Teachers Tap Tech Training From Dot-Coms

Want to learn how to teach on the Web? Consider a growing number of courses on the Web itself.

By James R. Dukart for Office.com Jan. 2, 2001 N

In the field of online education, a fair question is N who is teaching the teachers? The answer N that a good deal of training in Web-based instruction is being offered online N might well come as a surprise.

Web-based distance learning and online education are, after all, relatively new fields. Yet recent survey data from the Campus Computing project shows that educators' use of technology has risen sharply over the past six years.

Almost 60 percent of courses used e-mail as an instructional tool in 2000 N up from below 10 percent in 1994, according to the survey of 500 public and private colleges. Also, the number of courses that have Web sites grew from 7 percent to 30 percent in the same period, the survey found.

Accordingly, instructors' need for technology training has grown as well. At the higher-education level, for example, JonesKnowledge.com offers online-education certificate programs for university faculty and corporate trainers. This is in addition to its Jones International University, which it claims is the first fully accredited all-online university.

Others offering online education training include Facultytraining.net of Aromas, Calif.; TelesTraining.com, a spin-off company from the Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, B.C.; and the Learning Resources Network, or LERN, in River Falls, Wis. Courses and workshops vary from $75 for one- or two-hour "how to get started" seminars to certificate programs that run six to nine months and cost upwards of $3,000 to $5,000. E

"Online training is much better than face-to-face, because one is practicing what one does." E N Bill Draves, president Learning Resources Network

While the courses fit faculty members' often busy schedules and allow them to experience being online students, universities typically don't subsidize the training or reward their faculty for undertaking it.

Courses mostly focus on two general areas N online pedagogy and technical training. Online pedagogy includes examination of courses currently being taught online, online assessment and testing, promotion of student interaction or input, and use of asynchronous communication and pedagogically sound software. Technical training can cover issues such as managing Internet e-mail, using multimedia for presentations, and considering online security and legal and ethical aspects of teaching online.

Faculty generally do not get paid more for teaching online, according to Curtis Bonk, who runs Bloomington, Ind.-based CourseShare.com, which offers a variety of workshops and short courses for online learning as well as a free online community dedicated to teaching and learning online. Created by Bonk, a psychology of education professor at Indiana University, the company's courses typically cost around $500 and draw on experienced online-education trainers and faculty from nearby Indiana University.

Certification, says Bonk, is not as important as the actual skills educators pick up in online training.

"Faculty say it is more a sense of personal accomplishment," he says. "They think knowing how to do this is important for their future and the future of education."

While few universities require an online teaching certificate as a prerequisite for teaching a course online, most encourage faculty to get some training before attempting an online course, says Mark Adams, president of Facultytraining.net.

"If an instructor is unable or unwilling to complete the training, it is a major red flag," he says. "In some cases it can be an automatic disqualification for online teaching assignments."