Gold, S. (2001). A constructivist approach to online training for online teachers. JALN, (5)1, 36-57. http://www.aln.org/publications/jaln/v5n1/v5n1_gold.asp
Gold examines the pedagogical role of the teacher in web-based learning, focusing on the training required to make the transition from in-class room education to online instruction. The article focuses on a two-week faculty development workshop aimed at preparing educators to effectively teach online. Participants were engaged in different types of collaborative exercises ranging from virtual field trips, to online evaluations, interactive essays, and group projects. To promote innovation in teaching faculty experienced constructivist approaches first-hand in order to better understand the value of learner-centred instruction. Gold also outlines the case for constructivist online education. As knowledge is based on different experiences and interpretations by the learner, technology can be used to help them make meaning of their environment by providing the tools by which they communicate their understanding of the world. Gold ties Piaget's processes for knowledge construction to the affordances of online learning networks. For example, the online curriculum can be used to solicit problems from students to act as a stimulus for learning activities. The content can be modularized so as to scaffold learning. Collaborative projects can engage students in designing authentic tasks and case studies can be presented to challenge misconceptions of particular theories. Gold tested several research hypotheses to determine the effect of the training on the instructors, most specifically their perceptions of what online teaching involved and concluded that workshop was successful in getting educators to re-examine their current methods of instruction. He also found that, the participants shifted towards a more constructivist orientation, seeing online courses as offering more opportunities for student participation. Of interest is the description and findings of the culminating activity where groups of participants wrote an interactive essay.
I have included this article, because I agree with the author that in order to effectively teach online instructors should experience it from a student perspective, otherwise the tendency is for them to map their existing practice onto the web-based medium. These experiences also help to inform them about the potential benefits and drawbacks of this delivery medium. The design of the course exposed faculty to a variety of instructional strategies and technologies and was the same approach and organizational structure we used in the development of our own web-based workshop at UofT.
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