Strategies for Successfully Completing Online Professional Development

Past studies of factors contributing to learner attrition in distance education in educational and training settings suggest that lack of motivation is one of the major causes of failure to complete coursework (Frankola, 2001; Park & Choi, 2009; Rodriguez, Ooms, & Montañez, 2008). Their level of motivation for enrolling and completing online training is often based on why they are enrolling in the training (Summerville & Johnson, 2006). For example, if teachers want to learn new skills and teaching techniques, they are more likely to stick with the training and finish it. If they are enrolling in an online course because their schedule conflicts with face-to-face training options, then they might not be motivated to fully participate in the online class. To prepare elementary and secondary education teachers for successful completion, the purpose for taking online professional development should be identified (Rodriguez, Ooms, & Montañez, 2008).

Although there are many forms of online professional development, largely, it is divided into two types, including non-instructor-led online training and instructor-led online training (George, 2007). While non-instructor-led online training requires learners to complete activities within a certain period of time without receiving ongoing feedback from an instructor, instructor-led training has someone who will guide them and their classmates through the critical learning requirements and facilitate their learning. According to Summerville and Johnson (2006), non-instructor-led online training could give benefits to a self-directed learner who is able to set his/her own schedule of learning and complete independent studies within the set amount of time. They also added that the self-paced atmosphere allows teachers the privacy of reviewing materials they did not feel they mastered.

Within instructor-led learning, it is important to decide which online professional development teachers prefer, synchronous or asynchronous interactions (George, 2007). Since synchronous or “real time” learning demands teachers to log on at certain times during the day or week and engage online with their classmates and an instructor, this type of learning can be very beneficial if teachers want immediate feedback to their questions and to learn the information along with others (Crichton & Childs, 2004). Asynchronous interactions are those where they log on during the week or training period at their convenience to learn the information and participate in discussion forums. If their online training includes class discussions, then these will occur in a threaded discussion forum, where they will log on and answer questions and share with their classmates at anytime (Hur & Brush, 2009). Asynchronous trainings are good for those who cannot regularly attend a specific time or day of the week. Studies indicated that discussion forums allow teachers to use online collaborative tools to exchange ideas with peers and an instructor and to stay more up-to-date knowledge and information regarding a topic (Frey, 2009).

Stokes (2003) found a significant relationship between the two variables: students who felt more at easy using the Internet were more likely to be satisfied with their online learning experiences than students who did not feel comfortable using the Internet. Also, Xenos and colleagues (2002) indicated that dropout rates were high for students who do not use computers or email due to low computer proficiency skills. Therefore, it is important to know how well teachers deal with computer technology to go through online professional development course. If they are new to online instruction and not comfortable with computer technology, then they need to consider choosing an online professional development course which provides technical supports or has a user-friendly interface (Rodriguez, Ooms, & Montañez, 2008).

It is critical to evaluate how much time elementary and secondary education teachers can set aside for online professional development before deciding to pursue it. Several studies have reported that the top reason for dropping an online course is lack of time (Bocchi, Eastman, & Swift, 2004; Frankola, 2001). Some online learners blamed the online training for requiring more time than they expected, thereby they were unable to find time to finish the study due to their daily workloads. Unfortunately, people have a misperception that online courses require less work than traditional courses (Bocchi, Eastman, & Swift, 2004). This misperception often leads them to fail to finish it. Online professional development will save time in commuting but it will not guarantee less time to complete the online training than learning (Frankola, 2001; Park & Choi, 2009).

The specific online tools selected for content presentations have a significant influence on the level of learners' acquisition of the content; therefore, the content of the training should guide how information is conveyed (Frey, 2009). If the topic is complex or is presenting training on a new skill or intervention technique, then teachers require seeing a variety of multimedia elements to support the learning. Online training that is text-driven and only offers the learner text-based information is fine for an introductory topic. However, with the advances in technology in general, because more and more online training is able to offer multimedia elements, the content of the training topic needs to matches the methods used to convey the information (Collins et al., 2002).

Online professional development programs may be most effective when a content expert wrote the course or acts as a facilitator (Collins et al., 2002; Garrison & Cleveland-Innes, 2005). Content experts can help diagnose and correct teacher misconceptions, recommend useful and reliable resources, validate new insights, and provide context for new learning. Furthermore, the presence of a knowledgeable online instructor can help participants synthesize course material and progress beyond the initial stages of idea discovery and exploration (Garrison & Cleveland-Innes, 2005). In order to find out if the online training was developed by reliable and knowledgeable entities, it is important for elementary and secondary education teachers to check the qualifications of the training by looking for the organization or authors of the training (Collins et al., 2002).

Elementary and secondary education teachers' level of existing or prior content knowledge varies, as does the instructional intent of online professional development courses and programs (Donavant, 2009). Although professional development is basically designed to try to facilitate the movement of teachers from novices to higher levels of professional expertise, some courses are created for initial or entry-level novice teachers and other for teachers with teaching experiences and seeking advanced instruction designed to develop competence (George, 2007). Therefore, elementary and secondary education teachers need to consider the area where they want to enhance their knowledge and skills and ask themselves how much they know about this area.

To have online training successfully, one of the most important points to analyze is whether the online professional development provides technical support/assistance. The effectiveness of technical support affects the quality of the online experience for learners and can make or break online courses and programs (Collins et al., 2002). According to the research (Crichton & Childs, 2004), online learners need a mechanism for requesting assistance when they encounter problems. Gaumer-Erickson and Noonan (2010) suggested that if elementary and secondary education teachers are new to computer technology or have never taken an online training before, they will most likely need some technical support. Also, they added that the teachers should check whether the online professional development provides instructions and even short “help” videos of how to access and participate in the training.

Online professional development can count toward continuing educational requirements in the same way as any other professional development training (George, 2007). However, some districts continuing education requirements include “seat time” or hours in training. This means that elementary and secondary education teachers will want to fully understand the documentation needed to receive continuing education credit from the online training (Donavant, 2009). Therefore, it is important to find out if certification will be provided and if the information about the online course completion meets the requirements of district they belong to.

Costs of training can make a difference in terms of what they choose (Lawless & Pellegrino, 2007). Free trainings typically are very short sessions and are often used as a marketing promotion to sign up for more intensive training. This type of free training can help elementary and secondary education teachers decide whether they want more intensive training on a particular topic. Other forms of free online professional development may have been developed by national education organizations to provide information to the field at large. This maybe very beneficial to them, but they must be sure to check if the free training comes with some form of certificate of completion in order to ensure that the training will count toward professional development and continuing education credits, if that is an important reason to take the training (Brown & Green, 2003). Trainings associated with a registration fee are often ones with an instructor associated with the training, which may be an important consideration (Collins et al., 2002).