Reading16 Theme 7: Focus on the online teacher

Reading 16. Second reading on Theme 7: Focus on the Online teacher.

McNaught, C. (2003) Supporting the global e-teacher. International Journal of Training and Development 7:4

link: to source through Massey Library

Carmel McNaught is an Australian who at the time of writing worked in Hong Kong and taught online in a New Zealand University.

The paper addressed the role of academic staff development in preparing university teachers to work effectively within the changing boundaries of their institutions.

There is an expectation that both staff and students will operate comfortably within an electronic environment, but changing educational practices and styles can produce negative reactions and negativity needs to be acknowledged and managed effectively by a supportive environment. The institution must offer staff opportunities to manage their own level of comfort. There needs to be a congruence of policy, culture and support if e-learning is to be successful.

Globalisation means that the online instructor in higher education is confronted by various perspectives on knowledge that need to be negotiated together with the increasing student diversity and increasing range of tools and strategies for design

Innovation and change requires adequate support and time must be made available to build staff confidence and motivation. McNaught recommended 3 strategies to provide flexible, appropriate and adaptable support for e-teachers:

1. focus on supporting individual teachers in their own workplace setting

2. focus on supporting good curriculum and educational design

3. focus on policy

McNaught sums up with a list of 7 principles for staff development for the global e-teacher:

• Have meaningful, inclusive conversations about change
• Leaders must show commitment to academic principles
• Global university partnerships must be negotiated
• Departmental support projects rather than institution-wide should be established
• Realistic expectations of staff and workload
• Support needs to be on-going and multi-faceted
• Establish & maintain teachers’ motivation for e-teaching

DISCUSSION & QUESTIONS

In searching for an article on this theme I was interested to discover that there appeared to be so much about the learning process and the student and comparatively little specifically about the instructor. In face-to-face teaching, teachers are continuously communicating to each other about teaching methods, students and related issues. I would think that by contrast, the online teacher could easily become socially isolated. Do the many edublogs, discussion boards and wikis compensate the total online teacher? In a large institution like a university, should online instructors also be allocated face-to-face classes to provide a variety of experience - would that postpone or accelerate burnout?