Taken from http://www.paneuropeannetworks.com/science-technology/eit-digital-announces-best-digitaltechnology-scale-ups/
Teacher Performance in Online Learning Scenarios By Prof. Jonathan Acuña-Solano, M. Ed. School of English Faculty of Social Sciences Universidad Latina de Costa Rica Sunday, April 30, 2017 Post 312
As an active online instructor with a compressed experienced gained in two years and a half of course delivery in VLEs (Virtual Learning Environments), I am often asked by faculty members and other teaching professionals if online courses are good room for teacher training and professional development. Basing myself on my gained expertise I must go beyond my professional experience as a current instructor and as a former online student; I must then refer to Pawan, Wiechart, Warren, & Park (2016) who have stated that “evidence suggests that online courses can be effective in improving teacher knowledge, instructional practices, and student achievement.” In other words, online courses can help teaching professionals improve and grow professionally.
This is not just my gut feeling about online learning and of what I am currently doing in virtual learning scenarios as an instructor, but this is now based on what Pawan, Wiechart, Warren, & Park (2016) have detected in their research and professional practice in online English language teacher education. The fact is that my etnographies of courses I have delivered, when compared to the experts’ way of thinking, do point out towards teacher knowledge,
instructional practices, and student achievement as the room for teacher training and professional development. But how can the training in these areas improve teacher performance in online learning scenarios? What needs not be be overlooked by professionals? A look into Teacher Knowledge VLEs and online learning are not equivalent to technology usage as it is commonly mistaken by some teaching professionals; they are much more aligned with pedagogy for distant education. As I get to explain colleagues and other educators, online learning is not about using platforms such as Moodle, Blackboard, Canvas, Schoology, and so on; it is much more connected to pedagogy or andragogy, depending on the target group of students one has in mind. The online instructor needs to be trained on the real understanding and development of pedagogy (andragogy) since they are much more relevant to student learning processes. As pointed out by Pawan, Wiechart, Warren, & Park (2016), “pedagogy rather than technology should drive online instruction,� not the other way around. Online teaching ought to be focused on pedagogy when student teachers and regular students are trained online. Teacher Knowledge that is developed in VLEs is not measured by how much an instructor knows about Web 2.0 or the use of CMSs (content
management systems); it is measured by how much s/he understands the pedagogical processes behind deep learning and the development of skills and competences needed by professionals in their daily work. Teacher Knowledge is linked to how an instructor is able to profit from the tools s/he is provided to help students develop themselves within the course content (and beyond). All this is about how educators make use of social, teaching, and cogntive presences in a course to replicate what can be done in a F2F classroom but with the aid of technology driven by pedagogical comprehension of learning processes. Instructional Practices in VLEs As it can be understood by any neophite instructor teaching an online course for the first time, instruction in an online environment is not the same as in a F2F setting. As stated by Laureate Education Inc. (2012), though there are similar features in both teaching/learning environments, an instructors must be present and available for his/her learners though there may be preset times to interact synchronously or asynchronously for both teachers and students. As in a F2F teaching environment, an instructional practice that needs to be present is the setting of clear expectations for learners. And because students can interact with the course content any moment, “it is important to establish how much time you expect them to be working on coursework each week” [ CITATION Lau12 \l 1033 ]. This is another area where teachers through online training can profit to help learners focus on their learning. Laureate Education Inc. (2012) also insists on the importance pedagogical features of online learning. For Laureate it is crucial to “create a learning community” with the students (social presence), “vary learning experiences” students are exposed to to foster skills and competencies development (teaching
presence), provide learners with “timely feedback” as part of instructor’s guidance for them (teaching presence), “invite discussions for inquiries and reflections” needed for the interaction of students with coursework and content (cognitive presence), and “use content resources that are easily accessible by all students” (teaching and cognitive presence). Going beyond these practices for online teaching, Laureate Education Inc. (2012) also suggests that all instructors “customize learning to individual needs and interests” to provide them with educational tasks that can fulfill their learning expectations in one’s course, and they also insist on the importance of the “use of Real-World examples in learning activities” and the “use of proper netiquette and cyber-activity.” To sum up, “… presences are essential for learning by means of the online medium, and instruction through the medium should strive toward their attainment” [ CITATION Paw16 \l 1033 ].
Pedagogical Considerations for a Community of Learning in a VLE “… emerges from connections and relationships among participants in the classroom” [ CITATION Paw16 \l 1033 ]. feeds from teacher-student exchanges needed in a Social Presence virtual environment as it is needed in F2F classrooms. derives from the interconnections “that lead to the development of a classroom community” [ CITATION Paw16 \l 1033 ]. “is the intellectual challenge and sense of inquiry as participants engage in collaborative and reflective exploration, interpretation, and validation of ideas” Cognitive [ CITATION Paw16 \l 1033 ] derived from the student Presence interaction with course content. is affected by the instructional design approach used to create learning tasks to foster deep learning.
“is the instructor’s course design, facilitation, and direct instruction in the online classroom” [ CITATION Paw16 \l 1033 ]. enables and enacts “the social and cognitive presences” [ CITATION Paw16 \l 1033 ]. helps learners assimilate content to be used in meaningful learning tasks that aid the development of student skills and competences.
Teaching Presence
Designed and Created by Prof. Jonathan Acuña from Pawan, Wiechart, Warren, & Park (2016) and his personal insights into and experience with these presences
Student Achievement in Online Learning Oftentimes I have had this discussion with colleagues and teaching professionals, Are learners in a VLE over, average, or under achievers? Though my very personal experience triggers an answer to this question, the fact is that no overgeneralization can be made for all online instructors. Based on what I have been able to document in my courses in which I only count with faculty members of various university across the globe, students become “over achievers” with the right doses of motivation. Laureate Education (2012) differentiates two types of motivation when dealing with an instructor-led or selfpaced course; for them any learner “must be self-motivated, however an instructor and other peers typically help motivate” them (instructor-led course) and “must have a strong self-motivating personality to be successful” in a selfpaced course. Teachers in online courses can for sure profit from them if they possess the right motivation and desire to grow professionally triggering a lot of knowledge in their current and future students. If a student enters an online course with the right encouragement (selfmotivation), s/he is ready to partake in a VLE course. Anyone with the right doses of motivation can become an over achiever (or an average one); anyone
who can be positively motivated and who has been given the right amount of formative feedback can also become an over achiever (or continue being an average one). Though there is no way of knowing if a student will become someone who likes to perform beyond the expected and average, another element to consider is the summative assessment criteria used in an online course. Based on my instructor’s experience where constructivist tasks are mostly problem-based learning-oriented linked to real-world learning scenarios, students get engaged and usually go the extra mile in spite of the fact that you also find learners who simply do the minimum to get the right score to comply with a task. My experience with training faculty members from various universities has also given me certainty that teaching professionals can be interested learners. Are online courses good room for teacher training and professional development? Sure! Teachers can gain lots of teacher knowledge, comprehend
instructional practice trends quite common in virtual learning scenarios , and help foster student achievement by means of the right motivation exponentially, all as part of teacher training and professional development. Online teaching is not about technology or how it is used; “online teaching is enhanced by technology but not subsumed by it� [ CITATION Paw16 \l 1033 ]. Teaching professionals can also be part of this online experience to grow professionally beyond the mortarand-brick walls of a classroom. Their teacher knowledge can be expanded to understand how pedagogy works in VLEs; the discovery of new instructional practices connected to a community of learning online can be of great use for current and future courses; and ways to help student achievement can also be learned to help all kinds of students.
References Laureate Education. (2012). Instructor-Led vs. Self-Paced Courses. Retrieved from Laureate Faculty Development: global.laureate.net/ Laureate Education Inc. (2012). Top 10 Practices for Teaching Online. Retrieved from Laureate Faculty Development: global.laureate.net/ Pawan, F., Wiechart, K., Warren, A., & Park, J. (2016). Pedagogy & Practice for Online English Language Teacher Education. Alexandria VA: Tesol Press.