Competencies for distance education professionals

Thach, Elizabeth C.; Murphy, Karen L.

doi:10.1007/bf02300482

Cited by 139 publications

(73 citation statements)

References 29 publications

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“…For example, Aydin (2005) obtained the expected level of necessity and possession of the roles and competencies on a five-point scale, while IBSTPI (2007) validated their set of identified competencies and performance statements based on the ratings received in terms of their criticality for instructors in face-to-face and online settings. Williams (2003) obtained the rating of the competencies on the scales of criticality and frequency, and Thach and Murphy (1995) identified the top competencies on the basis of their importance and frequency of utilization. Attempts could also be undertaken to compare the perceptions and ratings in this regard, of students and faculty.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In another study, Williams (2003) found that interpersonal and communication skills appeared in all roles and sub-roles and dominated the top competencies in the studies of Thach (1994) and others. Subsequently, Thach and Murphy (1995) found that competencies related to communication and technical skills received top priority. According to them, the top five competencies used most frequently by all roles were interpersonal communication skills, English proficiency, collaboration/teamwork skills, writing skills, and planning skills.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In earlier studies, several researchers emphasized validating both instructor competencies and roles for effective job performance (Dennis, Watland, Pirotte, & Verday, 2004;Egan & Akdere, 2005;Thach, 1994;Thach & Murphy, 1995;Varvel, 2007;Williams, 2003). Darabi, Sikorski, and Harvey (2006), on the other hand, validated tasks and competencies of distance education instructors.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Prioritization of online instructor roles: implications for competency‐based teacher education programs

2009

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Online instructors need to take on a multi-dimensional role and to be an effective online educator they are required to possess a varied and wider range of competencies. Preparing teachers for online education involves preparing them for a wide variety of roles and developing related competencies. However, the extent of emphasis required to be placed on each of these roles or competencies during a teacher training program may vary according to its culture and the context. The investigation reported in this article obtained expert opinions with regard to the priority and criticality of eight online instructor roles identified in earlier research on online education. Pedagogical roles received the highest priority by the respondents, followed by professional, evaluator, social facilitator, technologist, advisor, administrator, and researcher roles. These results have implications for teacher education and further research pertaining to the context in India.Keywords: instructor competency; online learning; teacher preparation Introduction Many teachers regard face-to-face communication as a preferred mode for teachinglearning, in spite of the dramatic progress taking place in online education. While online communication rarely makes emotions and gestures as explicit as they would be in a face-to-face context, it does have the potential for people to converse with intensity, depth, and meaning. Klein, Spector, Grabowski, and de la Teja (2004), while developing competencies for online instructors, re-examined the competencies for face-to-face settings and came to the conclusion that competencies for online instructors were not substantially different from those in face-to-face settings at a high level of abstraction. This may also imply that certain levels of equivalence exist between the instructors involved in these two modes of education. In other words, the competencies and roles required to teach in an online environment are not fundamentally different from those for teaching in a face-to-face situation. For example, listening skills are important in both contexts. However, the significance and demonstration of these competencies may vary according to the context or the roles one is assumed to undertake while teaching. That is to say, that how a teacher listens effectively in different contexts may require different skills.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Prioritization of online instructor roles: implications for competency‐based teacher education programs

2009

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“…Abdulla was concerned that there were as yet no studies in which the instructors' roles were analysed using students' perceptions. Motivated by this research gap, Abdulla (2004) extended Thach & Murphy (1995) work using students' perceptions and by adopting Berge's role-based educational model (Berge, 1995a).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A focus group composed of 9 experienced instructors was charged with determining the relation between roles and outputs. A study by Gonzalez- The number and categorization of instructors' roles are generally determined in the literature according to experts' reports/feedback (Thach & Murphy, 1995;Bezuidenhout, 2015). Some authors simply adopt a well-known, role-based educational model, thus inheriting the number and categorization of the roles according to the model elected (Abdulla, 2004;Liu et al, 2005).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Student Voices on the Roles of Instructors in Asynchronous Learning Environments in the 21st Century

Gómez-Rey

Barberà

Fernández-Navarro

2017

IRRODL

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This paper determines which instructional roles and outputs are important in the 21 st century from the perspective of students in asynchronous learning environments. This research work uses a literature review, in-depth interviews with experts, and a pilot study with students to define the instructors' outputs. Following this, roles are determined by using a quantitative methodology (in a sample of 925 students). To our knowledge, the remaining research works on this topic identify the online instructors' roles by a qualitative analysis. The findings suggest that a new role, the life skill promoter, has emerged. Furthermore, analysis of the remaining roles (pedagogical, designer, social, technical and managerial) showed that: (i) online instructors are, first and foremost, pedagogues; (ii) the design of the particular online program influences the pedagogical and designer roles and; (iii) the managerial role has declined in importance over the years due to the development of more intuitive and transparent online scenarios from the beginning of the course onward.

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