Online Teaching Professional Development in Spain at a Glance: The Need for a Strategic Approach
Author(s):
Albert Sangrà (submitting) Teresa Romeu (presenting) Mercedes Gonzalez Sanmamed Pablo César Muñoz Carril Eduardo-José Fuentes-Abeledo
Conference:
ECER 2014
Network:
16. ICT in Education and Training
Format:
Paper

Session Information

16 SES 10 A, Implementation and Impact of ICT

Paper Session

Time:
2014-09-04
15:30-17:00
Room:
B011 Anfiteatro
Chair:
Greta Björk Gudmundsdottir

Contribution

The current European Higher Education Area (EHEA) is fostering the development and implementation of a teaching and learning model in which teaching roles are being challenged and shifted. Online or blended programs are the most significant way in which most of the universities are facing this situation, even if their aims are twofold: to increase the number of students and to adapt themselves to the new methodological approaches in an easiest way. Consequently, the organization of teaching, as well as cultural issues related to, have been adapted (Lokken and Womer, 2007; Sangrà and González-Sanmamed, 2004).

Teacher’s professional development becomes a key issue to get the highest levels of quality teaching and learning considering this situation. There is a discussion about the kind of competences teachers have to have to teach online. Some authors consider there are a set of teaching competences that are the same, no matter if they are going to be used in a face-to-face environment or in an online one (Bautista, Borges and Fores, 2006). Many others take into consideration that ICT change the educational context a lot, so in order to handle online teaching, no matter if the delivery is going to be blended or fully online, teachers should get a number of specific online teaching competences (Ardizzone and Rivoltella, 2004; Espasa, Guasch and Alvarez, 2009; Laat, Lally, Lipponen and Simons, 2007; Muñoz-Carril and González-Sanmamed, 2009). Bawane and Spector (2009) highlight that the characteristics of the programme, the role the teacher has to perform, and the resources available (financial, functional, and human) require specific competencies from the teachers in order to successfully carry out their mission. These specific competences should be achieved through training and experience, so different programs have been put into practice to increase the capacity of teachers to become good online teachers too.

Considering the previous references it is logical to state that online teaching faculty development is a must to efficiently teach in online environments (Mcdonald and Poniatowska, 2011). In addition, the emergence of the MOOC phenomenon has put online education in the leading edge of higher education provision, and after this starting, low level stage, competitiveness will ask for teachers with improved online teaching competences. Teaching methodologies in online education should be revised. There still is an important amount of programmes that just replicate the teaching methods used in face-to-face classrooms when shifting to an online course. Faculty development has to be a relevant tool for this shift, especially because also new teaching roles are arising (Bawane and Spector, 2009).

A group of Spanish researchers from different universities considered the opportunity of determining which is the support for and the provision of online teaching professional development in Spain, where online programmes have considerably increased in the last years, and to identify which is the strategy, or the lack of it, underlying their actions. Keeping this in mind, a research project that was partially funded by the Spanish Ministry of Education was carried out. This research aims to show that the current situation regarding provision and support for online teaching professional development in the Spanish universities is still far away of what will be needed for facing the very next future with some competitive advantage in the European scenario.

Method

A qualitative approach was the basis of the research design. Data from the whole set of Spanish universities (77) was collected through two main instruments: a) A full analysis of the existing information shown in each university website; and b) An in-depth interview with the university responsible for teacher’s professional development units. Later on, analysis of data was carried out by the group of researchers who led the project. The first instrument consisted in a technical record corresponding to each university. This record included a) general institutional information (name, public/private legal condition, unit in charge of faculty development, existence of a strategic plan for this purpose); and b) actions developed to match with the training needs. Data were gathered from the universities’ websites. The second instrument was an in-depth, semi-structured interview addressed to the responsible people for the professional development units. They were collected through a telephone call, which was recorded and processed and categorized later on. The semi-structured interview had three main parts. The first one was related to institutional information, aiming to check and validate if the record initially collected through the website scanning was correct. Deeper level of information was achieved. The second part asked for the specific characteristics of the training actions (main aims, objectives, approach, competences that should be acquired, orientation to face-to-face ICT use or online, amount of actions, amount of participants, and average of participants respect to the total of faculty). The third one consisted in a set of open questions asking about the perception of the advantages and disadvantages of training oriented to online teaching competence acquisition and development, problems and difficulties found for the expected implementation of online teaching faculty development actions, and any other comments or suggestions on the topic. Answers were categorized and records of each university updated. Records were sent back to each university in order to validate the information they contained. The findings discussed in this paper lay on the data gathered through this second instrument. Almost 65% of universities (49) were available to participate in this second part of the study, i.e., the in-depth interview. Those that did not participate argued lack of time to devote to think of and answer the questions, lack of experience in the use of ICT or, especially, lack of online education programs. Few of them considered this was confidential information that does not have to be public.

Expected Outcomes

Regarding the professional development for online teaching, some critical issues were found out: • Cultural reluctance to change, linked to the myth of the difficulty of using technologies for teaching. Over 15,6% of the universities are not providing any kind of training activity for online teaching. • A lack of motivating teaching methodologies, tending to replicate face-to-face methodologies but using a new technology. Most of the training activities focus on the content creation and edition (29%) and assessment (25%). • Institutional lobbies interested in to spread out online is a low-quality education. The role of the online teacher and its development is undervalued, and the time devoted to personal development, considered excessive. • Issues related to the financing of training and development: lack of economic and technical resources to support teachers. Low profile of those teachers who act as trainer, and lack of training on use and management of resources. Given all this, some recommendations have been provided: • Assume online teaching has to be based on a new educational paradigm. Institutions have to help teachers to run away from traditional teaching methodologies. They should make to teach online attractive and easier, fostering its practice as a means of personal development and advancement. • Foster online teaching faculty development providing high-level trainers, perhaps coming from more experienced distance and online teaching universities. An increase in human, economic, and technical resources should also be valued to this end. • Universities have to put all this at the very middle of their overall strategy if they actually want to be competitive in the very next future, in an educational scenario in which online education will not be marginal but central in higher education and lifelong learning.

References

Ardizzone, P. and Rivoltella, P.C. (2004). E-learning. Métodos e instrumentos para la innovación de la enseñanza universitaria.Málaga: Aljibe. Bates, A.W. (Tony) and Sangrà, A. (2011). Managing technology in higher education. Strategies for transforming teaching and learning. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Bautista, G.; Borges, F. and Forés A. (2006). Didáctica universitaria en entornos virtuales de enseñanza-aprendizaje. Madrid: Narcea. Bawane, J. and Specto, J. (2009). Prioritization of online instructor roles: Implications for competency-based teacher education programs. Distance Education, 30(3), 383–397. Espasa A.; Guasch, T. and Alvarez, I. (2009). A methodological approach to identify teacher’s ICT competencies in online learning environments in Higher Education. 13th Biennial Conference EARLI. Amsterdam, August, 25-29. Laat, M.; Lally, V.; Lipponen, L. and Simons, R. (2007). Online teaching in networked learning communities: A multi-method approach to studying the role of the teacher.Instructional Science , 35(3): 257–286. Lokken, F. and Womer, L. (2007). Trends in e-learning: Tracking the impact of e-learning in higher education. Washington, DC: Instructional Technology Council. Macdonald, J. and Poniatowska, B. (2011). Designing the professional development of staff for teaching online: an OU (UK) case study, Distance Education, 32:1, 119-134. Muño-Carril, P.C. and González-Sanmamed, M. (2009). Plataformas de teleformación y herramientas telemáticas. Barcelona: Ediuoc. Sangrà, A. and González-Sanmamed, M. (eds.) (2004). La transformación de las universidades a través de las TIC: discursos y prácticas. Barcelona: Ediuoc.

Author Information

Albert Sangrà (submitting)
Universitat Oberta de Catalunya
Barcelona
Teresa Romeu (presenting)
UOC
Computer Science, Multimedia and Telecommunication Studies
Barcelona
Mercedes Gonzalez Sanmamed
University of Coruña
Pedagogy and didactic
A CORUÑA
Pablo César Muñoz Carril
University of Santiago de Compostela
Didáctica y Organización Escolar
Lugo
Eduardo-José Fuentes-Abeledo
Universidad de Santiago de Compostela, Spain

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