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Article Synopsis: Barriers to Implementing Large-Scale Online Staff Development Programs for Teacher
01.14.04 (12:09 pm)   [edit]
[b]Barriers to Implementing Large-Scale Online Staff Development Programs for Teachers[/b]
[url=]http://www.westga.edu/~distance/ojdla/winter64/ meyen64.htm[/url]
Edward L. Meyen and Chien Hui Yang
The University of Kansas
e-Learning Design Lab

My Comments: I think this article would be good if you were to design a test of your own. The Methodolgy section gives complete instructions, so I will not repeat them here. Although they are talking about K-12 staff in this article, most of the review of literature is from Higher Ed, since that is where most of the work is taking place. At the end of the quotes, you will find out what their top four barriers were.

Direct quotes from the paper:
The study involved engaging 54 general and special educators in several professional roles from nine states in a series of focus groups to identify the barriers to online staff development. An instrument was designed to rank order the barriers in terms of perceived significance. Twenty-two barriers were identified.

Four strategies emerged as the foci of the delivery models project.
Identification and validation of barriers that are likely to be encountered in implementing large-scale online staff development programs for teachers.
Engagement of planning participants in beta testing the online staff development modules to ensure a common understanding of one approach to online staff development.
Identification of the parameters or conditions that surround the development and/or successful implementation of online staff development on a large-scale basis.
Framing of recommendations on how best to implement large-scale online staff development programs for teachers.
Related Literature:
Berge (1998) reported on barriers identified by 42 instructors experienced in teaching post-secondary online courses. His conclusions included the observation that “Many barriers to learning and teaching at a distance are caused by lack of resources and people. Further, the most critical obstacles reported in this survey appear related to persons’ resistance or fear of many changes that must occur at the individual and organizational level.”

Zahner (2002) recommended that there be flexibility to change based on ongoing user assessment and feedback. Failure to meet this condition may result in a barrier to successful online staff development. Treacy, Kleiman and Peterson (2002) identified nine elements of successful online professional development (OPD).
Assess local professional development needs and develop an OPD plan based on these needs.
Connect OPD with other ongoing, face-to-face professional development activities.
Carefully select and train OPD specialist team members.
Build a strong local team.
Develop incentives.
Publicize the OPD program and involve local stakeholders.
Provide readily available and reliable access to technology and support.
Foster a rich, interactive online learning community
Integrate online workshops with face-to-face meetings. (p. 44)
Killion (2000) reported that barriers to online staff development include cost concerns, learner readiness, quality of content and the learning processes employed.

The top four barriers were:
Lack of effective technical support and troubleshooting when a teacher experiences difficulty with an online staff development program adds to the frustration of participating teachers.
Lack of resources due a declining in the economy and, therefore, decreased budgets, is preventing some states from fully developing their technology infrastructures in the schools.
Getting schools to choose online activities as a required or optional staff development activity is often difficult. Many districts are still employing only traditional forms of staff development.
Lack of attention to connecting staff development with student outcomes may contribute to the devaluing of staff development.


 
Article: Teaching Courses Online:
01.13.04 (7:44 am)   [edit]
5 Minute Presentation Topics

Title of Article: Teaching Courses Online:
How Much Time Does it Take?


Citation Information: Lazarus, B. (2003). Teaching
Courses Online: How Much Time Does it Take. JALN, 7 (3), 47-54. Retrieved September
2003, from http://www.aln.org/publicatio...


What is the Point? Faculty workloads when teaching online are of great concern. This article tries to determine if there is any different in TIME between teaching online and F2F.


The researcher looked at three courses, two introductory and one advanced. There were online discussions and assignments that were required and graded for each topic. Students need to initiate and respond to 10 topics.
For the advanced class the students also had to complete 15 case studies.


The instructor created the courses and that time was not computed in the total. The teacher timed herself with a stop watch for these activities: email, discussion board and assignments.


Discussion Boards took the most time and emails the least. The greatest number of emails were sent during the first two weeks. The overall time it took in the Winter of 1999 was between 213 - 337 minutes per week.
In the fall of 1999 that number increased to between 229 - 384 minutes per week. In the winter of 2000, the time ranged between 206 - 414 minutes per
week.


Conclusion: The researcher thought the amount of time to teach was fairly consistent over the three semesters and averaged between 3.5 and 7 hours per week. This is somewhat equivalent to a F2F class. The big difference between F2F and online turned out to be how the time was devoted. In the F2f, the faculty member was present only during class. In the online class, the teacher was available every day.


Why is it Relevant? The Academic Program, IT Policy and Academic Support Committee for The Information Resources Coordinating Council (IRCC) meets next week to discuss information technology policy as it relates to academics. One of the faculty serving on this committee heard that it takes 3 to 5 times as long to teach an online course as it does a F2F. This
article refutes that theory.


Where Does it Fit with Lit?


Why I am sharing it: I thought it broke long held beliefs about the time it takes to teach online.



How does it fit
into my ideas? It appears to be good news. I've also been looking at Discussion Board information, and I was not surprised, but a bit dismayed that discussions take the lion's share of time.

 
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01.12.04 (6:12 am)   [edit]
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