Going Virtual! 2010: The Status of Professional Development and Unique Needs of K12 Online Teachers, presented at Virtual School Symposium, Nov. 2010, Glendale, AZ

1. Introductions

2. Lisa Dawley, Ph.D.
Professor and Chair
Kerry Rice, Ed.D.
Assistant Professor and Associate Chair
Going Virtual! 2010
The Status of Professional
Development and Unique Needs of K-
12 Online Teachers
http://ow.ly/3aHwu

3. 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

4. Poll

5. Going Virtual! Research Series
PhaseI:2007
258 Respondents
•167 K-12 online teachers
•61 Administrators
•14 Trainers
Over 40 virtual schools
and online programs
Over 30 states
PhaseII:2008
884 K-12 Online
Teachers
•727 virtual schools
•99 supplemental programs
•54 brick and mortar online
programs
Over 60 virtual schools
and online programs
Over 30 states
PhaseIII:2009
2 Programs
•1 Virtual Charter
•1 Supplemental Program
GoingVirtual:2010
830 K-12 Online
Teachers
417 Virtual School
318 Supplemental
81 Blended
12 Brick N Mortar
Over 50 virtual schools
and online programs
Over 40 states & 24
countries
Descriptive
Evaluative

6. Demographics
• Teachers highly
experienced
– 99% credentialed
– 60% Master’s degree+
• 12% of new online
teachers have never
taught f-2-f
• Boundaries are blurring

7. 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

8. 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%).

9. 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

10. Favorite learning network?

11. Comments?

12. 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%

13. Foundations

14. Facilitation
Strategies

15. Technology
Tools

16. Online Design

17. Etiquette, Behavior & Assessment

18. Comments on training topics?

19. 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%)

20. Training Needs
• 1-5 Years Online Teaching Experience
– The area of design, including instructional design
principles (46%)
– Design tools (41%)
– Design of syllabi (38%)

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

22. 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

23. Program Evaluation
Teacher
Effectiveness
Highly
qualified?
Parent
Satisfaction
Annual
Performance
Range of
implementation
Student
Satisfaction
Knowledge of
STS
Program
AYP?
Improved Test
Scores
Parent
Satisfaction
Student
Outcomes
Performance
Participation
Attendance
ISAT/DWA
Self-Efficacy
Satisfaction
Workshop
Effectiveness
Quality
Usefulness
Engagement
Teacher
Effectiveness
Change in
teaching
practice
Increased use
of technology
Use of
Online/Blended
strategies

24. 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.

25. Engagement
• Clustering
– More time spent online = more time spent offline.
– Previous online teaching experience = more hours spent
both online and offline.

26. TeacherStream

27. Comments?