Conceptions and Misconceptions of Instructors Pertaining to Their Roles and Competencies in Distance Education: A Qualitative Case Study

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to investigate the conceptions and misconceptions of instructors pertaining to their roles and competencies in distance education. Case study research design was adopted within the study. The participants, nine instructors in a public university delivering the courses in fully distance programs, was selected by using typical case sampling strategy. The data were collected through semi-structured interviews and observations on distance courses. The collected data were analysed through constant comparison analysis. The qualitative analysis revealed instructors' conceptions of roles, competencies, and misconceptions in distance education. Roles included planning and delivery. Planning sub-theme covered the roles of environmental / technical planning and instructional design. Delivery sub-theme covered the roles of lecturing, evaluation, guidance, motivation, and material development. Participants' conceptions of competencies included ICT competency, communication skills, and subject expertise. Finally, the study findings identified the misconceptions of the instructors. The identified misconceptions were identified as use of the same materials with face-to-face education, sufficient materials, lack of role for interaction among students, ineffectiveness of distance education, having the same roles with face-to-face education, and impossibility of distance collaboration among students. The findings imply that the instructors' conceptions of roles and competencies are based on their experience in both face-to-face and distance education and this base unsurprisingly caused misconceptions regarding teaching in distance education.

On Becoming an Online University in an Emergency Period: Voices From the Students at a State University

“…In cases where there are asynchronous practices and the course structure is not flexible, one of the elements that will increase the dialogue environment is the instructor. The misconceptions of instructors about distance education (Kara et al, 2018) may have led the teaching staff to ignore the need of students for an extra interaction.…”

“…The materials developed by the instructors for face-to-face courses are not suitable for distance education, and it is likely possible that their misconceptions about distance education (Kara et al, 2018) have increased the transactional distance in this rapid transition process. Generally, when preparing a distance education material, the instructor should be involved in teamwork (Moore, 1993).…”

“…However, this situation was not able to be applied in the rapid transition to distance education because of both personnel and time constraints. The misconception that the printed materials they use in face-to-face teaching would be sufficient for the distance education (Kara et al, 2018) also causes them not to involve in a material development process. Furthermore, it is known that the instructors are not aware of the tasks that they are responsible for learner-instructor, learner-learner, and learner-content interaction in distance education (Kara et al, 2018).…”

“…The misconception that the printed materials they use in face-to-face teaching would be sufficient for the distance education (Kara et al, 2018) also causes them not to involve in a material development process. Furthermore, it is known that the instructors are not aware of the tasks that they are responsible for learner-instructor, learner-learner, and learner-content interaction in distance education (Kara et al, 2018). Therefore, the online learners have experienced transactional distance more during the emergency transition.…”

“…All the teaching staff must have an awareness of distance education philosophy and pedagogy to increase the quality and effectiveness of distance education. One way to evaluate this awareness is how the faculty members use their knowledge and skills in distance education practices or how they implement their roles in distance education (Kara et al, 2018). The…”