Effective professional development for e-learning: What do the managers think?

Introducing new methods of teaching and learning requires an institutional approach to professional development in order to cater for the different levels and requirements of staff. The increase in e-learning use has prompted many institutions to adopt a whole organisation approach to professional development for lecturers. This paper proposes to answer three related questions. How do institutions of vocational education within New Zealand structure their institutional provision of e-learning professional development? What training or other development opportunities are provided by institutions? What do e-learning managers feel are the types of e-learning professional development that work best in terms of lecturer development and support? A literature review was completed and interviews were held with e-learning managers from 13 institutions. The data collected from the interviews were then analysed using a grounded analysis approach. The analysis process yielded concepts that were related to different types of professional development training, information and support. The analysis provided a structure of professional development. Furthermore, the efficiency of the types of e-learning professional development was analysed based on e-learning managers’ perception and evaluation models. Professional development with opportunities for skill acquisition and collaboration was deemed the most effective. Introduction Professional development has long been perceived as a way to effect change in the educational sector and is used at both the compulsory and post-compulsory stages. There are often centres in tertiary institutions that are charged with all forms of academic and professional development, ranging from short courses to teaching qualifications. In considering an institution’s approach to professional development, it is important to determine which forms of professional development are useful in effecting changes to teaching and student outcomes. This paper examines managers’ perceptions of professional development approaches with particular focus on e-learning use in the vocational institute sector. Review of the literature Previous studies have focused on the various forms of professional development offered. One such study (Prebble et al, 2005) identified that various forms of professional development activities British Journal of Educational Technology Vol 43 No 6 2012 892–900 doi:10.1111/j.1467-8535.2011.01248.x © 2011 The Author. British Journal of Educational Technology © 2011 BERA. Published by Blackwell Publishing, 9600 Garsington Road, Oxford OX4 2DQ, UK and 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148, USA. linked more closely to improved student outcomes, even though it was problematic to determine how to quantify this link. The authors identified the fact that professional (or as they referred to it, academic) development had to be seen as offering two separate links. First, there is the link between academic development and teaching practice, and then the link between teaching practice and student outcomes. The types of professional development identified in the study ranged from short-term training to longer-term courses, in some cases leading to a qualification (Prebble et al, 2005). Short courses are recognised as appropriate for providing new skills (Hegarty et al, 2005; Prebble et al, 2005; Wilson, 2007). However, lecturers felt that the professional development focused more on the technical aspects of e-learning rather than pedagogical issues (Ham & Wenmouth, 2007; Hegarty et al, 2005; Prebble et al, 2005). Staff promotion is often linked to completion of a teaching and learning qualification. The compulsory qualification provides a vehicle to incorporate exposure to e-learning concepts to new staff. However, there are often issues including non-completion and poor modelling of online teaching (Hegarty et al, 2005; White & Milne, 2005; Wilson, 2004). Wilson (2007) sees professional development for e-learning as a “change process” (p. 122). It is a whole of organisation’s approach to implementing e-learning including strategies for “diffusion of innovation,” “peer learning,” embedding practice, “project based,” “online professional development” and “accredited courses” (pp. 123-135). Wilson also identified offerings ranging in level from novice to expert. Other studies indicate that although creating models of professional development is useful, the important component is how the professional development fits with staff perception (Desimone, Practitioner Notes What is already known about this topic • Academic staff need new skills to teach e-learning. • There are different levels of professional development, which vary in duration and scope. • Professional development needs to be relevant for academic staff to benefit. What this paper adds • This paper discusses the types of professional development made available at tertiary institutions for staff new to e-learning. • This paper explains what e-learning managers feel is the most effective professional development format. • This paper analyses why the e-learning managers feel this format is the most effective. Implications for practice and/or policy • Managers will be better informed why particular types of professional development for e-learning work well. • Academic staff will be better informed about what professional development might best suit them. • Academic staff will be better informed about what managers feel about effective professional development and be able to have a greater role in the evaluation feedback cycle. What professional development works best 893 © 2011 The Author. British Journal of Educational Technology © 2011 BERA. 2009; Knight, Baume, Tait & Yorke, 2007; Stein, Shephard & Harris, 2011). Desimone suggests that it is more appropriate to consider the “characteristics” of a professional development activity rather than the “type” of activity. Her core characteristics or concepts are “content focus,” “active learning,” “coherence,” “duration” and “collective participation” (2009). It is significant that these features or characteristics are what teachers identify as factors in changing classroom practice (Desimone, 2009). Stein et al (2011) describes the perceptions of academic staff as fitting into four categories: professional development as training to acquire new skills, as opening up possibilities to use technology in teaching and learning, collaborative exercises and, finally, that professional development is about “relevance and purpose” (pp. 157–159). The acquisition of skills refers particularly to technical skills related to e-learning. Figure 1 illustrates the two classifications of characteristics. There is considerable overlap between the perceptions outlined by Desimone (2009) and Stein et al (2011). They refer to similar concepts such as “relevance” and “coherence.” Desimone (2009) perceives a strong link between the professional development being offered and the knowledge and beliefs of the teachers. For Stein et al (2011), the focus is also on how the learning fits in with the context that staff find themselves in. Professional development will be more effective when staff can directly apply it to their own situation. Desimone’s (2009) content focus relates to subject matter content and how it might be taught, and the skill acquisition in the paper of Stein et al (2011) relates to gaining a skill to help them teach. However, perhaps the strongest link is between collaboration and collective participation. Both focus on the learning that occurs within groups, either a whole school or as part of a project. Measuring the effectiveness of professional development The papers of Desimone and Stein et al both recognise the importance of identifying characteristics that are significant to staff as a method of measuring the effectiveness of professional development. Kirkpatrick’s Four Levels of Evaluation has been used extensively to evaluate training (1998). The tool is intended for use by managers who wish to determine the effectiveness of the training. Kirkpatrick’s tool identifies the four levels of evaluation as reaction, learning, behaviour and results. The reaction relates to positive feedback about the training. The learning relates to the increase in staff knowledge or skills. The behaviour relates to the application of that knowledge within the staff member’s position. Finally, the results relate to the effect the training has upon the organisation (Kirkpatrick, 1998). Rossett (as cited in Hardt, 2010) questions the relevance of Kirkpatrick’s tool for e-learning professional development. His concern is the fact that most of the evaluation occurs at the first two levels and does not provide a clear indication of the effect of the e-learning training on the Figure 1: Comparison of characteristics of professional development 894 British Journal of Educational Technology Vol 43 No 6 2012 © 2011 The Author. British Journal of Educational Technology © 2011 BERA. individual and the organisation. Training that demonstrates a change in behaviour is critical for embedding e-learning in an organisation (Wilson, 2007). Mentoring was also identified in the literature (Knight et al, 2007; Kopcha, 2010). In this context mentoring meant an e-learning specialist providing ongoing assistance to the lecturers who later become e-learning champions. The champions were generally based within schools/faculties. In most cases, such individuals were the early adopters of e-learning (Holtham, 2005). Research (Hegarty et al, 2005) shows that working in project teams may be the best approach to developing online courses as it provided opportunities for staff to learn in the context of their own subject area. In the study (Hegarty et al, 2005), lecturers indicated that they enjoyed the team approach because it provided different perspectives and meant individuals could work to their strengths. Social learning is highlighted by another study (Knight et al, 2007), which indicates that professional development takes place as interactions between colleagues in a departmental context. Another study found that the stages of career may determine staff preference for the type of professional learning. More formal professional development was used often by mid-career staff, while informal learning decreased over the duration of a staff member’s career, particularly those activities that included collaboration (Richter, Kunter, Klusmann, Lüdtke & Baumert, 2011). Anecdotal evidence would indicate that it may be a combination of professional development approaches. These approaches may include short courses to introduce specific skills, projectbased work to look at instructional design of the overall programme of study and longer-term courses to experience online learning and observe good models of effective online teaching (Hegarty et al, 2005; Kopcha, 2010). Methodology The principal focus of the data collection and analysis methods used within this paper was to gain an in-depth view of the institution’s approach to professional development and support for lecturers. Therefore an interview format, suitable for providing detailed, qualitative data, was used (Cohen, Manion & Morrison, 2004; McCracken, 1993; Punch, 2005). Participants’ selection process e-Learning managers from 13 New Zealand vocational institutes participated in the study. The institutions these managers represented ranged in size and qualification level. These institutions offer a range of qualifications from certificates, diplomas and degrees; a few of the institutions also offer graduate qualifications. At the time of the interview, their responses were recorded and later transcribed.