Week 5 Reflection: Management

On the topic of how to manage online teachers, I appreciated how the article "Evaluating Online Teachers is Largely a Virtual Task" explained that there is a lot more data to examine, in a more timely fashion, than for traditional teachers. I wonder how TC teachers who teach online classes are evaluated. I know that we do course evaluations at the end of both online and face-to-face courses so I assume that is part of it, but I wonder whether the evaluations differ in other aspects depending on the forum. The article also noted that administrators can take steps to immediately help teachers fix the problems they may be experiencing and how much oversight is enough or too much?

In "Managing Teachers You Can't See", the article noted that most online teachers work remotely which creates a unique challenge for supervisors, but this is very similar to corporate organizations that allow individuals to work from home. I was part of a program at Sun Microsystems known as iWork where I worked from home or other remote offices most of the time. Many years, I had supervisors who were not based in the same location as I, and evaluation never seemed to be a problem. I think the same applies to online teachers and their supervisors.

I really like how the article notes that customer service is a big priority at virtual schools (FLVS in this case) because the student is the customer (or the consumer really) and everything we do as teachers needs to focus on that, just as it would in the corporate or retail worlds. FLVS also mentions that accountability is critical for online teachers so they ensure students success. I wonder how different this is than in traditional schools where teachers "pass" students because of underlying politics. Everybody wants students to succeed, and accountability is not specific to virtual schools.  They also mention that the leadership team checks in with instructors on a daily basis. I think this seems like too often. It is a very "hands-on" approach. Personally, I thrive in an environment where the manager is "hands-off", understanding that success ensures a continued need for my skills. 

Week 5 Reflection: The TPI & Online Teacher Quality Standards

The TPI:
The Teaching Perspectives Inventory was a new and useful tool that was introduced to me this week. I really enjoyed taking the tool and thinking about my own personal philosophy of teaching. Not only do I see this as a useful tool now in the beginning of my new career (and hopefully helping me to write my philosophy for my portfolio) but I see this as something useful to refer back to over time and compare my results as I become a more experienced teacher. I think that this is yet another item to store in my professional development toolbag.

Quality Standards for Online Teachers:
The iNACOL has published “National Standards for Quality Online Teaching” which is basically a rubric for a number of criteria that online teachers should have. They borrowed work from SREB (the Southern Regional Education Board) and a few other locations. Overall I thought the list was pretty comprehensive but I’m still not quite clear on exactly how these would be implemented within various virtual schooling environments. Are they to be used as a professional development guideline for teachers, an evaluation of existing teachers, or as criteria for hiring teachers? Maybe the answer is all of the above. The one thing this article did highlight for me was the importance of identifying criteria that will eventually result in student achievement. I also noted that many, although certainly not all, of the criteria listed should apply to traditional face-to-face teachers as well.

The biggest AH-HA moment for me on this topic was actually in the article entitled “Online Teaches: What can SREB States Do to Ensure Competence and Quality?” Finally, an article that reflected what I had been thinking: “It may not be appropriate for instructors who teach in classrooms without borders” to have certification in that state! Exactly! I fully support the idea that virtual schools should “remove, modify or adapt their out-of-state teacher requirements” in order to attract the highest quality teachers regardless of geographic location. Perhaps, as the article articulates, there ought to be a national online certification for teachers based on their relevant experience and applicable training.

I did a quick look at some of the SREB schools and did not see evidence of this recommendation having taken effect, but I will definitely keep looking in the hopes of some day becoming an online teacher myself!