The Effect of Online Teaching on Faculty After Returning to the Traditional Classroom
D'Nita A. Andrews-Graham
Norfolk State University
dagraham@nsu.edu
Abstract
This phenomenological research was designed to learn and understand the transitioning experience of higher education faculty moving from online instruction to traditional face-to-face instruction. One of the most significant phenomenon occurring in higher education today is distance education. Technology and distance education are on the rise in community colleges, 4-year institutions, Ivy League colleges, research institutions, and technical colleges. Data were collected through face-to-face interviews and field notes. Three themes were identified: (a) faculty roles and teaching practices, (b) faculty communication strategies, and (c) faculty changes in instruction. This study analyzed the participants’ attitudes, perspectives and practices, roles, communication strategies, and best practices that online teaching contribute to face-to-face instruction. This study supports transformative learning theory because participants critically reflected on their assumptions and beliefs, and implemented strategies that improved new approaches of defining their teaching and learning. It was determined from faculty members’ response that their face-to-face teaching had benefited in some way from teaching online.
Introduction
There is plethora of literature about teaching face-to-face and at a distance in higher education. However, little research has examined how instructors who go from the classroom online tend to learn new approaches—techniques and philosophies—that they bring back to the classroom (in one way or another). Teaching online changes instructors’ perceptions and their teaching practices when they return to the traditional classroom (Stone & Perumean-Chaney, 2011). Most higher education institutions provide some form of distance education. According to Allen and Seaman (2016), the number of students taking all of their courses online in 2014 were in excess of 2.8 million students. The percentage of college students taking at least one online course is at an all-time high of 33.5% (Allen & Seaman, 2015).
Faculty members at institutions of higher education who started their careers in the traditional face-to-face classroom tend to change their pedagogical approaches for use in online teaching (Baran, Correia, & Thompson, 2011; Duffy & Kirkley, 2004; McDonald, 2002). As they gain experience in the online environment, they often turn the approach around, changing methods that benefit the online environment to improve and enhance their face-to-face teaching (Scagnoli, Buki, & Johnson, 2009; Stone & Perumean-Chaney, 2011). Conceição (2006) stated that “experience is a valid source of knowledge and that one way to understand how faculty members experience online teaching is by studying situations using faculty members' reconstructed experiences and elaborating on the meanings they assign to those experience” (p. 27).
Few studies have examined the experiences of how teaching online changes higher education faculty perceptions and teaching practices when faculty return to the traditional face-to-face classroom. The gap in the literature includes lack of information about higher education faculty members’ experiences, attitudes and perceptions, and how teaching online has affected their role and teaching strategy when returning to the face-to-face classroom. Therefore, it is important to consider and understand how college faculty who teach online perceive and describe their teaching practices and roles when they return to the traditional face-to-face classroom.
Literature Review
In higher education institutions in the United States enrollment in online courses continues to exceed growth in face-to-face courses (Allen & Seaman, 2013, 2014, 2015). Online higher education, faculty are reviewing their perceptions towards the new culture of learning and teaching. This leads to challenges in teacher beliefs, judgments, interpretations, assumptions, and expectations (Coppola, Hiltz, & Rotter, 2002; Lee & Tsai, 2010). Kreber and Kanuka (2006) noted online teaching is different from face-to-face teaching; however, faculty who do not receive professional development have a habit of carrying face-to-face educational practices to the online environments. Teachers tend to transfer face-to-face approaches learned from their professors while in college to develop their expertise in the traditional classroom (Kreber & Kanuka, 2006).
According to Lokken and Mullins (2014), distance education administrators were asked to rank their greatest faculty challenges in the 2013 Instructional Technology Council (ITC) survey and it was discovered engaging in online pedagogy was a top concern for faculty. A major challenge is the “trial-and-error” of the new technology features and functions (Moore & Kearsley, 2012).
Sheridan (2006) and Van de Vord and Pogue (2012) suggest faculty are concerned that online instruction is more time-consuming than traditional face-to-face instruction. According to Van de Vord and Pogue (2012), online courses include more time in and out of the classroom for the instructor. Sheridan (2006) noted faculty members who teach online courses spend more time in preparing and administering online courses than traditional faculty members do. Higher education faculty indicate continuous individual email communication is another challenging factor (Sword, 2012). Lloyd, Byrne, and McCoy (2012) reported one of the most highly ranked concerns of faculty was time commitment.
Lack of comfort and/or proficiency with technology tools may have more to do with a lack of time and less to do with opposition (Thormann & Zimmerman, 2012). Building online learning community, facilitating discussion, netiquette, group work, peer monitoring, and the leadership role are crucial to effective communication and learning (Thormann & Zimmerman, 2012).
Conceptual Framework
To understand faculty’s attitudes and perceptions about education and instruction when they return to the face-to-face classroom Mezirow (1991) transformation learning theory was used. The transformative learning theory is based on the principle that personal experience is an important part of the learning process and the adult learner’s interpretation of the experience creates meaning which leads to change in the behavior, belief and assumptions, values, associations, feelings, and mindset. This leads to challenges in teacher beliefs, judgments, interpretations, assumptions, and expectations (Lee & Tsai, 2010).
Transformative learning allows us to understand faculty as learners as they transform the meaning of structures related to teaching online through an “ongoing process of critical reflection, discourse, and acting on one’s beliefs” (Taylor, 1998, p. 19). Kabachi et al. (2010) described transformative learning as “a process in which adults change their views and habits—which they have gained as a result of their experience” (p. 266).
Method
The phenomenological approach for this study was selected to understand the common and/or shared experiences (Creswell, 2013). The goal of this research was to explore the experiences of higher education faculty members who transition from the online classroom to the face-to-face classroom. The central research question of this study was: How does teaching at a distance affect the attitudes, perspectives, and practices of higher education faculty when they return to face-to-face teaching? Additionally, three sub-questions guided this study:
1. How are instructors’ perceptions of their role and their teaching practices altered when they return to instruction in a face-to-face classroom?
2. What communication strategies do instructors transfer from online to face-to-face teaching?
3. What changes in face-to-face instruction can be attributed to the experience of online teaching?
Materials and Procedures
Using the Military.com webpage list of military installations within the United States, each installation was clicked on, which provides the user with an interactive map of the area surrounding the installations. Each city within a 50-mile radius was then entered into the Google search engine to locate an official webpage. If an official webpage was found then a search of the city’s webpage was conducted to discover if the city met the rest of the criteria of having a manager-council form of government and having e-mail addresses or a ‘contact us’ page capable of uploading the survey.
Once 100 cities were located each city was sent an e-mail which consisted of a recruitment introduction letter, a general consent form, and a brief 9-question survey. Both the introduction letter and the general consent form made it clear that no personal data would be asked for, that the survey was anonymous and voluntary, and that only the participant’s title and the name of the city would be used in the analysis, if needed. For example, the city manager of Goodtown, Tennessee, responded positively to all survey questions. Further, to ensure identifiable markers were removed from all recordings and analyzing data sheets, each city was given a designated number between 1 and 100. For example, on an Excel spread sheet the data would read: city number #1 answered yes to question number #1.
Results
The following section contains the results and analysis from the 9-question survey sent out to 100 cities across the United States. Each of these cities met the criteria of having a council-manager form of city government, an official webpage with e-mail address or a ‘contact us’ page capable of uploading the survey, and was located within a 50-mile radius of an active duty military installation. Of the 100 surveys sent out, 30 cities responded resulting in a 30 percent response rate. Of the 30 responding cities, 7 replies came from East Coast cities, 7 from Southern cities, 7 from Mid-West cities, 3 from Western cities, and 6 from West Coast cities (see chart & map below). In addition, of the 30 responding cities the breakdown according to type of military installation is as follows. Of the 7 responding East Coast cities, 3 were located near Army installations, 1 was near an Air Force base, and 3 were near Navy or Marine bases. Of the 7 responding Southern cities, 1 was near an Army installation, 3 were near Air Force bases, and 3 were near Navy or Marine bases. Of the 7 responding Mid-West Cities, 3 were near Army installations, 3 were near Air Force bases, and 1 was near a Navy or Marine base. Of the 3 responding Western cities, 1 was near an Army installation, and 2 were near Air Force bases; of the 6 responding West Coast cities, 2 were near Army installations, 1 was near an Air Force base, and 3 were near Navy or Marine bases (see chart below).
From the data collected on the geographical locations of the responding surveyed cities, it would seem the return rate per region represents an even balance with a mean average of 6 responses per region (see map below). The data sampling also suggests the type of military installation located near any given cities had null effect on return rates, as the number of responding cities near Army installations were 10, near Air Force bases were 10, and near Navy or Marine bases were also 10. As the return rate across the United States is well balanced in both regional and military installation samplings, it seems that the 30 returned surveys represent a well-balanced consensus on attitudes toward the creation of field placements for online students of public administration within city governments.
The first question on the survey asked the respondent, “Does your city currently offer field placement opportunities for graduate students of traditional universities?” The data collected indicated that 53 percent of the responding cities currently accept graduate students of public administration for field placements or internships. This information can be used by online universities for strategic marketing and overtures to create partnerships for higher learning.
Questions #2 and #3 were follow-up questions to question #1 depended on whether question #1 was answered yes or no. Question #2 asked, “If Yes, how many field placement students do you currently have (a)? per year (b)?” The data indicated that 53 percent of the responding cities currently have between 1 and 5 students working in field placement positions. This information would seem to suggest that over half of the responding city governments are interested in contributing to the educational endeavors of higher education.
Question #3 asked, “If no, would your city be interested in creating field placement opportunities for graduate students of traditional universities?” The data indicated that 37 percent of responding cities would be interested in establishing field placement opportunities. However, this answer became more significant when taking into account that 9 out of 14 (or 64 percent) of the cities who responded no to question #1, indicating they did not currently offer field placements, were interested in creating this opportunity. This data would seem to indicate that an untapped resource for learning is currently available and awaiting discovery.
Question #4 asked, “Would your city be interested in creating field placement opportunities for graduate students of accredited online universities?” The data indicated that 60 percent of the responding cities are interested in creating field placement opportunities for online students. In addition, of the 14 cities answering no to question #1, indicating they did not currently offer field placement opportunities, 7 (or 50 percent) of those responding indicated that they wanted to create field placement opportunities for online students. This information indicates the presence of an untapped market located in areas surrounding active-duty military installations that would be interested in creating partnerships for online institutions of higher education.
Question #5 asked, “Do you believe online graduate students can make a valuable contribution to your efforts?” The returned data indicated that 90 percent of the responding cities believe that online students can make a valuable contribution to their efforts. This data is extraordinary, in that just a decade ago online universities were perceived to be less creditable than traditional universities. In addition, of the 12 cities responding no to question #4, indicating they did not wish to create field placements for online students, 9 (or 75 percent) still indicated they believed in the abilities of online universities and their students. Therefore, their response of no to question #4 may have been due to other consideration, such as, budget restraints or policy questions.
Question #6 asked, “Do you believe current technology can be used to offer field placement opportunities to graduate students of online universities?” The data gathered from this question indicates that 80 percent of responding cities agree that current technology can be used to create field placement opportunities. This information is good news for online universities, as technology is the instrument used to enable distant learning.
Question #7 asked, “Has your city used applications, such as, Adobe Connect, Skype, GoToMeeting, or Zoom for meetings etc.?” From the data collected, 90 percent of responding cities reported that their city has used at least one of these applications. This information is encouraging in that cities that are already using this type of telecommunication will have a much simpler time and be more receptive to incorporating this type of technology into field placement opportunities, which will open the door for online universities and their students.
Question #8 asked, “Should an online field placement position be paid or unpaid?” From the data collected, 80 percent of responding cities reported that students should be paid, while 20 percent reported students should not be paid. However, 50 percent of responding cities report a combination of paid and unpaid positions could be available. This question offers no negative feedback, as whether a student is being monetarily compensated or not, the student is still being afforded the necessary hands-on experience needed for a successful career. In addition, whether a position is paid or unpaid, it is still an offered position to work with city staff.
Question #9 asked, “Would you consider hiring an online student who performed well during a field placement?” According to the data collected 93 percent of responding cities said they would hire a student who performed well in a field placement position. This concurs with the study conducted by Sprague and Percy (2014) which indicated that it was not uncommon for host organizations to offer jobs to students who had completed their field placement within their organization. This information represents a positive aspect for both the student and the university. The goal of a good education is to prepare for and find a great career. Therefore, when a university offers better learning tools for success, the student benefits from the field placement opportunity and the university benefits from producing higher quality students which in turn increases its reputation.
The data collected using this 9-question survey clearly indicates that online universities have moved forward and started to build a reputation of respect and success. Therefore, it is only logical that online universities should continue to move forward by establishing partnerships with city governments to create field placement opportunities for its graduate students of public administration. It is also clear from the data collected that there are cities out there awaiting the opportunity to contribute to the advancement of online education.
Discussion
The purpose of this research was to present a proposal that online universities should establish partnerships with city governments to create field placement opportunities for its students of public administration. By creating partnerships between online universities and city governments, students seeking degrees in public administration should be better prepared to enter the public-sector workforce. In addition, this study demonstrates that partnerships between city governments and online universities for field placements of students of public administration could be beneficial to city governments, universities, and students.
The data collected through the review of current literature and the use of a 9-question survey sent out to 100 city governments has produce convincing evidence that online universities are lagging behind traditional universities in the use of field placement programs in all fields of study. The question online universities should be asking themselves is who would employers rather hire; a person with academic knowledge only or a person who has academic knowledge and actual hands-on experience in their field of study or with the organization itself? This is why the creation of field placement programs is crucial to the advancement of student knowledge and for the reputation of online universities. In the field of public administration, this research project has identified a niche from which this can be accomplished.
City governments are not as restrained by the same policies as are federal agencies and have greater autonomy to create both field placements and internships as they see fit. In addition, local governments are more in line with the academic goals of public administration. According to the results from the 9-question survey, 18 of the 30 responding cities are currently willing to create field placements with online universities, 7 of which do not currently host any students for field placements. While this number seems to be small, one must remember that the survey was only disseminated to 100 out of 19,505 cities nationwide. In addition, the survey was limited to cities located within a 50-mile radius of military installations. This means there are likely to be many opportunities to get in on the ground floor with these city governments and build new educational partnerships.
Conclusion
From the literature reviewed during this research project, it is clear that online universities must adapt to the changing standards of higher education. Accrediting organizations, such as CCNE and CSWE, almost always require universities to include field placements, practicums, or internships under the direct supervision of a qualified preceptor in their curriculum. These field placements afford the students the opportunity to receive the hands-on or practical experience needed to perform outside of academia.
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