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| Theme: eLearning |
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| Staff experience of online education | ||
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Authors: |
Aitken Gillian Ross Michael |
Institutions: | University of Edinburgh |
E-learning continues to expand in the delivery of clinical education. Much has been published on learners’ experiences of e-learning while the experience of those delivering the education has received less attention. Studies have concentrated more on staff use and familiarity with technology. In particular the subjective of staff involved in online education has been neglected.
The experiences of those involved in the delivery of an online masters programme in clinical education were sought by means of semi structured interviews. Teaching involvement includes recording lectures and delivering live synchronous video tutorials. Tutorials adopt a social constructivist approach (Vygotsky 1962).
Interview questions centred on the differences between online and face-to-face teaching . Staff had a range of experiences of both online and face to face teaching. Ten interviews were undertaken and the transcripts analysed using a grounded theory methodology (Charmaz 2006) when it was judged that there were no more emerging themes.
Successful face to face teaching does not necessarily equate to successful online teaching.
Those new to online teaching should be encouraged to consider their professional development needs to become successful online facilitators.
Charmaz K (2006) Constructing Grounded Theory Sage
McShane K (2004) Integrating face to face and online teaching. Teaching in Higher Education Vol 9 No 1
Vygotsky L (1962) Thought and Language Cambridge MA MIT Press
The emergent themes centred on the steep learning curve for staff involved in this aspect of education. Specifically the additional time required for the preparation of online resources, the challenge of working out of their comfort zone, the development of new skills; in particular multi-tasking in online tutorials,
"getting my fingers to work when I 'm talking".
Online teaching, in particular the online tutorials were thought to require an ability and willingness to share the academic autonomy more familiar in a classroom setting with the students.
"you never are quite sure what is coming next"
The strength of the online community was highlighted along with the level of student engagement.
Variable internet connection was often a distraction to the academic discourse.
The staff interviewed were generally positive about their online teaching experiences but in agreement that the experience was very different to teaching face-to-face and required a different skill-set.
"something that in some ways is a lot more satisfying and cognitively challenging".
The additional preparation time was unexpected and due mainly to the perceived need for back-up plans should the technology fail
"you do have to have quite a lot of information in reserve".
Technology requires further development to meet the challenges required of it for effective online pedagogy.
Staff require different skills to teach effectively online affecting training needs.
Online teaching does not take less time than face-to-face
The issue was raised of the change in self-concept of the teacher when moving from face to face to online teaching (McShane 2004).