ERIC Number: ED519569
Record Type: Non-Journal
Publication Date: 2011-Mar
Pages: 12
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-1548-6613
EISSN: N/A
With Tools and Strategies Teachers Use in Online Courses: A Mexican Public University Case
McAnally-Salas, Lewis; Espinosa-Gomez, Erika Judith; Lavigne, Gilles
Online Submission, US-China Education Review v8 n3 p276-287 Mar 2011
The rapid development of ICT (information technology and communication) in the last two decades has changed society substantially as a whole. For higher education institutions, the external environment pressure to incorporate ICT in their educational and administrative processes has forced them to invest in resources for infrastructure and training. In addition, teachers have found that they can use technology in their teaching, but lack of full knowledge of how to use it effectively from a pedagogical point of view. The incorporation of new education modalities depends largely on the contextual variables prevailing in the institution and teachers. In UABC (Autonomous University of Baja California), the early days of online education go back to 1996, so the study period was from 1996 to 2009. An online survey was designed to find out the teachers' backgrounds and involvement in online education, their experience as online teachers, and the tools and practices used. Of 97 teachers who were identified with some experience in online teaching, 70% responded to the survey (68). It was found that the highest percentage (33%) of teachers who responded the survey started teaching online between 2003 and 2006. 56% of teachers have been teaching between one and five online courses. On the other hand, most teachers recognized that 30%-79% of the content of their courses were online based. The most popular learning management system used is moodle followed by blackboard in teachers' preference. In general, teachers expressed using the three main communication tools of online education: forums, chat and e-mail, favoring the use of e-mail. The communication strategies teachers often use in their courses promoted student-student and student-teacher interaction. In their evaluation strategies, most said that they used self-assessment, rubrics and to a lesser extent online exams and co-evaluation. The results show that most teachers who have been involved in online education in UABC campus have expressed having similar practices, which should not be surprising in a relatively small community where it is easier to standardize successful practices. (Contains 9 figures.)
Descriptors: Online Courses, Information Technology, Teaching Methods, Educational Technology, Computer Uses in Education, Foreign Countries, Public Colleges, Surveys, Internet, Teacher Qualifications, Computer Mediated Communication, Electronic Mail, Group Discussion, Teacher Student Relationship, Self Evaluation (Individuals), Scoring Rubrics, Evaluation Methods, College Faculty, Teacher Attitudes
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Higher Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Mexico
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A