Introductions

Lisa Dawley, Ph.D.Professor and Chair

Kerry Rice, Ed.D.Assistant Professor and Associate Chair

Going Virtual! 2010The Status of Professional Development and Unique Needs of K-12 Online Teachers

http://ow.ly/3aHwu

Going Virtual! Research Series

• Who delivered/received PD? • When and how PD was delivered? • Content and sequence of PD?

2007: The Status of Professional Development

• Amount of PD?• Preferred delivery format?• Most important topics for PD?

2008: Unique Needs and Challenges

• Program evaluations• Complexities of measuring “effectiveness”

2009: Effective Professional Development of K-12 Online Teachers

• Revisit questions from 2007 & 2008 • What PD have you had? What do you need?

2010: The Status of Professional Development and Unique Needs of K12 Online Teachers

Poll

Going Virtual! Research SeriesPh

ase

I: 20

07

258 Respondents•167 K-12 online teachers•61 Administrators•14 TrainersOver 40 virtual schools and online programsOver 30 states

Phas

e II:

200

8 884 K-12 Online Teachers•727 virtual schools•99 supplemental programs•54 brick and mortar online

programsOver 60 virtual schools and online programsOver 30 states

Phas

e III

: 200

9 2 Programs•1 Virtual Charter•1 Supplemental Program

Goi

ng V

irtua

l: 20

10

830 K-12 Online Teachers417 Virtual School318 Supplemental81 Blended12 Brick N MortarOver 50 virtual schools and online programsOver 40 states & 24 countries

Des

crip

tive

Eval

uativ

e

Demographics

• Teachers highly experienced– 99% credentialed– 60% Master’s degree+

• 12% of new online teachers have never taught f-2-f

• Boundaries are blurring

PD in Online Instruction

• 25% of brand new online teachers received no training

• Most common type:– ongoing training (81%)– workshops (77%)

• Who provides?– workplace (94%)– university (30%)

• University training– 43% of teachers with

6+ years experience– 12% of brand new

teachers

Preferred PD

• #1 Fully online facilitated (53%)

• #2 Workshops (49%)

• Grad courses appeal to teachers with 0-10 years experience (30-39%)

• Grad courses least appeal to teachers with 10+ years experience (56%).

Personal Learning Networks

• #1 Facebook for personal learning (n=29)• 52% received training in use of social networks

for PD• 25% want additional training in the use of

social networks to support personal learning

Favorite learning network?

Comments?

Topics Covered in PD

Highest rated, current:• 93% LMS training• 90% Communication

technologies• 86% field of online

teaching

Highest rated, needed:• Foundations: Psychology

of online learning, 44%• Facilitation: Meeting

needs of students with disabilities, 64%

• Design: Design tools, 40%• Design: Instructional

design, 43%

Foundations

Facilitation Strategies

TechnologyTools

Online Design

Etiquette, Behavior & Assessment

Comments on training topics?

Training Needs

• Brand new online teachers– Working with students with disabilities in the

online classroom (57%) – Managing groups and online collaboration (52%)– Instructional design of online learning (53%)

Training Needs

• 1-5 Years Online Teaching Experience– The area of design, including instructional design

principles (46%) – Design tools (41%) – Design of syllabi (38%)

Training Needs

• 6+ Years of Online Teaching Experience– Psychology of online learning (41%) – Promoting student autonomy (35%) – Student readiness (34%)

Research Issues

• Perceived researcher conflict of interest – scoping out market opportunities

“This survey was annoying--long, unnecessarily vague, complicated and obviously self-serving.”

• Online teachers are tired of being surveyed?• Using data mining to support effectiveness

measures

Program Evaluation

Teacher Effectiveness

Highly qualified?

Parent Satisfaction

Annual Performance

Range of implementation

Student Satisfaction

Knowledge of STS

Workshop Effectiveness

Quality

Usefulness

Engagement

Pass Rate Predictive Model

• Decision Tree Analysis– Improved grades (from 88% to 92%) when participants’

logged into LMS more than 10 times over six weeks. The average is further improved to 98% when frequency of logins increased to 17 times.

Engagement

• Clustering– More time spent online = more time spent offline.– Previous online teaching experience = more hours spent

both online and offline.

TeacherStream

Comments?