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

Abstract

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.

Applying Best Practice Online Learning, Teaching, and Support to Intensive Online Environments: An Integrative Review

“…There is consensus in prior literature that effective online instruction requires a more flexible approach to skill development, due to the variety of roles and skills applied in online contexts (Bawane and Spector, 2009). Key environmental differences between online and on-campus learning environments also necessitate the development of different online teaching competencies.…”

A Study of Personal Information Management Strategies for Online Faculty

“…Several later studies also identified the roles of technologist and administrator as key. These studies include work by Alvarez, Guasch, and Espasa [37]; Bawane and Spector [38]; Denis, Watland, Pirotte, and Verday [39]; and Varvel [40]. Darabi, Sikorski, and Harvey [41] identified competencies without regard to role.…”

Rethinking Distance Tutoring in e-Learning Environments: A Study of the Priority of Roles and Competencies of Open University Tutors in China

“…The Manager/Administrator role is identified by Denis et al (2004) as the peripheral role of an e-tutor. The role is ranked fifth among seven identified roles of the academic counselor in the Indira Gandhi National Open University (Mishra, 2005) and seventh among eight identified roles of the online instructor in the study of Bawane and Spector (2009). Further interviews with administrative staff highlight another reason for the lower priority attributed to the managerial role.…”

“…While some scholars (Thach & Murphy, 1995;Williams, 2003;Denis, Watland, Pirotte, & Verday, 2004;Chen, Li, & Feng, 2004;Egan & Akdere, 2005) have provided detailed taxonomies of roles and competencies, several scholars (e.g., Gold, 2001;Anderson, Rourke, Garrison, & Archer ., 2001;Salmon, 2000;Bawane & Spector, 2009;Varvel, 2007;Guasch, Álvarez, & Espasa, 2010;Hong, 2010) have proposed more general frameworks to develop the roles and competencies that are useful for online teaching.…”

“…Although the pedagogical role has dominated discussions (Coppola, Hiltz, & Rotter, 2002;Bawane & Spector, 2009;Feng, 2012;Muñoz-Carril et al, 2013), much attention has also focused on discussions of multidimensional roles (Berge, 1995;Varvel, 2007;Baran, Correia, & Thompson, 2011) in Western contexts. Nevertheless, the social role, the managerial one, and the technological role have been mostly overlooked in the Chinese literature (Zhang et al, 2015).…”