Date of Award

Summer 2023

Document Type

Open Access Dissertation

Department

Educational Studies

First Advisor

Fatih Ari

Second Advisor

Tammi D. Kolski

Abstract

Regardless of how prepared faculty were to teach online classes, the COVID-19 pandemic forced leaders of universities and colleges and faculty nationwide to pivot to emergency remote teaching and forced students to take online classes. To prepare faculty for the shift to online instruction, administrators in colleges and universities provided resources, such as online trainings, to orient less experienced instructors to principles of online education. The Online Pedagogy Program (OPP) at Midwest Community College was developed quickly in response to the need for urgent training in effective online instruction. After 300 faculty completed the training, an evaluation of the Online Pedagogy Program content and delivery was needed. The purpose of this action research was to evaluate faculty perceptions about readiness and confidence to teach online courses after completing the Online Pedagogy Program at Midwest Community College. To formally evaluate the program, this study focused on the following research questions. What are Midwest Community College faculty perceptions about the quality of the Online Pedagogy Program? What are Midwest Community College faculty perceptions about their readiness to teach online after completing the Online Pedagogy Program? What are Midwest Community College faculty perceptions about their confidence to teach online after completing the Online Pedagogy Program? Using an action research mixed methods design, data was collected using the Faculty Readiness to Teach Online (FRTO) instrument, the Technological Pedagogical and Content Knowledge (TPACK) instrument, the Online Pedagogy Program End-of-Course Evaluation, and semi-structured individual interviews to support the three research questions. The results of the quantitative and qualitative data analysis methods converged to reveal faculty perspectives about readiness and confidence to teach online after completing the Online Pedagogy Program. Semi-structured individual interviews with faculty who completed the Online Pedagogy Program also provided feedback regarding how the design of the program and its delivery could change to improve the instructor’s readiness and confidence for teaching online. Among the many findings, the findings show that experiencing the online pedagogy training from a student perspective accentuated the faculty’s awareness in creating inclusive and community strong courses centered on the Community of Inquiry framework. These outcomes were shared with Midwest Community College stakeholders along with six recommendations. How this research is beneficial in the field of professional development program evaluation is offered.

Rights

© 2023, Kevin Brent Forman

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