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Preparation for Online Teaching and Actual Practices for Technology-Oriented Courses Abstract

The growth of distance education and the corresponding demand for online instructors is a trend that has continued over the past ten to fifteen years. Quality online instruction should be preceded by high quality preparation for online teaching including exposure to best practices for online teaching. Despite the strong relationship between good teaching and good preparation, there is a perception that the type of preparation and the amount of preparation provided for instructors prior to teaching online courses is highly variable from one institution to another institution. Given this context, instructor preparation is the main focus of this paper and best practices for online instruction is a secondary focus. To explore these topics an existing survey instrument was selected and minor revisions were made in order to collect data regarding the type of preparation, the amount of preparation and the source of that preparation. Another aspect of the survey is the exploration of exposure to best practices that instructors may have gained through their preparation and training. The natural progression also leads to questions regarding actual practices in online courses and whether best practices are being employed by online instructors. The survey instrument was administered via email and online to a sample of faculty from a wide range of technology-oriented programs from universities across the United States. The quantitative data collected will be analyzed using measures of frequency and variability through SPSS in order to compare the universities from different state systems. Findings are intended to promote change in order to support student success in the online learning atmosphere.

Introduction

Distance education has been growing as a form of undergraduate education over the last decade. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, for the 2000-2001 academic year there were 2,876,000 students enrolled in distance education college level courses.29 Eighty-two percent were undergraduate level courses. This represents a 111% growth of total student enrollment from the 1997-1998 (1,363,670) academic year. 28 Additionally, 78% of 4-year, public degree-granting higher education institutions were offering distance education courses in 1997-199830. This percentage increased considerably to 86% in the 2004-2005 academic year.31 Allen and Seaman states over the past few years, enrollment in online courses have grown substantially faster than the overall higher education student body growth.1 According to Allen and Seaman, 3.2 million students took at least one online course in the fall of 2005. In the fall of 2004, this number was 2.3 million and authors state that growth will not level off but continue to increase.

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Batts, D., & Monroe, R., & Pagliari, L., & Jackson, S., & McFadden, C. (2007, June), Preparation For Online Teaching And Actual Practices For Technology Oriented Courses Paper presented at 2007 Annual Conference & Exposition, Honolulu, Hawaii. 10.18260/1-2--2086