A Case Study Analysis of the Online Teacher Certification Course Offered at South County Community College

• Main Author: Fields, Mark C.
• Language: EN
• Published: California State University, Long Beach 2019
• Subjects: Community college education|Educational leadership|Education policy|Educational administration|Teacher education
• Online Access: http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=13419171

<p> As the demand for online higher education increases, community colleges find themselves under pressure to secure qualified faculty members to deliver courses in that modality. The challenge, however, is that there is a dearth of qualified faculty members who are familiar with online instruction tools and who can deliver quality online instruction. To meet that need South County Community College (SCCC pseudonym) created the Online Teaching Certification (OTC) course designed to prepare faculty to teach in the online classroom. </p><p> This qualitative case study sought to examine the experiences and perceptions of 16 faculty members who completed the Online Teaching Certification (OTC) course to determine the extent to which the OTC course effectively contributed to the improvement of their ability to teach online courses and which components of the course warranted improvement. Data included interviews with the participants, site observations, and an analysis of existing documents in order to triangulate perspectives from multiple sources. Malcolm Knowles Adult Learning Theory provided the framework to analyze the data. </p><p> Participants felt the OTC had overall success in preparing them to teach online. The most effective components of the OTC course identified were the structure of the course which was aligned with best practices including the Online Education Initiative&rsquo;s Course Design Rubric, the activities in the course which mirrored those that faculty would use in their own online classes, and the sense of learning community enhanced by classroom activities including discussion forums, peer-to-peer feedback, and instructor interaction with the students. The least effective component was the self-paced format (no firm due dates for assignments) which some of the participants believed impacted the building of community in the course due to irregular participation. Recommendations for policy include requiring administrators who evaluate faculty who teach online to take the course, and requiring faculty who teach online to engage in professional development related to online instruction. </p><p>