AbstractsEducation Research & Administration

The Professor Behind the Screen: Four Case Studies of Online Teaching in Business.

by Inger M. Bergom




Institution: University of Michigan
Department: Higher Education
Degree: PhD
Year: 2015
Keywords: online teaching; online education; postsecondary teaching; Education; Social Sciences
Record ID: 2059402
Full text PDF: http://hdl.handle.net/2027.42/111535


Abstract

Although online education in postsecondary education is not new, the number of online courses and programs has grown especially fast in recent years. This shift toward online education has drawn strong supporters as well as critics: some see promise in the immediate and flexible nature of the online environment, while others question the quality of online courses. The debate, in fact, hinges on teaching, just as in face-to-face settings. However, little systematic research has investigated online teaching through the eyes of instructors, and literature about online teaching is based largely on speculation and lacks complexity and depth. The central aim in this study was to examine online teaching from the perspectives of instructors themselves in order to understand pedagogical decisions, views of online education, and environmental factors influencing teaching. Case studies of four instructors at two institutions were developed. Each instructor taught a fully online, asynchronous undergraduate business course during Fall 2013. I gained access to course websites to view course materials and observe communication between the instructor and students. During the semester, I interviewed each instructor four times using a semi-structured interview format. The four case studies were composed separately, each with thick description that helped create a detailed and contextualized narrative. In addition to the case studies, I present a crosscase analysis describing themes and offering insights into the constraints and affordances of teaching online. The cross-case analysis contributed to the development of a theoretical framework for studying online teaching. Specifically, I propose an ecology model of online teaching accounting for contextual factors (e.g., institutional setting, instructor background) shaping teaching decisions, experiences, and beliefs in the asynchronous online teaching environment. This inquiry has meaningful implications for practice and research. First, knowing how instructors design courses and think about the online teaching-learning environment can inform the work of faculty development staff who train and support instructors and shape institutional culture related to teaching. Second, insights from this exploratory study can strengthen future research seeking to answer evaluative or causal questions by revealing essential variables to consider when examining the processes and outcomes of online education.