Professional Development Needs of Distance Education Staff

Abstract

This chapter disseminates the findings of a mixed-method sequential research study that was undertaken in a distance learning context in South Africa. This research investigates the future roles of distance education academic staff and their perceptions of their own competencies in these roles. In addition, the research seeks to identify the required professional development for preparation for these future roles. A mixed-method explanatory sequential design was used so that multiple perspectives could be investigated. Mixed-methods research involves collecting quantitative and qualitative data and then integrating the different sets of results to best address the research questions. This approach is grounded in the paradigm of pragmatism, which is a philosophy for integrating different perspectives and approaches. The integration of the results indicated synergy between the quantitative and qualitative data and provided further metacognitive insights into the future roles of the distance education respondents.