The Professor Behind the Screen: Four Case Studies of Online Teaching in Business.

online teaching;online education;postsecondary teaching;Education;Social Sciences;Higher Education

Bergom, Inger M.Cook, Constance E. ;

University of Michigan

关键词: online teaching;    online education;    postsecondary teaching;    Education;    Social Sciences;    Higher Education;   

Others  :  https://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/handle/2027.42/111535/inbe_1.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y

瑞士|英语

来源: The Illinois Digital Environment for Access to Learning and Scholarship

【 摘 要 】

Although online education in postsecondary education is not new, the number of onlinecourses and programs has grown especially fast in recent years. This shift toward onlineeducation has drawn strong supporters as well as critics: some see promise in the immediate andflexible nature of the online environment, while others question the quality of online courses.The debate, in fact, hinges on teaching, just as in face-to-face settings. However, little systematicresearch has investigated online teaching through the eyes of instructors, and literature aboutonline teaching is based largely on speculation and lacks complexity and depth.The central aim in this study was to examine online teaching from the perspectives ofinstructors themselves in order to understand pedagogical decisions, views of online education,and environmental factors influencing teaching. Case studies of four instructors at twoinstitutions were developed. Each instructor taught a fully online, asynchronous undergraduatebusiness course during Fall 2013. I gained access to course websites to view course materials andobserve communication between the instructor and students. During the semester, I interviewedeach instructor four times using a semi-structured interview format.The four case studies were composed separately, each with thick description that helpedcreate a detailed and contextualized narrative. In addition to the case studies, I present a crosscaseanalysis describing themes and offering insights into the constraints and affordances ofteaching online. The cross-case analysis contributed to the development of a theoreticalframework for studying online teaching. Specifically, I propose an ecology model of onlineteaching accounting for contextual factors (e.g., institutional setting, instructor background)shaping teaching decisions, experiences, and beliefs in the asynchronous online teachingenvironment.This inquiry has meaningful implications for practice and research. First, knowing howinstructors design courses and think about the online teaching-learning environment can informthe work of faculty development staff who train and support instructors and shape institutionalculture related to teaching. Second, insights from this exploratory study can strengthen futureresearch seeking to answer evaluative or causal questions by revealing essential variables toconsider when examining the processes and outcomes of online education.