Concerns of Online Teachers in Higher Education

Zane Berge, Ph.D.
Director, Training Systems
UMBC
1000 Hilltop Circle
Baltimore, MD 21250
410-455-2306
berge@umbc.edu
http://www.emoderators.com/berge/zberge.shtml

Key Words: online learning, computer-mediated communication, barriers, distance education

Abstract This article focuses on the concerns of online teachers. Online instruction is limited here to computer-mediated online instruction and to courses in which online interaction accounts for at least 50% of the graded part of the course. Forty-two teachers were surveyed regarding their perceptions of the most salient barriers to their online teaching. The central question addressed in this article is to what degree do online teachers encounter the following perennial problems within education: quality, change, accountability, productivity, and access.

For the past several years, I have been interested in various aspects of online education. When I reviewed the literature (e.g., Oppenheimer, 1997; Maddux, 1994; Postman, 1995; Spodick, 1995; Stoll, 1995; Turkle, 1995), I found that many of the perennial issues in education can be categorized into the areas of quality, access, and the fear of change-especially change without adequate support and resources. Recently, accountability (e.g., Allen, 1994; Florida Department of Education, 1997; Hillesheim, 1998) and productivity (e.g., Massy & Zemsky, 1995) have emerged as important issues, too. I believe that each of these problems do not carry equal weight with all groups of educators. For example, teachers may find a specific subset of problems of more significance to them, whereas K12 principals may find a different set of issues have more impact upon their work.

This article focuses on the concerns of online teachers in higher education (e.g., Kearsley et. al., 1995; Sherry, 1996). Online instruction is limited here to instruction delivered through computer-mediated communication in some form, as opposed to that delivered via audio or video/TV. Additionally, I have defined online classroom instruction as courses in which interaction among faculty and students is conducted completely online, or significantly online (i.e., where a least 50% of the graded part of the course is conducted online). I conducted a survey to examine the perceptions these higher education teachers have regarding the most salient barriers to their online teaching.

Defining Some Perennial Issues in Education
Access Historically, one of the primary benefits of distance education has been to increase access to quality education. Access is used in the broadest sense here and includes access by students and faculty to the appropriate hardware, software, andwarmware (technicians and other people supporting educational efforts). Barriers to access can include high costs of hardware and software, policies that create obstacles to online learning and teaching, and inadequate resources to support the students or faculty.

Accountability
In this article, accountability refers to teacher accountability regarding the attainment of course objectives by the students. In order for the teacher to be held responsible, specific, measurable, negotiated standards need to be agreed on among all the stakeholders in the educational enterprise.

Change
Education is the one of the most conservative of social institutions. Change, and the directions of that change in education has generally been considered problematical. Should Socrates live today, the educational establishment might not go so far as to require him to drink hemlock because his teaching methods have so changed the tradition of learning that they are perceived as corrupting students. On the other hand, he might not be granted tenure.

Social changes in contemporary society are demanding that learners change their knowledge and skill bases and change them faster than at any time in history (Naisbitt, 1982; Naisbitt & Aburdene, 1990). The confluence of technology, demographics, and work/family requirements make lifelong learning a necessity for more and more people. The demands for training and retraining, the trends toward multiple careers throughout a person's lifetime, added to the new knowledge about teaching and learning, demand concomitant changes in the roles of students, faculty, the curriculum, and indeed, a re-examination of the role of our institutions of higher education (Berge, 1996).

Productivity
Increased productivity in this context means that either instructional output is increased at the same cost and/or costs are reduced while producing the same output. The perception of many educational administrators is that the application of information technology in education will somehow increase instructional productivity. Yet Carol Twigg (1992) states that one of the "most serious problems facing the U.S. is the seemingly inexorable rise in the cost of education with no apparent increase in education's benefits, i.e., students are paying more for less."(p. 40). The consensus is that increases in educational spending have not been matched with increased productivity, so the problem persists.

Quality
In this article, "high quality" is defined by the following four parameters:
the needs of the student have been properly analyzed and are the focus of the instructional goals; the course design shows consistency among all elements (i.e., objectives, content, practice or the activities in which the students are involved, and the evaluation);
the materials developed and used in the course are competitive with other successful courses that have similar goals; and
the implementation of the course and the instructor's knowledge and skills are likewise competitive.

Survey

Research Question and Assumptions

The research question guiding this study is: To what degree do online teachers state issues or barriers to their teaching that can be classified within the following categories: quality, change, accountability, productivity, and access to education.

Before conducting the survey, I assumed that all the courses met the "high quality" parameters.. Unless a course is required for degree completion, students soon spread the word about inadequate quality, (either in content or faculty presentation) and do not register for the course. I anticipated that the biggest concern as perceived by online teachers would be technological access for their students. To a lesser extent, because these respondents were already teaching online, I thought some would mention a concern that access would not be adequate for other teachers. I suspected that online teachers would not be as concerned about accountability and productivity as educational administrators would be. as those who are involved in paying for the educational enterprise. I also speculated that some responses would indicate concern about changes in education induced by technology, and especially the lack of institutional support for these changes, and that the necessary but difficult changes would be largely cultural in nature.

Methodology

Over a period of several years, I accumulated a list of persons who taught, or whom I suspected taught online courses. A cover letter and survey were sent via electronic mail to each of the 812 persons whose e-mail addresses were in my file. That initial contact solicited 174 replies, a response rate of 21%.

One hundred eleven (111) respondents said they did not meet the criteria I had established for online teaching. Sixty-three (63) persons completed the survey and returned it. Of those, 19 did not meet the criteria; either they were not using computer systems when teaching the online portion of their course (e.g., primary delivery of the course was by television), or the graded part of at least one of the courses each person taught did not meet my criteria of "significantly online." Two of these final 44 teachers taught in middle or secondary education.

The results reported here are based on the responses of the 42 post-secondary teachers, who all teach in a formal setting. (The reader can find more complete methodological information regarding the original survey in Berge (1997)). Responses to the initial survey were received between April 16th and July 10th, 1996, with subsequent follow-up questions and responses exchanged throughout that summer.

The responses to the following question is reported in this article:

Each of us has a tendency to showcase what we do in a favorable light. To the extent we believe our teaching methods, styles and content are right-headed, that tendency is appropriate. But what are you afraid of? What is it about your online teaching that "keeps you up at nights"-wondering if you could be wrong?

Of the 42 respondents, 39 responded to the question above. Three of those persons simply stated that there was nothing that concerned them enough to "keep them awake at nights." Among the remaining 36 responses, I identified 76 concerns.

Limitations

One limitation of these findings is that my categorizations are, at this time, preliminary and subject to verification.

I assigned the concerns stated by these 36 online, post-secondary teachers into the categories of issues mentioned above. Predetermining these categories may be a limitation, compared with letting a framework emerge from the data. However, the categories were chosen so that the central question of the study could be answered: to what degree do online teachers (without knowledge of my predetermined categories), state issues that can be classified as problems within the following categories: quality, change, accountability, productivity, and access to education.

While statistically not a small sample (n>30), this is still a survey with a relatively small number of respondents. In addition, the respondents to the initial survey where the pool for this question about barriers was derived, was voluntary and self-selected. Cautions about generalizing from the responses to this survey apply. For instance, there is no way to know if non-respondents who teach online would respond similarly to those teachers who did complete the survey.

Results and Discussion

I arbitrarily categorized the concerns stated by these 36 online, post-secondary teachers into one of the five general categories even though many of the issues are a factor in multiple categories Sample responses are included to indicate the remarks that guided my classification.

Table 1. Concerns of Online, Post-Secondary Teachers

CATEGORIES OF CONCERNS #  
Quality 30  
Designing high quality courses (i.e., courses developed with effective ISD)  14
Is my teaching effective? Could a change in my behavior lessen drop out rate?  10
Few or no f2f social/visual cues/missing f2f feedback to teacher  06
 
Change 21  
Will traditional students try online learning? Advising students in this regard  08
Poor leadership (e.g., Inadequate faculty rewards/Poor vision of mission)  07
How can traditional faculty learn to be open to learner-centered approaches?  04
Is this a fad and not part of leading edge change? will we become too trendy?  02
 
Accountability 15  
Are students learning?  06
How to properly assess/test/evaluate students work online  05
Can students acquire a sense of community and non-content goals online?  04
 
Productivity 7  
Lack of time to prepare, facilitate, and evaluate online courses  07
 
Access 3  
Technical problems or access problems generally  03

 
Quality
Thirty responses mentioned concerns about the quality of online teaching. I did not expect teacher's concern for quality (39.5%) to be nearly as great as was reported, with the two concerns mentioned most often focusing on quality issues. Most frequently mentioned was a concern for designing high quality courses (14 responses), followed by a concern for the effectiveness of their teaching (10 responses). There still appears to be a problem convincing the educational community that online teaching is as effective as traditional, face-to-face, place-based instruction. This need for validation may cause teachers to question the quality of their online course design and the effectiveness of their teaching. For example, one teacher stated,

I want the course taught online to be as intellectually demanding as the course would be if taught in a traditional manner.

Another responded:
I would like beginning and expert learners to view the medium as an effective alternative to traditional education. I think about how faculty, who are steeped in tradition, can learn to be open to learner- centered/process-oriented approaches such as what can be promoted through an online medium.

Change
I had expected some concern about change to be expressed, but not the pervasiveness of these teacher's concerns. Twenty-one responses (27.6%) inferred a concern for change or the lack of support for change in their educational environment. I was surprised that only one respondent mentioned training of faculty as a concern. This may be because these teachers are already teaching online, some for many years. The following are two examples of the responses involving change:

How will the online teaching become institutionalized: currently my online work is done on an overload basis-Well, you can do that IF you want to, but it certainly couldn't count as your full time load!

And from another teacher:

I worry that there are some students who are so put off by the entire concept of online classes that they won't even try them, believing that they are being cheated somehow because of what they perceive as a lack of contact. Many students here are traditional to the point of being hidebound, and will NOT cooperate, preferring instead to take face-to-face sections of the course or enrolling for other elective courses when available. Unfortunately also, there are quite a few faculty who believe that any method other than what they use (unchanged for decades, as you might guess) is somehow less rigorous, requires less work by the professor, cheats the students, and so forth. These professors are not above intimating to students that online courses are less worthwhile than traditional courses. Academic turf wars reign supreme!

Accountability
There were 15 responses (19.7%) that referred to concerns for accountability. I thought this more likely to be an administrative rather than a faculty concern. Responses in this category were fairly equally divided among three areas: are students learning? (6), how to properly assess/test/evaluate students work online (5), and if students acquire a sense of community and non-content goals online (4). Examples responses include:

I worry that I don't teach enough-that I facilitate too much, that students are not really learning a lot.

Another teacher stated:

I suppose the question already points to the answer. I wonder often if I'm seeing what's not there-that is, reading their writing as "improved," when really, it's just different. They are responding to a larger audience, aware that the Web is the ultimate readership of their papers, and I look for signs that they recognize this in their papers, but I may be overlooking some more traditional assessment rubrics that undermine what I perceive as their success.

Another teacher reported:

I'm really not sure if the typical English 101 student, age 19-21, gains what she needs in an online class. Part of the 101 class is socialization, and while there is an atmosphere of that in a totally online class, it is entirely different than the traditional classroom.

Productivity
Concerns regarding productivity (9.3%) revolved around the lack of time these online teaches have to analyze, develop, implement, and evaluate their online teaching. For example:

As for myself, I wonder where I'm going to get the time to do the myriad tasks involved. Preparing Internet training materials is very labor intensive-a single course took over 2000 hours to prepare and still must be watered and fed afterward. The ongoing evolution of technology requires a constant learning cycle (as it gets simpler at the user end it gets more complicated at the provider end).

The comments by the teachers responding to this survey point out that technology does not automatically guarantee increased productivity. If it is coupled with changes in pedagogy and implementation, technology can make possible increased learning productivity (Johnstone, 1992; Oppenheimer, 1997; Twigg, 1992).

Access
The most surprising finding from this survey to me was that only 3 responses (3.9%) stated a concern for access to the necessary technology for students or faculty. This may be because these respondents are already teaching online and have moved past the stage where access is of great concern to them.

For Further Research
Sandholtz and Ringstaff (1996) identified four changes in classroom teachers' concerns over time (10 years): beliefs, management issues, instructional strategies, and student assessment. They recognized the importance of studying teachers' concerns over a time, stating that if they had only examined teachers' experiences for a year or two, their conclusions would have been significantly different. It may be useful to develop a method of quantifying the concerns of online teachers and correlating them with such factors as the number of years they have taught; the number of years they have taught online; their expertise involving computers and technology; the stage at which the institution for which they teach is in the construction of their technological infrastructure; and the diffusion of technology within that educational system.

To what extent are the concerns expressed by online teachers unique to the online environment? Several teachers made comments such as:

[The] absence of visual cues sometimes causes me to question my ability to be truly effective in the electronic classroom. I have the same questions in the traditional classroom, but often have a better feel for the situation by observing student reactions and expressions.

Many of the concerns listed are probably not unique to online teaching and learning but are more a general characteristic of education and distance education. Still, it would appear that the issues of quality, access, change, productivity and accountability will not be abandoned anytime soon by online teachers.

References

Allen, J. (1994). A primer on school accountability. [Online.] http://edreform.com/pubs/account1.htm

Berge, Z.L. (1996). Changing roles in higher education: Reflecting on technology. Collaborative Communications Review. McLean, VA: International Teleconferencing Association. pp.: 43-53.

Berge, Z.L. (1997). Characteristics of online teaching in post-secondary, formal education. Educational Technology, 37(3), 35-47.

Florida Department of Education. (1997). Florida Commission on Education Reform and Accountability Annual Report.[Online.] http://www.firn.edu/doe/acannual.htm

Hillesheim, G. (1998). Distance learning: Barriers and strategies for students and faculty. The Internet and Higher Education. 1(1): 31-44.

Johnstone, D.B. (1992). Learning productivity: A new imperative for American higher education. Monograph. State University of New York, Studies in Public Higher Education. [Edited Version Online.] http://192.52.179.128/program/nlii/articles/johnstone.html

Kearsley, G., Lynch, W. & Wizer, D. (1995). The effectiveness and impact of computer conferencing in graduate education. [Online.] http://www.gwu.edu/~etl/cmc.html

Massy, W.F. & Zemsky, R. (1995). Using Information Technology to Enhance Academic Productivity. [Online.] http://www.educom.edu/program/nlii/keydocs/massy.html

Maddux, C.D. (1994). The Internet: Educational prospects and problems. Educational Technology. September. pp.: 37-42.

Naisbitt, J. (1982). Megatrends: Ten new directions transforming our lives. New York: Warner Books, Inc.

Naisbitt, J. & Aburdene, P. (1990). Megatrends 2000. New York: William Morrow & Co., Inc.

Oppenheimer, T. (1997). The computer delusion. The Atlantic Monthly, 280(1), 45-62.

Postman, N. (1995). The end of education: Redefining the Value of School. NY: Knopf.

Sandholtz, J.H. & Ringstaff, C. (1996). Teacher change in technology-rich classrooms. In C. Fisher, D. Dwyer, and K. Yocam (Eds.) Education and Technology: Reflections on Computing in Classrooms. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers.

Sherry, L. (1996). Issues in distance learning. International Journal of Distance Education, 1(4), 337-365.

Spodick, E.F. (1995). The evolution of distance learning. [Online.] http://sqzm14.ust.hk/distance/distance-6.html

Stoll, C. (1995). Silicon snake oil. NY: Doubleday.

Turkle, S. (1995). Life on the screen: Identity in the age of the internet. NY: Simon and Schuster.

Twigg, C.A. (1992). Improving productivity in higher education: The need for a paradigm shift. CAUSE/EFFECT, 15(2), 39-45.


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November 13, 2000