Student Perspectives of Future Online Faculty Competencies: A Qualitative Descriptive Study

Phillip L. Davidson, Ph.D.School of Advanced Studies

Intellectbase International ConsortiumAtlanta, October 17, 2014

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Why this Project?

• This research project is part of three separate research projects.

• The ultimate goal is to better understand what teacher competencies will be needed in the future for online faculty in higher education.

• This initial project focuses on student expectations as to what faculty need to provide in the way of future skills.

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Why the Online focus?“There were 572,000 more online students in fall 2011 than in fall 2010 for a new total of 6.7 million students taking at least one online course” (p. 17)

“The most recent estimate, for fall 2011, shows an increase of 9.3 percent in the number of students taking at least one online course” (p. 18).

“The proportion of higher education students taking at least one online course now stands at 32 percent” (p. 19) compared to less than 10% in 2003.

(Allen & Seaman, 2013)

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THE PROBLEM

Not having a clear picture of student expectations creates a void that makes future planning difficult and somewhat arbitrary.

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PURPOSE

• The purpose of this qualitative descriptive study was to understand students’ beliefs about their expectations for faculty teaching online. The focus was arbitrarily set for ten years into the future.

• MOOCs are one dramatic example of how faculty and technology are coming together to reshape online education, yet students appear to be left out of the conversation.

• Without the input of the students who attend these courses, online education might find itself faltering and students could potentially be left with suboptimal choices.

• Are student needs driving changes in online education or is the push on technology and beliefs about the value of new technologies driving the change?

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METHODOLOGY

• The participants were all members of Amazon’s Mechanical Turk survey group.

• the goal was categorical in an attempt to discover an exhaustive list of student opinions on online faculty future competencies, therefore a qualitative descriptive study was deemed the most effective approach.

• 500 opened ended one-question surveys was offered to participants of Amazon’s Mechanical Turk. The only qualifier is that they had to be over 18, living in the United States, and have taken at least one online class.

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RESEARCH GROUP (Demographics)

AVERAGE AGE 1 STD DEV GENDER # OF PARTICIPANTS GENDER BY PERCENT

Some College26.54 7.37 Female 60 43.5%

Male 78 56.5%Associates

29.69 9.73 Male 24 49.0%Female 25 51.0%

Bachelor's29.98 9.13 Male 134 64.4%

Female 74 35.6%Graduate Degree

32.72 8.89 Male 46 54.1%Female 39 45.9%

Total 480Male 282 58.75%

Female 198 41.25%

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WORD CLOUD OF RAW DATA

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TOP 3 CATEGORIES & SUBCATORIES

Case Frequency

Category Subcategory

205 Communication Skills Online communication skillsClear CommunicationWritten CommunicationInterpersonal communicationEmail communicationKnowledge communication

88 Technology Skills Well versedCurrentAbility to master more than basic technologyUnderstand where technology fitsComputer technologyEmerging technologiesTechnology awareness

79 Computer Skills Online computer skillsSkype/video conferencingOnline communication

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THEMES

Four main themes that emerged from the categories and subcategories:• Faculty communication is the most critical aspect for success in future online

classes. Clarity was a subtheme to communication.

• Technical and computer skills are critical, specifically the need to use visual, auditory, and other multimedia tools to provide as many different learning tools as possible.

• Patience with students will be critical for faculty in the future, as diversity will continue to increase. In addition, students experience many different issues, and faculty patience in dealing with those specific needs will be important.

• Related to patience, future online faculty members need to be flexible in class requirements, schedules, and communication modalities.

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FUTURE RESEARCH

This is the first of three projected studies. This first study developed a useful concourse, which will be used in the second study, which will be a Q-Methodology measuring student opinions.

The third and last study will use the first two studies as background to a policy Delphi study related to future online teacher competencies.

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Discussion/Questions?

Questions?

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References

Allen, I. E., and Seaman, J. (2011) Going the distance: Online education in the United States, 2011. San Francisco, CA: Babson Survey Research Group and Quahog Research Group, LLC.