Online Teaching Competencies: Peeling the Onion

Author(s): Alexander J. Romiszowski

Source: Educational Technology , March-April 2010, Vol. 50, No. 2 (March-April 2010),
pp. 42-46
Published by: Educational Technology Publications, Inc.

Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/44429779

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is unsurpassed - was President Kennedy's funeral. A
presidential inauguration or a football game might be other
examples. But the coverage of the budget, or a tariff, or
Topics fo
complex international negotiations, or even the Vietnam War,
is a different matter. Debate
The situation of the print media is something else again.
Here the difficulty lies not so much with the apparatus and Alexander J.
its physical limitations, but rather with those, who through
neglect, or ignorance, or just plain laziness, have failed to Romiszowski
meet the information challenge of our time, have failed to
break down the complexities, have failed to search diligently
for the truth.

The print medium is neglecting content in that it is failing Online Teaching

to take as much advantage as possible of its natural
strengths. For one thing, the medium has more time and Competencies:
more space in which to work than television does. Its people
can write the story down and rework it and present it so that
Peeling the Onion
those who receive it can ponder it at their leisure.
Where the print media really belong is behind the scenes 1. Why is professional development of online teachers
following up the lead that television turned up and anticipat- important? I write this column on the return trip from
ing the next lead. This is the new role of the print media in an International Symposium on Open, Distance, and E-
the modern information scheme of things. This is the dimen- Learning (ISODEL-2009), held in Indonesia. The excerpt
sional role. below is reproduced from the symposium's Website
(http://isodel. depdiknas.go. id) :
What we need is a blending of the information media, not
duplication or a supplementing, or even direct competition.
Today ICT is a main part of educational systems and
We need to bring an end to the myths that television is an
it has inspired a change in teaching and learning
electronic printed page and that newspapers and magazines
approaches... (this) forces governments , educators ,
must imitate television's emphasis on speed, brevity, and the and trainers in all countries to maintain continuous
visual, seeking to deliver the quick impression rather than the
professional development especially for teachers...
thoughtful, unhurried, detailed account to which they are
more suited.
(so the sponsors)... would like to conduct ISODEL
2009 with its theme "Education in the Digital Era:
I think it can be fairly said that television, because of its Continuous Professional Development for ICT-based
technical and physical characteristics, and to some degree Learning."
because of its approach to informational programming,
leaves little room for the true writer - the knowing, thoughtful As an invited keynote panelist, I prepared myself by
observer, with the grace and insight necessary not only to
reviewing the latest research and best practices on this
get to the point but to get it across to the public. theme. We are, of course, all aware of the steady
Television has its talented analysts, but there is not muchincrease, in both quantity and quality, of online learning
time for them on the air. They seldom have the opportunity toapplications- worldwide - in the higher education and
bring depth and meaning to a growing number of stories thatcorporate training sectors. Maybe we are less aware
will remain one-dimensional - revealing only the who, what, of the recent upsurge of online learning applications in
when, and where, only some of the how, and almost nothing basic education, pioneered in developing nations that
of the why - unless they are extensively documented. have installed alternative "Open School" systems to
Print, too, needs more of these thoughtful and talentedsupplement the inadequate provision of conventional
people. But perhaps for the same reason that we have an schools, but more recently also appearing in many
increasing number of people whose senses are tuned only industrialized nations as a means of reinforcing and
to the sound and sight of the screen- and thus can gather"plugging the gaps" in the basic education systems.
little from the printed page - we are not developing the Among the developing nation pioneers we should men-
accomplished communicators who have marked the long tion Brazil's Telecurso-2000, Mexico's Telesecundaria,
history of the printed page with a continuing pursuit of repor-
torial and literary excellence.
As Fred Friendly, formerly president of CBS News and nowAlexander J . Romiszowski is currently a Research
with the Ford Foundation and Columbia University, has put it,Professor in the Area of Instructional Design , Development ,
"I would gladly trade two satellites for one H. L. Mencken." and Evaluation at Syracuse University a director of the
To gain the assurance that this material will be worthwhile, University's Training Systems Institute , director of TTS
however, we must rededicate ourselves to the content of ourGlobal Educational Consultants , and a Contributing Editor to
communication rather than the means of our communication. this magazine. In order to post any comments on the views
We must rid ourselves of what the great architect Walterexpressed in this column , or to add any further contributions
Gropius has described as our "Gallup Poll mentality offrom your own particular vantage points, join the author at
quantity over quality." □ the following URL: http://www.tts-global.com/blog/ .

42 EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGY/March-April 2010

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India's National Open School and the Andrah Pradesh 2 . Competency-based professional development ,
Open School, and Indonesia's SMP Terbuka system, New Zealand style. Competency-based approaches
plus a dozen varied "open school" models installed in to the recruitment, selection, training, and continuing
Sub-Saharan Africa nations. Among the more recent professional development of teachers are quite common
developments in the richer industrialized world, one may and have been among the best-practices of many educa-
single out the "Virtual Schools" movement sweeping tional and corporate training organizations. One particu-
across the USA. Some information on this development larly relevant example, as it is from a distance learning
may serve to make the point that online teaching compe- institution, is the approach used by the New Zealand
tence may soon be as important, and required for teacher Correspondence School (NZCS). This institution, as the
certification and employment purposes, as are the more name suggests, has been "in business" for quite some
conventional skills that underpin Face-to-Face classroom- time - from 1936, to be exact. However, unlike most of the
teaching competence. well-known "pioneer" correspondence schools around the
Virtual Schools are becoming accepted as important world, the NZCS is an integral part of the public basic
components of the public K-12 schooling systems, to education system, And although it still has kept the term
assist students who: attend schools that are unable to "correspondence" in its name, it has become a truly
provide certain courses; need an alternative to traditional"virtual school" over nearly two decades of continuous
education; need to retake courses to meet academic technological development - I was lucky to have had the
requirements; have physical disabilities or are absentchance as consultant to accompany this metamorphosis
from school due to illness; are "at risk" children or adoles-
from 1992 to date. And I also had the opportunity to
cents (possibly already incarcerated); or are gifted contact the NZCS and use material from its Website in
children who should be given special opportunities to 2005, as part of a project which addressed issues of
move ahead and excel. teacher professional development in East Timor.
Virtual schools have been implanted in almost all By then the NZCS was fully Web-based, while still
States of the USA in the form of supplemental/part-time
offering simpler technology alternatives to those who may
programs that meet the need for more or special middle not have had access to high-speed broadband. The data
gleaned from this contact in 2005 showed a large and
and high school courses. However, in a growing number of
States, Virtual Schools also offer full-time programs vibrant institution, serving a variety of target student
across the entire K-12 curriculum. Nearly all of this groups:
growth (about 30% annually) has occurred since the
beginning of the current decade: Around 20,000 students at any one time, with up to
30,000 students over a year. Our roll includes
• 2000: 50,000 enrollments in K-12 online courses
approximately:
• 2003: 300,000 enrollments in K-12 online courses
• 2005: 500,000 enrollments in K-12 online courses • 1000 early childhood students
• 2007: 1,000,000 enrollments in K-12 online courses • 1000 full-time primary students
• 2008: 2,000,000 enrollments in K-12 online courses • 1500 dual enrolled primary students
• 2000 full-time secondary students
A further aspect of this trend is illustrated by the State
• 8000 dual enrolled secondary students
of Michigan where, since 2006, experience in online • 6000 adult students
learning is a High School Graduation Requirement.
• 500 fee paying students
Michigan was the first state to require "online learning
experience" as part of updated, more rigorous, high These figures may seem relatively small in absolute
school graduation requirements. In the new requirements: terms, but taking into account the difference in population
"Every high school student must have an online learning of the two countries (4 million in NZ vs. 300 million in
experience (take an online course) before graduating from USA), they represent a USA equivalent of 2,250,000
high school." The justification given is that "online learning annual course enrollments. This compares to the above
is the best way for students to learn the skills they will mentioned real USA data of just 500,000 K-12
need to compete in an increasingly technological work- enrolments in 2005, and is also higher than the 2 million-
place." Where Michigan showed the way, other States are enrollment USA estimate for 2008. Taken together with
now following. the experience gained from teaching at a distance digitally
The "bottom line" (increasingly true for the USA, and for some 15 years, and generally (with print, but still
most probably for the world in general not too far into the supported by written feedback) for over seven decades,
future) may be summarized as follows: one might expect to gain many insights into the operation
of Virtual Schools by studying the NZCS.
• Online teaching is fast becoming a "mainstream"
function of most teachers.
One insight, which was of relevance to the East Timor
project in 2005, and once again is of relevance in the
• New teachers may acquire relevant skills as part
context of this column, was my discovery on the NZCS
of their pre-service training, but existing teachers
Website of a full list of teacher competencies, which the
will have to learn through in-service professional
institution had for years been using as a basis for the
development.
recruitment, selection, initial training, and continuing
• Due to the explosive growth in online learning,
professional development of their teachers and tutors.
teachers (K-12 as well as H-Ed.) will have to acquire
I reproduce here the main categories and sub-categories
new competencies ON-THE-JOB and JUST-IN-TIME.
of this teacher-competency model, as it appeared on the

EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGY/March-April 201 0 43

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NZCS Website in 2005: published in 1993. It addressed only the competencies
required for teaching in "conventional" Face-to-Face
>4; PERSONAL/GENERAL COMPETENCIES: Com- settings. The revised third edition, as its title implies,
addresses online and blended learning settings as well.
munication Skills; Flexibility and Adaptability; Interper-
sonal Cooperation and Participation; Planning and it is interesting to observe that the similarities
However,
Organizational Skills; Continual Improvement of across the three editions are greater than the differences.
Service; Professional Relationships. The underlying philosophy is that at the "macro" level,
instructor competencies are the same, whatever the
B: PROFESSIONAL TEACHER COMPETENCIES: context of instruction, and that differences appear at
Teaching Knowledge and Skills; Teaching the Relation-
more "micro" level of practical application of a given
ships; Technical Knowledge and Skills. competency in a given setting.
Another aspect of the IBSTPI model's "pedigree" is its
C: MANAGEMENT/ORGANIZATION COMPETENCIES: birth out of the Instructional Systems Design (ISD)
Decision Making and Judgment; Growing Perfor- professional area. Both the overall competency-based
mance; Leading Others; Managing Change; Building approach and also the selection and manner of describing
Relationships and Partnerships. the detailed performance statements show a clear
ISD parentage. This is not surprising, given that most of
the
Readers of this list might say: "But where is there IBSTPI board members are drawn from the
any
mention of online teaching?" Well, these "macro-level" Educational Technology/ISD area.
categories are further subdivided into lists of precise
statements of teacher activities, and it is at this more 4. The COTS (Competencies for Online Teaching
"micro" level of description that specific online-teaching- Success) model . The COTS model may be accessed
related skills are described. And, as shown below, that is online at a Website maintained by the Penn State
not at unusual. University's World Campus ( http://psuwcfacdev.ning.com ).
This site supports several communities of practice
3. The IBSTPI model of online (and other) teaching devoted to a variety of topics related to Faculty
competencies . The International Board of Standards Development. The COTS model is one of these topics. It
for Training, Performance, and Instruction (IBSTPI) devel- is of interest to note that the site announces that Penn
oped a comprehensive model of Instructor Competen- State World Campus is conducting a study on identifying
cies: Standards for Face-to-Face, Online , and Blended key competencies (teaching behaviors) associated with
Settings (J. D. Klein, J. M. Spector, B. Grabowski & I. de laonline teaching success, and asks one to participate in
Teja- revised 3rd. edition- Information Age Publishing, this study by completing an online survey. On other pages
2004). The IBSTPI model proposes five general compe- of the site (best browsed by using the site map) one can
tency domains (in contrast to three in the NZCS model), access a detailed model of online teaching competencies
made up of a total of 18 specific areas of competency and "teaching behaviors." It is not quite clear whether this
(compared to 14 in the NZCS model). Each of these 18 a "living model" which is continually being developed as a
competency-areas is defined by a set of performance result of the above mentioned online research study, or
statements which describe what instructors (should whether it predates the study. Whatever the case, it is of
know how to) perform and what underlying knowledge, interest to compare the structure and content of this
skills, and attitudes they need to possess in order to model with the NZCS and IBSTPI models.
perform competently. Furthermore, each of these The Competencies for Online Teaching Success
numerous performance statements is illustrated by exam- (COTS) are categorized into six Competency Domains:
ples-there are three parallel sets of example activities or Attitude/Philosophy; Building a Learning Community;
strategies, one each for online, blended, and face-to-face Class Administration; Faculty Workload Management;
instructional settings. Teaching and Learning; and Technology-use Abilities.
The five Competency Domains are: Professional Analysis of these shows that in many respects, the COTS
Foundations; Planning and Preparation; Instructional model is similar to IBSTPI, differing mainly in the manner
Strategies; Assessment and Evaluation; and Administra-in which the competencies are sub-classified into
tion and Management. These are very general, context- domains, and in the specific names chosen for the
free categories (as are the 18 areas of competence they domains, rather than the competencies themselves.
include). Once more, as in the case of the NZCS compe- There are, however, some interesting differences
tencies, there is little in the wording of these competency related to the much greater prominence given at the
domains and component areas of competence that directly macro-level to competency domains that are specifically
addresses the online learning environment. Only when related to online (as opposed to any-and-all) teaching
the competency areas are further described by means of contexts. One example of this is the inclusion of a
sets of detailed performance statements, and when these macro-level competency domain entitled "technology use
performance statements are illustrated by context-specific abilities" - NZCS and IBSTPI include these as micro-
practical examples, do we get a clear picture of the new level components of several "macro" domains.
knowledge, skills, and attitudes that an instructor needs in Another example is the inclusion of "faculty workload
order to be an effective online teacher. management" as a macro-level category. This reflects
The IBSTPI model has a long "pedigree." The first a preoccupation with the realities of managing online
edition of this model of instructor competencies was learning environments and the teacher's own time

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 Figure 1. The "online onion" model (Levels 1, 2, and 3).

management - which have surfaced as key success/ • Analytical - monitor, evaluate, and improve the
failure factors in recent e-learning research and evalua- system.
tion studies. • a Leader-by-example - model online teaching best-
A third example is the emphasis placed on "building practices.
a learning community," which is also elevated to the
The paper addresses each of these five areas in turn,
macro-level as opposed to being buried in the micro-
first to establish its importance in the online teaching
detail, as in the NZCS and IBSTPI models. It is interesting
context, and then to suggest strategies, skills, and atti-
to speculate whether this is the result of a somewhat
tudes that the online teacher should strive to develop. This
more constructivist/humanist (some would say, "as
model is of interest, as it introduces a number of areas of
opposed to ISD") philosophical perspective of those
online teaching competence (or maybe of teaching com-
responsible for the development of the COTS model, or
petence in general) that are not clearly addressed in the
just a reflection of the way that online learning is moving
other models so far analyzed. The "Be Organized" and "Be
towards ever greater practical use of collaborative group
Analytical" domains are largely equivalent to the plan-
work, communities of practice, and social networking.
ning/preparation and assessment/evaluation competency
areas in the other models, but the "Be Visible," "Be
5. The VOCAL model of online teaching competen-
Compassionate," and "Be a Leader-by-example" domains
cies. This model is described in (J. R. Savery, 2005) "BE
VOCAL: Characteristics of Successful Online Instructors"
suggest many new and insightful additions to the overall
"mix" of online teaching competencies.
(Journal of Interactive Online Learning , 4(2) - accessed
Quite clearly, all of the models presented here overlap
online at www.ncolr.org/jiol). John Savery, the author, and
in part with each other, but each one also adds some
presumably inventor of the model's name as well as its
unique and valuable perspectives which strengthen and
substance, prefaces his description of the model with the
caveat that to "BE VOCAL" does NOT mean that instruc-
enrich our theoretical understanding and practical
approaches to the professional development of online
tors need to "talk" a lot. Rather, it means that online
teachers. Should we therefore build our own model by
instructors should (strive to) be:
integrating aspects from each of the models described in
• Visible- establish a social presence. the literature? Or should we first seek to validate the
• Organized - with plans, presentations, practice, models through research? In the sources accessed, only
timing. the IBSTPI model reports the results of validation - and
• Compassionate - in handling students' problems. this is restricted to expert opinions. However...

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6 . Recent research on Best Practices in teaching more detail. The outer layer (Level 1) represents the
K-12 online: Lessons learned from Michigan Virtual tangible and observable components of an online
School teachers (2007-2008). It so happens that the teaching system: teachers, students, materials, a course
recent K-12 Virtual School movement is already supply- platform or Learning Management System (LMS), and
ing some useful and relevant research results that may the electronic network that interlinks these components
help us adopt or adapt the competency models in order to (typically, the Internet). The boxes on the outer skin
create a research-based best-practices curriculum for identify these tangible components. These boxes can also
online teaching professional development. DiPietro, hold the descriptions of these components. Thus, in the
Ferdig, Black, & Preston (Journal of Interactive Online case of "INSTRUCTOR" the box can be used to hold
Learning, 7(1), 2008 - www.ncolr.org/jiol) describe a the online teacher's "general characteristics" (so named
study to identify the most successful best-practices of 16 the Michigan study, but referred to as "professional fo
of the most "experienced and exemplary" online teachers dations" by IBSTPI and "attitudes/philosophy" by COTS
from the Michigan Virtual Schools. These exemplary Peeling off (or better, peering through) the outer sk
online teachers (voted as such by their students and we reach the next layer (Level 2), which here is used to
peers) were interviewed in order to identify the best- the major categories of "what the teacher does": cou
practices common to most of them. The results were delivery, student support, management of learning,
classified into eight categories: general characteristics; course administration (and in addition assessment and
class management; assessment; engaging students with evaluation, which appears as a label on several of the
content; making the course meaningful; providing onion skins). Once more, these boxes can be used to
support; communication and community; and use of store in an organized manner the descriptions of teacher-
technology. behaviors/competencies.
About 40 commonly used and highly successful best- Peeling off yet one more skin, we reveal the intellectual
practices were identified. These all match some- level (knowledge, skills, and attitudes) which tells us how
often several - of the competencies included in one or the teacher decides what needs to be done and how it
other of the models discussed here. Thus, the research should be done. At this third level, as shown in Figure 1
indicates which parts of each of the models are I reveal my own biases, by choosing to organize this leve
candidates for inclusion in a competency-based online- according to ISD and systems-approach principles - no
teaching professional development program. It also prizes for identifying the ADDIE model as the organizing
suggests some extra competencies and teacher behav- structure of Level 3.
iors that are not included in any of our models. We could go even deeper, but time's up and I'm hungry.
The question remains on how best to integrate the Onion soup anyone? □
relevant parts of the various competency models we have
discussed. The visual aid shown as Figure 1 may help
this task. Author Guidelines for
Magazine Articles
7. The " online onion." One problem I experienced when
analyzing the models presented here was to visualize In preparing an article for Educational Technology
whether they were clear and consistent (and indeed Magazine the primary fact to keep in mind is that this
mutually compatible) in their identification of "competency magazine is not a formal research journal. It is, as the
domains," "competency areas" which compose the name implies, a magazine. The Editors are looking
domains, "performance statements," and "teacher
generally for articles which interpret research and/or
behaviors" that describe the competencies, etc. Of
practical applications of scientific knowledge in educa-
the sources analyzed, only the IBSTPI book of teacher
tion and training environments.
competencies makes any significant effort to clearly
define its terminology and describe the processes Thus, your article should not be cast in the form of a
and procedures used to identify and classify the compe- traditional research report. The facts of your research,
tencies. or that of others, should be stated succinctly. Then, go
An onion has often been used as a visual analogy on to explain the implications of this research, how it
to systems analysis. The idea is that you can see certain can be applied, and what suggestions can be made to
information on the onion's skin, and then to get further school administrators, trainers, designers, and others.
details we need to peel off the skin and reveal what The style of writing should be on the informal side -
lies underneath. The structure of an onion allows us to
an essay - since once again this is a magazine and
perform the skin-peeling exercise several times, not a formal academic journal. Authors are free to
progressing ever deeper into the onion's inner secrets
state their opinions, as long as the opinions are clearly
with every skin peeled off. So, when preparing my keynote
identified as such. The use of specialized jargon should
presentation for the ISODEL conference, and presented
be kept to a minimum, since this magazine has a very
with the rich information on online teaching competencies
that has been all too briefly reviewed here, I used the wide interdisciplinary audience.
onion analogy to stimulate my systems thinking (see There are no minimum and maximum length restric-
Figure 1). tions. Make your article as short as possible to do the
The figure is the third in a series, each successive job you intend. As a general rule, most articles are
picture peeling one more skin off our onion and revealing about 3,000 words. Include graphics as appropriate.

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