Introduction
The greatest influence in higher education over
the last decade concerns the use of information
technology. The World Wide Web is the leading
technology that has triggered changes in teaching
and learning (Schiffman, Vignare, & Geith, 2007).
Reports have estimated that by the year 2025 there
will be between 30 and 80 million online students
in the world (Hosie, Schibeci, & Backhaus, 2005).
Experts emphasize that a major determinant to the
success of online education is faculty willingness
to embrace the technology and incorporate new
pedagogy to develop stimulative teaching
experiences for their learners (Kim & Bonk, 2006;
Ko & Rossen, 2004). The literature also suggests
that preparing educators to use instructional
technology effectively is essential to create
successful online education (McKeachie & Svinicki;
2006). Therefore, this study aimed to explore the
lived experience of online educators and their
multiple perspectives through the process of a
hermeneutic phenomenological design.
Background of the Study
A systematic review of the literature about online
education has offered a wealth of information
about factors that must be considered in the
planning and implementation of e-learning (De
Gagne & Walters, 2009). The implications of online
educators’ experiences as a part of the teaching
and learning process, which includes issues
affecting the professional development needs of
online educators was also revealed. Faculty’s
assessment of online teaching practices
constitutes an important dimension of the online
environment. In a seminal work by Olcott and
Wright (1995), they found that for “faculty to
accept and participate in technology integration
initiatives, their perception of both the
availability and quality of training opportunities
in the online environment must be positive” (p.
5). This notion is critical given that faculty are
the driving force of an institution and their
perceptions weigh largely on the value of online
learning programs and have a strong impact on the
institutions that support them.
According to a recent survey conducted by Allen
and Seaman (2007), online enrollments continue to
increase at all types of institutions of higher
education. For example, in the fall of 2006,
nearly 3.5 million students in the United States
took at least one online course. Consequently, a
majority of academic leaders expect student demand
for online learning to continue to grow (Allen &
Seaman, 2007;
Schiffman et al., 2007).
Researchers have found that traditional “brick and
mortar” institutions lack the structure for
nontraditional students looking to attend college
(Hosie et al., 2005). A thorough review of current
literature that addresses educators’ experiences
with the online learning environment highlights
the importance of new strategies to promote active
learning in online courses (Allen & Seaman, 2005;
Conrad & Donaldson, 2004; De Gagne & Walters,
2009). Therefore, findings from this qualitative
study would fill the gap in the literature
reviewed in regard to what concepts, skills, and
attitudes online educators think are important and
what academic leaders can do to help them achieve
a successful online teaching experience.
Purpose and Research Questions (RQs)
Given that education may be described as a planned
teaching and learning experience, educators must
understand the reality of such an experience.
Hence, the purpose of this qualitative study was
to examine experiences of educators who teach
online at institutions of higher education in the
United States. To explore the perceptions of
online educators and to provide better
understanding of their experiences, six Research
Questions (RQs) were examined in the study:
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?
To answer these questions, we chose a hermeneutic
phenomenological approach that focuses on how
individuals interpret their world within their
given context. A hermeneutic phenomenological
approach captures participant’s narrative
accounts, which reflects how they interpret and
express their experiences through interviews (Polit
& Beck, 2004).
Methods
This study adopted a hermeneutic interpretive
phenomenology to illuminate the meaning of lived
experiences of online educators. This qualitative
study springs from the paradigms of naturalistic
inquiry that is interpretive, or inductive, in
nature (Noblit & Hare, 1988).
Sample Strategies
The aim in sample selection with the hermeneutic
phenomenological approach was to choose
participants who had online teaching experiences
that were the focus of the study and willing to
share their experiences, and who were
representative enough of a specific population to
enhance the possibility that certain phenomena
might be captured. Determining adequate sample
size in qualitative research is the researcher’s
judgmental call in that a sample size of 12 may be
big enough to derive significant outcomes for the
intended study, while a size of 5 can be big
enough to reach the point where no new information
is obtained. It was projected that 6 to 10
participants would be an adequate sample size for
this study with which to effectively address the
research questions and uncover multiple realities.
However, as the study progressed, this projected
size varied depending on number of the
descriptions and interpretations of the phenomenon
being studied. Therefore, the number of study
participants was determined when no new data
emerged from the interviewers.
It was important to maximize the likelihood that
each participant could add information that would
allow for the discovery of meaning. Therefore,
probability sampling, or a random sample, was not
the best way to select participants who would make
good informants (Polit & Beck, 2004). In keeping
with this strategy, we used the purposive snowball
sampling method, sometimes referred to as
“nominated sampling” (Polit & Beck, 2004, p. 306).
This method mainly relies on the nominations of
others already in the sample. While this strategy
is cost-efficient and practical, a weakness of
this approach is the probability of restriction to
a small network of acquaintances (Gall, Gall, &
Borg, 2003).
Whereas a purposeful peer-nominated sample of
online instructors was used, inclusion criteria
for participants asked for at least 2 years of
online teaching experience at institutions of
higher education in the United States. The
research tools included a researcher-developed
demographic questionnaire and two interview
guides. Each participant was informally invited
for interviews and once verbally agreed upon, a
formal invitational e-mail letter was sent.
A total of 11 faculty members meeting the
inclusion criteria participated in the study.
Due to the nature of the research questions and
the importance of assessing the flexible context,
the interview was designed to ask participants to
answer open-ended, essay style questions about
their experience of teaching online. The questions
were written based on a review of the literature
and the identified gaps. The questions on the
interview guide were designed to elicit
information about what the experience is like for
faculty who teach online, what knowledge, skills,
and attributes faculty think are important when
teaching online, what differences they perceive of
their roles in face-to-face teaching and online
teaching, what strategies they use to facilitate
learner engagement, and what ethical and legal
issues they face when teaching online. Lastly,
they were asked how their leaders can help faculty
teach online more effectively and efficiently.
In this study, participants were given the option
of either phone or e-mail interviews at their
convenience. Ongoing e-mail correspondence and
follow-up telephone interviews enhanced some
degree of interaction between the researchers and
the informants. Interviewing was time-intensive
and the actual interview session itself varied in
length with an average of 1 hour. Participants
were assured of anonymity in any written reports
and their responses were to be treated with the
strictest confidentiality.
After receiving the Institutional Review Board (IRB)
approval, we identified and contacted potential
participants who met the criteria for interviews.
In the letter of invitation, each invited study
participant received a written explanation of the
study purpose and the procedure, as well as an
informed consent form. Participants who agreed
that they had read and understood the information
on the consent form then completed a demographic
questionnaire. We contacted them via telephone or
e-mail to arrange time for the interview. If the
email participants did not answer the interview
questions within 5 to 7 days, a friendly reminder,
through e-mail or phone, sought their
participation.
Each of the participants was provided with a list
of questions and their responses were saved as a
Word document file on a computer. The data are
presented based on the collective answers of the
participants, and are reduced to include only the
information relevant to the purpose of the study.
After the first round of interviews, follow-up
interviews were performed to seek clarification
and explore the topic in greater depth.
Demographic Data
Respondents consisted of 11 participants who
agreed to be interviewed for the study. Of this
sample, four of the participants preferred a
telephone interview, while the rest participated
through e-mails. All of the telephone interviewees
agreed to be audio-recorded.
In terms of gender, of the 11 respondents in the
sample, 10 were females and 1 was a male. Most of
the respondents
were between
41 and 60 years of age. Notably, all respondents
were at least 30 years old, and they were from
various geographic locations throughout the
United States.
Five of the respondents taught at more than one
institution concurrently, while six of them taught
at only one institution. Teaching by the
respondents covered a wide range of subject
matter. The highest frequency was in Nursing (n=4),
followed by Education (n=3), Business (n=2),
Psychology (n=1), and Technology (n=1).
Seven of the respondents were teaching graduate
level courses (63.7%), two were teaching
undergraduate courses, and two were teaching. All
11 respondents were doctorally prepared, 7
of whom (63.6%) having previously taken at least
one online course. The
average years of teaching both face-to-face and
online was 12.3 with a range of 2 to 28 years (SD
= 6.9) whereas the average of online teaching
experience was 7.3 years with a range of 2 to 11 (SD
= 2.95).
Data Analysis
The goal of qualitative analysis is to reduce a
large amount of textual data to meaningful
concepts while identifying themes and categories
in the data (Miles & Huberman, 1994). Data
reduction refers to “the process of selecting,
focusing, simplifying, abstracting, and
transforming that data” (Miles & Huberman, 1994,
p. 10). Whichever technique is used for data
analysis, the three Cs of analysis, which includes
the element of Codes, Categories,
and Concepts, is a useful tool for data
reduction in qualitative studies (Lichtman,
2006). Lichtman has broken down this process into
six steps:
Step 1. Creating initial coding.
Even though there is a small amount of data, it
should always start with initial coding. Upon
completion of initial coding with one transcript,
another transcript is selected and the same
process is continued.
Step 2. Revisiting initial coding.
A large number of codes that were developed in the
previous step may need to be collapsed, renamed,
and modified if necessary.
Step 3. Developing an initial list of categories
or central ideas.
The codes modified in Step 2 are reorganized from
one long list of codes into several lists of
categories with related codes as subsets of the
categories.
Step 4. Modifying the initial list.
The goal of the three Cs is to recognize important
concepts from initial codes and categories. In
this step, several lists of initial codes should
be revisited and modified through an additional
rereading process.
Step 5. Revisiting the categories and
subcategories.
Once initial codes are collapsed, the list of
categories and subcategories must be revisited to
remove redundancies. This step requires
researchers’ judgment about what is important and
what is not.
Step 6. Moving from categories into concepts
(themes).
This final step is to identify key concepts or
themes that reflect the meaning to the data
collected. As a rule of thumb, five to seven
concepts are the maximum number that can be found
in a set of data. (Lichtman, 2006, pp. 167-170)
Using Lichtman’s (2006)
six-step process, we were able to organize and
process data to reach a logical saturation point.
The recorded interviews were transcribed verbatim
onto computer disks within a week of the
interview. Verbatim transcription and e-mail
responses produced a written version of the
interviews, which became the descriptive material
or texts. Following this process, we read the text
over and over to get a sense of the whole and
began the interpretation of the data. Interview
data were clarified through questioning and
checking the accuracy of transcription, while the
interpretation was also reviewed by another coder
or rater for consensus on the themes emerging from
the interviews. Through the hermeneutic process,
five common themes were developed from smaller
patterns of fragmented ideas, which contributed to
developing concepts. In the discussion of the
research findings, we have used a number of
quotations to support the measure of the
interpretation’s credibility.
Limitations of the Methodology
The following limitations were inherent in the
research design. Every reasonably possible measure
was taken to assure objectivity and representation
of the study. A limitation in this study lied in
the fact that qualitative reports are more likely
to run a risk of misrepresentation of certain
aspects of reality because of the potentially
large variances between participants’ and
researchers’ points of view, between lived and
narrated lives, and between reality and
representations of reality (Sandelowski, 2006).
Another limitation in the course of research was
that the interview samples cannot be
representative of all online faculty members, and
thus objectivity may be impeded by researchers’
familiarity with the research group (Polit & Beck,
2004). Unarguably, research is always influenced
by the researcher’s subjectivity, especially in
method and methodology in interpretive studies. In
this study, attaining a firm grasp of the
phenomena through a comprehensive literature
review was essential; consequently, the
researchers strived to not overlook clues or
contradictions. While staying open to
contradictory findings, we sought out, when
necessary, alternative explanations and
suggestions of data collection and analysis from
colleagues.
Findings
Five key themes arose from the analysis of the
texts of the interviews. Following are the themes
illuminated through the rich quotations of the
respondents’ experiences of online teaching: (a)
Online teaching offers flexibility and
convenience; (b) online teaching is time-consuming
and labor-intensive; (c) strong communication
skills are essential; (d) much of online teaching
is learner-centered; and (e) online teaching
requires continuing education and training.
Key Themes
Theme 1:
Online teaching offers flexibility and convenience.
The most common theme identified by the
interviewees was about online teaching being
flexible and convenient. Interviewees
expressed that online teaching allows them to do
things that they could not do if they had an 8-5
job. They appreciate the opportunity to teach at
any time of the day or night and, for some
interviewees, to teach at more than one school. An
online learning environment, by its very nature,
makes it possible to meet students from all over
the world; many of the interviewees value this
ubiquitous environment. The following observations
and comments capture these themes.
I love flexibility
I enjoy the experience of teaching online
tremendously! It is wonderful to work at my own
convenience throughout the day. My work can travel
with me wherever I go and I love that my office is
in my home. That means that I can be a wife,
mother, student, and faculty member, all at the
same time!
I like the ability to do this at anytime and
anyplace. I can take my laptop on a trip and do
the lessons in the evening at the motel. Or, if I
wanted to live in Europe for a year, I'd just take
my little laptop, find a little village and
snuggle in.
I can work at anytime and anyplace. For example,
one week after giving birth to my child, I was
able to start teaching via online at home. This
helped me to teach the course without any major
changes in school workload.
It’s exciting to meet learners from diverse groups
I like the variety of backgrounds my students
bring to the class. I also like the flexibility I
gain in when I post, grade, and respond to
assignments. I work varying hours, so I can keep
up with my class during these varying times.
It’s a job that I really love and it allows me to
meet students that I normally would not. I am
online most of the day and take my work on the
road to vacations.
What I enjoy the most about teaching online is the
opportunity to share learning experiences with
such a diverse population of learners. Given the
global community we have online, learners bring
wonderful ideas and cultural diversity to the
shared learning experience, which illuminates the
engagement in very meaningful ways that cannot be
replicated elsewhere.
It’s a rewarding experience
In general, it is very very [sic]
rewarding, and quite challenging. As adult
learners, students have many life events that "get
in the way" of things they may often need to do
for school.
It is fantastic! I love the challenge of helping
adults who are working full-time have a meaningful
and rich academic experience. There are many
challenges students face and I love facilitating
and encouraging them toward success.
Most of the interviewees shared their positive
experiences about the many advantages that online
teaching can provide in terms of flexibility,
convenience, freedom, gratification, and learner
diversity. However, as some participants
underlined, these advantages should not overshadow
the importance of being self-disciplined within
the framework of university standards and
expectations.
Theme 2:
Online teaching is time-consuming and
labor-intensive.
It was noticeable that the participants perceived
online teaching as a positive experience. However,
several negative emotions emerged with regard to
the time-consuming and labor-intensive
perspectives. Addressing these constraints, the
interviewees emphasized the importance of having
excellent time-management and organizational
skills. Participants explained their experiences
in the following texts.
It is a lot of work
It’s very convenient for me. But it’s
also very labor-intensive…It
does require a lot more time for me to be
personable, to interact with them through
different visual cues, different sounds, pictures,
and ways of presenting the material and that is
very labor intensive.
It is invigorating and exhausting all
at the same time…Online
teachers are allocated the same teaching
responsibilities as face to face but I would think
the work load is two to three to one.
It is time-consuming
It is very addicting but enjoyable at
the same time because you feel like you need to
constantly check in with your students in a 24/7
format. There is no down time when teaching online
unless you set advanced boundaries, such as no
replies after midnight or weekends, etc. You must
be committed to teach online because of the 24/7
commitment and isolation factors.
There’s a major difference in time. Online
teaching takes much more time because you are
grading papers with track changes and sending them
back. Sometimes, it’s easier when you’re just in a
classroom and hand the paper in and then you can
just grade and write on it.
Setting the boundaries is
important
I’m not available, you know, 24/7. So, I tell them
when I am available, when I am in my office, that
they can call me, they can email me at these times
and I’ll get back to them. And I also tell them
that I am not available on the weekend, you know
that is my family time. They really seem to
respect that I have a life outside of that.
I expect my students to give me at
least 24 to 48 hours because I know they shouldn’t
expect me to be available 24 hours and 7 days. So,
I set the limit up front but I think it’s a lot
like a war… I mean war in a way, in responding
those emails and also giving comments on their
papers…I have to use the track change and respond
to comments online version, and every comment has
to be typed in the document so it tends to be very
time consuming if you really want to run the group
projects or reveal quite intensive scholar papers.
Time management is critical
It is incredibly rewarding and I highly recommend
it as a profession…You should add your workload
slowly so you don’t get in over your head, and
learn to be an excellent time manager.
When you are an online teacher you have to have
good organizational skills. You cannot be a
procrastinator!
A majority of the participants agree that online
teaching requires more time and energy in relation
to preparation, learner assessment, course design,
management, and evaluation. They identified
various strategies to overcome these challenges,
which are efficient time-management,
prioritization, organization, and computer skills.
Some interviewees expect better recognition from
their administrators regarding the extra time and
labor involved in online courses. Such
acknowledgment is likely to trigger greater
support that would improve work quality while
increasing faculty’s satisfaction.
Theme 3:
Strong communication skills are essential.
A number of participants discussed the importance
of having strong communication skills. Because
online learning environments vastly rely on
written communication, while lacking non-verbal
indicators, it is critical for instructors to
maximize the communication efforts when using
online discussion platforms. This insight overlaps
with the theme You have to know how to maintain
a good interaction with your student that was
expressed in the following ways.
Attributes needed for teaching online is the
ability to manage the actual class load and have
strong communication skills. The best in-person
instructor may fail online if he or she doesn’t
understand how to communicate the content in a
meaningful manner.
Most definitely the ability to communicate online
effectively… You need to be able to reach across
an email and really help someone - help them know
there is a real live person on the other end of
the email.
You’ve really got to be a good communicator and
you need to encourage your students. They like
feedback. They need to know how soon you can give
them feedback. If you can’t give them feedback for
5 days, they need to know that so they won’t be
hammering you.
Continual feedback is a must
The ability to give complete feedback is
essential. Feedback such as “nice job” is pretty
useless to a student. Giving detailed feedback is
needed. I like to include examples.
The first is accessibility. As an instructor, I
need to dedicate time, usually each day, to be on
the website and download, grade, and upload
assignments. Students should never be waiting long
periods of time for feedback. Also, detailed
feedback is a must.
The words ‘prompt’ ‘effective’ or ‘meaningful’
were often expressed by the interviewees when
referring to ‘communication’ and ‘feedback.’
Providing prompt feedback, I believe, is the most
important for effective teaching. Since students
do not meet faculty, online feedback is the only
way in which students feel connected.
Learners don’t have a specific time and place to
talk to an instructor and get clear direction, so
you must give near-immediate and thorough feedback
and answers to questions.
Many of the faculty members acknowledge that
communication is the key to success in online
teaching, not only for the purpose of exerting
social presence (Aragon, 2003; Swan & Shih, 2005),
but also of imaging good role models.
Theme 4:
Much of online teaching is learner-centered.
One of the dominant themes throughout dialogues
with the interviewees was their emphasis on
pedagogy. Participants strongly felt that online
teaching requires the reallocation of power from
the instructor to the learner. Some described
their role as a guide to the side (Kim &
Bonk, 2006; Ko & Rossen, 2004; McKeachie &
Svinicki, 2006).
I love how my role is redefined in this
environment. I am not a lecturer delivering direct
instruction each class. Instead, I am a one-on-one
guide, providing feedback, and pats on the back
along the way. I firmly believe that we learn best
in this environment and I love that the online
modalities encourage this type of learning.
I have not always enjoyed teaching online because
I had to learn how to do it. It might be because I
have learned how to do it so that it is very
student, learner centered. When I first started
out, I was trying to teach too much like I was
teaching in a classroom. Now, I teach completely
different.
The roles of faculty have changed, particularly in
the asynchronous online classroom, from the
dispenser of information to the learning
facilitator and coach.
In addition to suggesting that online teaching is
more individualized or personalized than
face-to-face teaching, interviewees emphasized
that online faculty must develop interpersonal
relationships with their students by respecting
individuality while maintaining a learner-centered
mindset (Weimer, 2002). One of the interviewees
summed this sense of acknowledging student voice
as follows:
I think you have to have a great sense of empathy,
especially for doctoral students. They are
fragile. They are prone to lack of sleep and good
food and they get more frustrated than the average
person as a result of that. You have to be able to
have a good caring and compassion and tell them
the sun will come up tomorrow and your next
chapter will start coming around.
As illustrated, the theme of
learner-centeredness has resonated across a
number of texts, the interviewees underlining the
ability to understand students learning needs and
to customize instruction to meet such needs.
Theme 5:
Online teaching requires continuing education and
training.
Some of the interviewees’ quotes reflect the
necessity for ongoing training and opportunities
for the faculty member.
I usually attend summer workshops and implement
new online teaching strategies for the following
fall classes. By attending workshops, I was able
to get some updated information and skills that
are useful for teaching development and
competency.
Things that help me when teaching online include
but are not limited to institutional support in
the form of training, keeping up with the research
in my field, and effectively communicating with
learners.
What we do for our faculty is we do faculty
development. We have a wonderful tech team
here…We’re very fortunate that we have like brown
bag lunches where we do some education for our
faculty and we’ll do some faculty development
several times a semester. So, we’re fortunate that
way that we do try to build this in to the
schedule.
Within this theme, several participants expressed
the importance of mentoring in the early
stages of online teaching practice. One suggested
that it is necessary to find a good mentor,
ideally two: one who knows the content of the
course, and the other who knows the technical
system such as how to post, when to respond, and
who to call for help. One of the interviewees also
recommended:
When you are assigning new faculties that teach
online, you need to have them paired with an
expert teacher. Don’t just take a new faculty and
give them an online course...don’t be hanging them
out to dry by thinking that they can go in to an
online course and just start teaching because that
is just horrible and it sets them up against their
students.
A sub-theme within this key theme was “faculty
peer review is a valuable learning opportunity as
a means of providing professional support and
fostering collegiality.”
I help the new instructors get adjusted. I would
hope that people who oversee my work would give me
some honest and forthright suggestions about how
I’m doing. We have a peer review once a year. We
might do it more often.
The transcripts in the interviews indicated that
definitions and expectations in professional
development widely ranged from simple technical
support to a more structured system, such as
faculty peer-review evaluation.
Limitations of the Research Findings
Information collected in the study was of a
self-report nature that, depending on the subject
areas being queried and may be prone to some
inaccuracy as a result of less accurate recall,
lack of information, or discomfort with
self-disclosure. Additionally, the subjective
nature of knowledge production may have caused
concerns with the idiosyncratic conclusion, since
the results were more likely to be biased by the
researcher’s personal viewpoints. Therefore, the
generalizability of findings may not extrapolate
to other people or other settings.
Conclusions and Recommendations
Discussion and Implications of Findings
All of the research questions were also answered
by the interpretations of the interview data.
In answering the six research questions, the
implications of this study range from unremarkable
to significant. For example, the concepts of
learner-centeredness and social presence (Aragon,
2003; Swan & Shih, 2005) were regarded as highly
essential components in teaching online, and this
argument was fully discussed in the existing
literature. Similarly, understanding the theory of
andragogy (Knowles, 1968, 1980) was important to
teach adult learners online. While identifying
special characteristics online faculty felt
essential, we argue that these identified
attributes must be taken into consideration when
planning and implementing faculty development
programs.
The results of this study concur that it is
essential for instructors to acknowledge a
reallocation of power and strive to instill a safe
learner-centered learning environment (Weimer,
2002) when teaching in an online environment. The
implications of this role change speak to the need
for reevaluation of the faculty role in online
education, which is ongoing as there is a wide
spectrum of perspectives about this phenomenon
among the research participants.
When asked about strategies to facilitate active
learning, the participants identified the
integration of experiential learning. Experiential
learning, acquired through activities of
internships, practica, teaching assistantship
programs, and cooperative learning, has been well
defined in academic institutions (Gabriel, 2004).
However, current study findings did not reveal how
traditional activities of experiential learning
could be applied or modified in an e-learning
environment.
Exploring the ethical and legal issues online
faculty face, we found that there is little
difference between on-ground and online teaching.
Although plagiarism is a common problem in any
academic environment, dealing with students who do
not participate in online class and students who
self-plagiarize posed a unique dilemma for online
faculty members. One of the participants in this
study was particularly concerned about the fact
that the definition of plagiarism varies,
depending on students’ academic culture or
institutional environment. In terms of legal
issues, faculty members were aware of potential
pitfalls that might become problematic. However,
this study found that the scope of their knowledge
level seems to be narrow, which was not addressed
in prior literature. For example, while the
participants identified the copyright issue, few
of them were aware of the concept of fair use in
online education, which indicates a knowledge gap
to which online educators should pay attention.
The final research question was about
administrative support that can promote successful
online teaching. Although the interviewees
identify several areas of improvements, they also
acknowledge that it is quite limited in what
leadership can do as far as helping them to be
better online faculty. The results of this study
suggest that online faculty need to be provided
with mentors who know the content of the course,
as well as the technical support structure, such
as how to post, when to respond, and whom to call
for help. For new online faculty, a streamlined
orientation program is essential, but this may not
always be feasible due to time constraints.
Administrators can facilitate such a transition to
the online learning environment by implanting a
well-designed mentoring system. Within the
mentoring relationship, novice online faculty will
obtain the necessary knowledge and skills while
becoming comfortable with the culture and
environment of online education.
In regard to the disagreement between academic
leaders and instructors about the time and effort
needed for online teaching (Allen & Seaman, 2005),
an important finding of the study was that online
teaching requires more time and effort than
face-to-face education. Therefore, administrators
in higher education institutions should realize
that overloading instructors’ workload by
increasing the size of classes or the number of
courses assigned to an instructor is
counterproductive. In fact, all findings point
towards the opposite. Implications for practice
emerging from this research are that online
faculty members must be taught how to teach
online, whereas resources and support must be
available and accessible for faculty for them to
improve their skills.
Recommendations
Online teaching can enhance the traditional
approach to learning; however, educators must
understand how to adopt and maximize this new mode
of instruction. Based on the results, the
researchers provided the following
recommendations for preparing and assisting
instructors who teach online.
1.
The practice of online teaching must transparently
demonstrate mutuality, respect, and trust to
foster a transformative learning environment. No
relationship can exist without caring for and
understanding the learner.
2.
All stakeholders involved in e-learning must work
collaboratively to define and establish new
landmarks and transitions into new faculty roles.
3.
Along with an orientation program, administrators
must consider providing a mentoring system for a
smooth transition to the online learning
environment.
Suggestions for Future Research
Educators have a responsibility to develop a new
methodology and reshape existing models in the
context of an environment where learners
intermingle. We have identified some topics of
interest important to online teaching and offered
suggestions which would benefit from more
research.
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.
