perceptions, claims, concerns, and issues of college-level instructors moving from
traditional classes to online classes. Chapter 4 presents the findings of the research study in the categories of emergent themes established from results of the coded data for each interview question and demographics. This chapter also presents demographic and census data related to Carrotall Community College and similar institutions.
Demographics
Census data was gathered from each interviewee, including the number of years taught in traditional classrooms and online classrooms. Data also included the
department where each instructor taught and the types of courses taught. The information was derived solely from the interviews. Table 3 summarizes the information gathered from the demographic questions used in the interviews:
Table 3
Demographic Information
Participant Department Classes Years
Teaching Years Teaching Online Male or Female I1 Business and Information Technology Information Technology 12 4 M I2 Business and Information Technology
Computer Concepts and Intro to Business, assisting in two Internet classes with fulltime faculty, as I am Associate Dean 24 3 F I3 Business Information Technology division and computer information Computer Information Systems 30 6 M
systems department I4 Business Information Technology Computer Concepts, VisualStudio.net programming, an intro class (Windows programming), and an advanced class (web programming with database interaction) 23 6 M I5 Information Technology Convergence and Information Technology
Technology classes, and a Computer Concepts and Applications class (introductory IT) 10 6 M I6 Business and Information Technology division
Computer graphics, Web design, Adobe Flash, Advanced Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, LightWave, & photography. 14 1 M I7 Communications
Division Different levels of Spanish. Sometimes specific Spanish classes for law enforcement or classroom teachers too.
13 1 M I8 Business and Information Technology, mainly in the business area
Online Keyboarding and independent study with the city through an internship program, and then Administrative Careers in the spring.
25 9 F
I9 Business
Division, Paralegal Program
Internet Business Law, and in the paralegal program I run, Intro to Law, Real Property. Advanced Research Corporations,
Partnerships, & Limited Liability Companies and Probate.
I10 Communications division in Liberal Arts
English: writing, study
skills and reading. 17 4 M
I11 Economics Macro and Micro
Economics at the introductory level.
41 15 M
I12 Liberal Arts Abnormal Psychology, Intro, Human Relations, & Social Development
27 4 F
I13 Liberal Arts Humanities 1, Footsteps through the city (May only), Western
Civilization, Ancient, Medieval (online), & Modern (online).
21 6 F
I14 Business and Information Technology So Digital Media is the umbrella to the courses that I teach, and then Business and Information Technology is my division. Photoshop and Dreamweaver. Digital Media encompasses five different degree options in Computer Science classes that have gone to the artistic side, having to do with graphic design, web design, print design and layout, video and animation.
27 8 F
I15 Liberal Arts History. I teach –
actually, online I teach the first half of American, the second of American, and History for this state.
I16 Distance
Learning My full time job is for distance learning. I’m faculty, and I’m 100% released from teaching. I teach overload for Allied Health, medical
terminology class, and this semester I’m teaching for Liberal Arts, Intro to Psychology. And I have taught Introduction to Occupational Therapy 1 and 2, through the Occupational Therapy program in the Allied Health division.
12 10 F
I17 Business and Information Technology Introduction to Accounting, Financial Accounting, Computer Concepts and
Applications, and I also teach a section of Excel.
26 7 M
I18 Business and Information Technology
Financial Accounting and Managerial Accounting on campus. On the Internet, I teach Payroll Administration and
Accounting Info Systems. And next spring, we're bringing a fraud examination course online.
9 6 F
I19 Business and Information Technology
Computer Concepts & Applications, and Word, Excel, and Access.
13 8 F
I20 English English online, and
developmental studies in the remedial area
35 9 M
I21 Communications
Division Freshman Composition I, Comp II, and Business Communication.
Distance Learning - instructional designer.
I22 Communication Services
Division
Journalism and Mass Communications. Principles of Public Relations and an honors blended section of Introduction to Mass Communications, an online section of Mass Communications, two sections of Internship 24 7 F Average Years 21.86 6.64 11F, 11M Years
Teaching Years Teaching Online
Male or Female
Thirty-eight percent of the students enrolled at Carrotall Community College are distance-learning students. Distance learning programs are estimated to be growing at approximately the same rate as at other community colleges of a similar size. The number of teachers converting to online instruction varies by semester, based on projected needs in the various programs (I2).
Census Data
For degree-granting institutions of higher education, enrollment in online courses (as a percent of total enrollment) has grown every year since 2002 (Allen & Seaman, 2010, p. 5). A quarter of the higher education students take at least one online course (Allen & Seaman, 2010). Online enrollments have grown an average of 17% per year since 2002, compared with overall enrollments increasing by 1.2% for higher education institutions (Allen & Seaman, 2010, p. 1). Carrotall’s enrollment shows 38% of students are taking courses in the online programs offered by the school.
Emergent Themes
The following themes contain representative samples of information gathered from all interviews conducted. Major issues identified within the 187 pages of interview transcripts are presented within the themes as the subthemes shown below. Each use of actual transcript verbiage includes the interviewee number designation. Paraphrasing is also credited to the original source.
Theme One: Training
The theme that was discussed the most by the interviewees was the theme of Training. Every interviewee discussed training as an issue in the transition to online education. All interviewees stated that training was important to a successful transition. The theme includes training of instructors for the most part, but the theme also includes the instructors’ perceptions of student training required. The subthemes within the theme of Training include (a) a discussion of the importance of mentors; (b) the Distance Learning department; (c) aspects of interaction; (d) technical tools that are used; (e) the requirement for continuous training; (f) meeting seat time in the online classroom; (g) content in the online classrooms; (h) the need for student orientations. The spectrum of subthemes within the theme of training is discussed below.
Mentors.
In the beginning of the transition to online instruction, there were no actual training courses, and the instructors were at a loss as to what to do. Mentors were assigned, with mixed results. One interviewee stated the following regarding the transition to online instruction:
The school was heavily involved. There was training. There was mentoring. We had one person at each school who would mentor you if you got involved. So the transition to teaching online came pretty easily once I was comfortable having the students go out there to get their syllabus and look for assignments and things like that and schedules (I5).
An experienced person needs to be made available to instructors beginning online teaching to ensure they can all be successful. Beyond the basic structure of the online training, there are issues that need immediate resolution in online training, similar to the issues students encounter in their online courses. The online instructors do not all have the expertise in using computers to know what to do in online courses without assistance. More than just the use of Blackboard must be taught (I11).
Collaboration among instructors could help in the process of learning how to teach online. Sharing ideas between instructors has proven to be useful for many of the instructors teaching online. For the more advanced level of training, an interviewee suggested that bringing experienced instructors together to share ideas would be more helpful than the best practices taught in the course (I11).
Distance Learning.
The Distance Learning department was created to standardize distance learning and assist instructors in understanding how to use the Blackboard Learning Management System (LMS). Getting into Distance Learning is a big transition for the instructors and for the school: Ten years ago, the transition was difficult. Now, the technology is much better, so the instructors can do much more (I3).
Now they’ve got a Distance Learning department that kind of helps us with that, so, it’s getting much better, let’s just put it that way. They control the
environment, basically. That’s what they do. They control Blackboard and all the stuff, who can use it, who can access it, who can put classes on (I3).
The Distance Learning department started training instructors in 2007, and there are two levels of training.
But today we have a class that people get trained, formally in a class on operation within Blackboard, and then there are different levels of just how to use
Blackboard and develop a class, and then there's another level, more advanced level, where you just learn advanced – I'm trying to remember what we would call it. But basically advanced curriculum development for Blackboard, and then you're approved to make any class that you want because you have your – you're certified as a developer for Blackboard. So some people are certified to teach a class, but not necessarily develop a class. So there's two levels (I10).
The first level is for teaching online, and the second level is for developing courses to put online. After taking the first level of training, instructors are allowed to teach existing online curriculum that has already been developed by someone else. The first level is really the technical training, and it is important to understand the technical side (I10).
Interaction.
The training puts an instructor in the place of the student, which is the most important thing to do. The instructor taking the course is encouraged to put a fake student into the class and log in as that student to make sure everything works. One interviewee thought he was doing a good job until he went in as a student, could not
determine how to find things, and was frustrated as a student in his own class. An
interviewee reviewed the material as a student and had trouble finding things and relating the online material to the course (I5). It is important to develop materials that cover everything thoroughly so that the students can succeed without added support.
The training should cover communicating with the students with a comparable efficiency in online instruction as is accomplished in traditional courses.
Communication, including written communication, is essential in online courses. Even simple announcements that are posted in the online classroom must be clear to the students. This can be a challenge to all online instructors, as it is not clear that the students are reading what is posted. One must be creative in one’s writing, color-coding important points and using bold text for emphasis. Multimedia is used in addition to the written instructions (I7).
Technical tools.
The two levels of training are important, but to present a quality online course, one needs to learn about the additional technical tools that can enhance the online
courses, like Camtasia and Wimba. This additional technical training is not offered in the basic online training courses, but it is provided as an option for online instructors who want additional training (I7, I18). Camtasia gives instructors the capability of preparing videos to demonstrate course material, while Wimba provides a virtual classroom for online collaboration with students (Camtasia, 2009; Wimba, 2009).
Training needs to revolve around the change in interaction, not just the tools that can be used. Thorough training in using the online tools, like Blackboard, is important, but the instructors need to learn how to handle the differences in the online classrooms.
“Training, I think, really needs to revolve around the changes in interaction that are going to take place and what to expect and how to handle those different kinds of situations” (I1).
Optional meetings for ongoing training keep the faculty members informed about the new technologies that are available for online instruction, although the instructors have the option whether to use that technology or not. One of these technologies is the Respondus Lockdown browser, which locks the browsers while students take tests at home to ensure that the students cannot look up answers while taking those tests online (Respondus, 2009). Wimba can be used for live interactions with students (Wimba, 2009). If there is a new technology that the school has adopted, then optional training will be offered (I7).
The teachers, in both traditional and online classes, each have to remain competitive with the other teachers to sell their classes to the students, because the students have many choices in instructors in courses in either teaching format. Each instructor must update his or her online instructional training to ensure that he or she is up-to-date on the latest tools available. This will help to ensure that the students choose his or her course over courses that do not use the latest technology (I17). Other resources should be examined for online instruction, and the instructors should not just rely on the training that the school provides. Other websites provide tutorials on creating online courses, and all resources should be used (I17).
Additional training on other technical software and tools beyond the basic Blackboard training would be useful for instructors. Advanced training in software like
Camtasia and in better ways to communicate with the students would be helpful. The Distance Learning staff answers questions about these areas now (I18).
Continuous training.
There is a need for continuous training of online instructors because of all the new technical aspects that are being added continually. New online instructors must take two levels of training using the Blackboard Learning Management System. This training is thought to be beneficial (I5).
Technical training needs to be augmented with training regarding the pedagogical differences between online and traditional classes. Online instruction has changed considerably since the original telecourses. The courses today are “completely different courses in terms of structure, design, and goals” (I20).
Seat time.
Seat time, which is the amount of time students normally spend sitting in a traditional classroom, must be calculated when developing an online class, and this was stressed in the second level Developer’s Training course. According to one interviewee:
They also were very adamant about seat time. In other words, if you’re teaching a three credit hour on campus class, a 16-week class represents 48 hours of clock time of what they call seat time, which is time where the student would be seated in the class for a lecture for something like that. If you are delivering the content online, you had to show how much that would correlate to seat time, and if it was labs you had to show how that would be done, and the number of hours. For the labs, you are supposed to have twice as many hours, two hours of actual lab time for one hour of credit. So for a 48-hour class that had one hour of lab, two lecture
hours and one hour of lab, would be the equivalent of 64 clock hours. . .we’re under the authority of the State Board of Regents and sometimes their higher learning institution guidelines. We had to comply (I5).
Content.
An interviewee talked about how the Distance Learning staff did not teach enough basic information about online instruction and the tools needed, but instead the Distance Learning staff included a lot of theory. The training is designed more for instructors without a background in Education, which is emphasized in the training (I6). There was also a lack of belief that there were sufficient warnings in training that the students need self-discipline, which is an issue for many students, as the new online students seem to think the courses are easy because they are online. An interviewee stated, “It's not really any easier. It's more convenient to them, more flexible, but the self-discipline part is an issue for a lot of students. I can't really recall that there was any warning about those things in training” (I6). Also not presented in the training courses, was the point that the instructors need to provide the same type of education as is being provided on campus. The training did not provide the depth needed on the tools (I7).
The people in the Distance Learning department present a lot of information and tell the instructors to fit the material provided by Distance Learning into their class structures. There is concern that courses cannot all be fit into the same structure. Step- by-step information on creating an online class in a uniform format should be taught (I8). The training for the instructors who are new to online needs to be basic, but the training for instructors who have been teaching for awhile should be different. Additional
technical material could be included in training for the more experienced online instructors (I18).
Most faculty members are content experts, not trained in formal theory, and they need to understand that the curriculum has to be developed more thoroughly for an online student than for an on campus student. The method of delivery of the material has
changed in the past few years, and the instructors need to be trained in formal educational theory. They need to understand how to write course objectives, not just stand in front of a class and lecture (I21).
Some instructors feel that new technical skills and teaching techniques need to be taught, instead of focusing on setting course objectives, since online instruction is a different format for the same topics. The online instruction for teachers seems to focus more on teaching in general than on teaching in an online environment. Instructors think that the training needs to cover the technical skills needed to teach in an online format. Learning the new technologies available is important in teaching online (I22).
The people in the Distance Learning department should not have control over the courses; the people in the division should. The Distance Learning department should provide support and training, not necessarily control and oversight. The Distance Learning department should simply assist with the technology. The instructors are the experts on the content, and they should be in control of what is presented in the
classroom (I22).
Student orientations.
Students should be required to go to an introduction to online type of class so they understand how to communicate in an online classroom environment. Student
orientations are important so the students understand what is required. Etiquette in writing emails is also an essential skill for students (I7).
Theme Two: Communication
The second most common theme discussed by the interviewees is the theme of Communication. Every instructor talked about the communication differences and the lack of face-to-face contact presenting a challenge in bringing a class to life. The