Moving to a New Land: A Case Study of Secondary Teachers' Experience of Online Teaching

In this paper, the authors seek, through the theoretical framework of situated cognition learning theory, to document and understand the experiences and views of teachers who are in their first year of instructing secondary students online. Using a case study methodology, the authors captured these secondary teachers’ perceptions of their most successful experiences in teaching online students, as well as their view of the challenges and difficulties they experienced in this transition. In turn, the authors wished to determine what supports are needed for secondary teachers to ease their transition to this new land. Three salient themes emerged through the analysis of data: interacting with students, interacting with and adapting curriculum, and pedagogical approaches and engaging in self-reflection on their role as teacher which led to deeper questions of establishing teacher – student relationships and effective e-pedagogy. DOI: 10.4018/ijopcd.2012070102 20 International Journal of Online Pedagogy and Course Design, 2(3), 19-31, July-September 2012 Copyright © 2012, IGI Global. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of IGI Global is prohibited. environment “in which both the process and goals are stimulating and engaging, and which take individual student differences into account” (Felix, 2003). Therefore many compelling questions arise such as: how do teachers adapt to online teaching? What are teachers’ experiences when they transfer from face-to-face teaching to online teaching? What do teachers say about their most successful moments in online classrooms? What challenges and difficulties do teachers have in online teaching?