Categories: Communication Design, Technology
Summary and Citations:
De Gagne and Walters surveyed eleven online educators throughout the United States to learn more about their experiences with online education. They asked the following questions:
"RQ1. What concepts do online educators think are important in teaching online?
RQ2. What knowledge, skills, and attitudes do they perceive as essential in teaching online?
RQ3. What differences in terms of faculty role do they perceive between face-to-face instruction
and online teaching?
RQ4. What strategies do they use to facilitate active learning?
RQ5. What ethical and legal issues do they face in online teaching?
RQ6. What do they think academic leaders can do to help them achieve successful online
teaching?" (De Gagne & Walters, 2010, p. 358).
They then used rhetorical analysis, specifically the hermeneutic approach, to understand the instructor's perspective from the recorded interviews. By examining the the interviews, "five key themes emerged from11 respondents’ narrative accounts, including: (a) flexibility and convenience, (b) time- and labor-intensiveness, (c) communication skills, (d) learner-centeredness, and (e) continuing education and training. These identified themes were important in illustrating online educators’ experiences, which provided new perspectives and recommendations for the development and promotion of successful communities of online learning" (De Gagne & Walters, 2010, p. 357). Part of these insights included a perceived shift in power in the online teaching experience where instructors noticed the need for students to fulfill greater rolls and responsibilities.
This well-crafted study shared the perspectives of 12 online teachers, and helped us understand their beliefs about online education and best practices. It also revealed some opportunities for future research, specifically, "(1) This study suggests that faculty’s knowledge level about legal issues related to online teaching appears to be narrow or limited. Interviews with a larger population about specific legal-related questions should be conducted to fully explore the degree of the knowledge gap. (2) This study determined what knowledge, skills, and attitudes are considered important to online teaching, but it did not specifically address how important these aspects are for teachers who make the transition to online learning. 3. Similar research should be conducted with online students as the target population to determine if their perceptions are aligned with the areas identified in this study by the online educators" (De Gagne & Walters, 2010, p. 365).
