructors reflective journey of learning to teach online

By: Peter Rennert-Ariev Creative Commons License: CC BY Author contact: PRennertariev@loyola.edu

Author Biography: Peter Rennert-Ariev is an associate professor of Curriculum and Instruction and Chair of the Education Specialties Department at Loyola University Maryland where he has worked since earning a Ph.D. in Curriculum and Instruction from the University of Maryland College of Education in 2002. His scholarship addresses characteristics of teacher education programs, the role of performance-based assessment in teacher development, and the use of teaching portfolios to promote professional development for higher education faculty. Dr. Rennert-Arievs research has appeared in publications such as Teachers College Record, The Journal of Teacher Education, Teacher Education and Practice, and The Journal of Curriculum Studies.
This chapter details my reflective journey as a student within a graduate program focused on online teaching and learning for adults. The analysis highlights some of the theoretical and practical lessons that I learned about teaching effectively using social networking and how I began to use on-line strategies into my own teaching. The program I enrolled in is designed to prepare expert practitioners to design, deliver, and evaluate online learning programs for adult learners in higher education, professional education, corporate universities, and community settings. In this chapter I focus on my ongoing narrative reflection that was captured primarily in an ongoing blog I constructed throughout the program. Ive analyzed these entries for overarching themes and then represented excerpts from this narrative that I feel capture the central aspects of my own development: These aspects include: The centrality of having a theoretical foundation for social networking; the architecture of online communities, especially the value of collaboration and mutual construction of knowledge; and the role of the online facilitator. In my concluding remarks I suggest some specific ways that these themes can help lay the foundation towards building a theoretical framework to support high-quality professional development for new online instructors. Class or subject area: Higher education: online teaching and learning Grade level(s): Graduate Level Specific learning objectives: Explore approaches to teacher training and PD in the area of online teaching and pedagogy

Activity Summary

This chapter details my reflective journey as a student within a graduate program focused on online teaching and learning for adults. The analysis highlights some of the theoretical and practical lessons that I learned about teaching effectively using social networking and how I began to use on-line strategies into my own teaching. Im hopeful that my experiences will contribute towards a developing knowledge base that informs the design of professional development programs for novice online teachers. The program I enrolled in is designed to prepare expert practitioners to design, deliver, and evaluate online learning programs for adult learners in higher education, professional education, corporate universities, and community settings. In this chapter I focus on my ongoing narrative reflection that was captured primarily in an ongoing blog I constructed throughout the program. Ive analyzed these entries for overarching themes and then represented excerpts from this narrative that I feel capture the central aspects of my own development: These aspects include: The centrality of having a theoretical foundation for social networking; the architecture of online communities, especially the value of collaboration and mutual construction of knowledge; and the role of the online facilitator. In my concluding remarks I suggest some specific ways that these themes can help lay the foundation towards building a theoretical framework to support high-quality professional development for new online instructors. While a student in this program I also served as an associate professor of education where I teach graduate level curriculum and instruction courses and specialize in professional development for teachers and higher education faculty. Since my perspective as a higher education faculty was, in this case, coupled with my fresh new perspective as a student learning to integrate online teaching strategies, I gained a unique perspective to reflect on what it means to learn to teach online. Im hopeful that my firsthand insights from this dual insider perspective will be of some value to those who design professional development for online teaching. Clearly there is a pressing need for a deeper understanding of the way individuals learn to teach online. These insights might help inform the development of high-quality professional development programs for instructors - novice and experienced - who are new to the challenges and possibilities within online teaching and learning. The overall program in which I enrolled is a 15-credit on-line graduate program designed to provoke students to experience and critically reflect upon high-quality online learning; build a depth of knowledge in online teaching and learning through carefully-designed, sequential coursework; and engage in increasingly complex learning experiences to develop teaching skills. My comments are focused principally on the insights I had while enrolled in the first three courses of the program: Theoretical Foundations of Online Learning, Facilitating E-learning for Adults, and Instructional Design for Online Learning. In the sections the following detailed the insights I gleaned from each of these course experiences drawing on some specific ways that I made meaning of his experiences and made instructional decisions in my own experiments with online teaching. Importance of a theoretical foundation In general, an important insight I gained about online teaching is that its important to have a theoretical foundation for all instructional and assessment choices. I think this is especially true in online education which is a burgeoning field. The temptation for many instructors may be to employ the latest technological tool without fully interrogating the suitability and purposes for that tool. I found the exposure to learning theories in the program especially instructive in this regard. For example

readings and ensuing discussions on behaviorism and constructivism helped shape my sense of the choices that are available for online instructors to have variety in their classes and to make the best choices given a particular goal. For example while it may be easy to disparage behaviorist approaches to teaching, especially in light of compelling critiques from constructivist and cognitive advocates, its also true that there are many occasions where behaviorist approaches are necessary and appropriate. For example, it seems that to learn certain online skills it is necessary to teach these skills in a step-by-step, linear fashion the way behaviorist approaches would stress. I dont think that all skills can be learned in the context of creating complex projects. There are certain rudimentary elements that need to be addressed in a linear and organized way. I discovered this in my own teaching where I needed to include components on some basic technology skills such as using a microphone. Because online experiences often involve using new tools it may be necessary , depending on the situation, to focus on those skills independent of the more complex applications for which they will later be used. Im also found that there are constructivist foundations to online education that are critical to building a robust collaborative environment. The advancement of videoconferencing software has made possible fully engaged discussions even with a relatively large number of people. I noted in one blog entry that a class that I facilitated with a group of 10 students all of whom were connected via audio and video was just as collaborative and productive as it would have been in person. I felt that students were highly responsive to each other and were listening and engaged at the same level that they would if they were sitting in the same classroom. That insight was very exciting to me because I felt that finally the technology allowed for constructivist ways of teaching in an online environment. Before many of these technologies were available it was possible only to present information and to assume a very didactic role toward students and the content. What I found is that I was able to use online technological tools in ways that are consonant with my theoretical approaches to teaching. These approaches include many constructivist elements that draw on the importance of reflection, learning community, and student self- reflection. It is important to be able to have a productive discussion in an online space where the technology doesnt get in the way or distract but rather promotes and enhances the interaction. Finally, I feel that I became more skilled at navigate the technology as a way towards this goal. There are clearly many technical challenges to doing this effectively however. For example when I used a videoconferencing platform to hold a class discussion I quickly discovered that I needed to mute everyones microphone when they wished to speak. Otherwise there was a lot of static and feedback on the line that was very distracting. But once I got used to quickly muting and then activating participants microphones the discussion flowed without too many perceptible interruptions. I feel that online technology has now improved to a point where constructivist approaches can be used effectively and instructors do not needs to compromise their style of teaching in order to use the technology. I became especially intrigued by ways of thinking theoretically about the choices that are available in online education and the way that theories can help guide instructors in the choices that they make. Architecture of online communities: Collaboration and construction of knowledge My experiences in the program also prompted me to think more deeply about the ways online communities function and the importance of co-construction of knowledge within a community. One aspect that has informed my thinking particularly is the importance of online communities offering various types of resources and ways of interacting among participants. That is, flexibility both in content, structure, and delivery seems an important prerequisite to be able to involve and engage as many

individuals as possible in sharing knowledge base. It appears that the most successful online learning networks are those that offer various resources that are focused in different ways depending on the needs of the users. For example, we see many online sites now devoted to teacher development. The most popular and creative of these, such as classroom2.0, seem to be those that both offer teachers resources such as materials and lesson plans but also provide social networks for teachers to be able to discuss and collaborate. That multifaceted functioning involving both the dissemination of resources and the collaborative opportunities within Web 2.0 are common characteristics seen in other types of sites as well. Some individuals may be drawn to a learning community because they want to feel part of a learning network where they can share ideas and get to know other people. That is a crucial benefit to online collaboration and one that is made possible as the technologies allow for more interactive ways of functioning in online spaces. However it is also the case that individuals need specific forms of professional development that may involve access to resources, websites, books, articles, and other materials. So, many participate in online learning communities because they seek these resources with or without interacting substantially with others. In general, I think that flexibility and multifaceted approaches to learning are important characteristics that define the most successful learning communities. Another point that I have thought about considerably in the program had to do with understanding the various strengths and talents of each individual and what they bring to the community. That is to say it is important to get to know your team members because individuals play different roles whether intentionally or not when working in a group setting. Some particular strengths and abilities may not be recognizable to the full team until they have a chance to construct a project together and need to discover what each individual can best offer. I discovered this early in the course with my own team when we need to design a logo and found that one student had a background in graphic design, and I had had some experience developing Wordles to represent ideas. We were able to combine our abilities to create a logo that we felt best represented what our team stood for and how we wanted to interact with each other. I think this was an instructive experience for thinking about teaming in general. We all have different skills and abilities; working in ways that strategically takes advantage of each team members talents, both individually and collectively, can lead to final products and a deepened learning experience for all participants. This is an important point when thinking about online teaching and learning because of the heavy reliance on teamwork and group projects that we frequently see in online courses and online learning experiences. Facilitating online learning There are several ways in which the program impacted my conception of the role of a facilitator of online learning. Looking back, I think my preconceptions framed the role of the facilitators as those who works by themselves, in relative isolation. I think this preconception comes from my experience as a teacher in high school and college settings where much of the planning is done individually. But it is clear to me that given the technical and managerial complexity of facilitating online learning instructors need to work collaboratively with other. Online instructors need to work within their organization/ institution to gain to the resources and support that they need. Given the nature of online learning the technical requirements of facilitating an online experience often require a fairly high level of support. For example, at my own institution we recently transitioned from Blackboard to Moodle as the primary course management system. For all instructors this required close consultation with personnel from the technology services department. New training modules needed to be developed and many in-

structors needed to have access to individual consultations and debugging/ problem solving as they developed competence in the new course management system. Online instructors required even more support from technology services since their courses rely so heavily on technological components. In general it seems that online instructors need to work closely with support personnel in their organization to have necessary support and resources in technical areas that might be outside of their area of expertise. Another preconception about online facilitators that was altered in the program has to do with the significance of developing community and teaming strategies. I had envisioned online learning has taken place primarily in individual interactions between students and the instructor. That is, most of the learning experiences in online environments that I had envisioned involved students completing work as a independent study and receiving feedback from the instructor but not necessarily engaging in much interaction with other students in the course. Several readings and class discussions made me more aware of the significant role that the instructor has in building community and ways of developing ongoing and meaningful interaction among the students. In fact, the conduct of program that relied heavily on student exchanges in the discussion board demonstrated how community can be built around student exchanges with each other. That can be important as students build knowledge and learn to become more attuned to each others contributions. I think that as students become more familiar with each other and trust develops they become better able to challenge each others ideas and help each other think in analytically deeper ways. In general, it seems to me a significant aspect of online learning involves the collaborative generation of knowledge that occurs when the facilitator designs many opportunities for students to collaborate and develop a healthy learning community. Summary: Towards a theoretical framework for professional development in online teaching My insights gained as a developing online instructor are idiosyncratic but might also reflect some important general goals for strengthening professional development in online teaching. First, it is clear that understanding the learning theories behind pedagogical choices are fundamental to making informed pedagogical decisions. There needs to be a symbiotic relationship between theory and practice in the development of expert teachers, both online and face-to-face. Any professional development program that prepares online instructors needs to attend to the theoretical foundation of the pedagogical strategies that are examined and practiced. Beyond that the program needs to provide opportunities for participants to develop and refine their own theoretical understandings. These understandings may be more difficult to foster in short-term workshop-oriented staff development where time spent on processing theories of teaching and learning may be in short supply. Nevertheless it appears that the more powerful opportunities to develop as an online teacher are based on experiences that give rise to alternative theoretical orientations and opportunities to define our own orientations. Furthermore, my experience suggests the value of fostering a community of practice where participants co-construct knowledge and collaborate in multifaceted ways. This seems an important lesson both for online instructors and for those who design professional development. An important challenge for professional development specialists is how to harness a global network of individuals and a vast array of web-based resources to prompt novice online instructors to collaborate in developing a shared knowledge base for online teaching. Finally, my comments related to facilitation also mirror challenges for strengthening professional development for online instructors. That is, how can professional development opportunities prompt instructors to interrogate their existing conceptions of teaching? Just as I expanded my notions of the facilitator from a didactic role to a more dialogic process between instructor and student, so too should professional development models broaden concep-

tualizations of the online facilitators to include those who use online teaching strategies to generate transformative collaborative inquiry and create a vibrant social contexts for learning.