Training Teachers for Virtual Classrooms

Abstract

The increased demand for online instruction within higher and K-12 education has created a need for teacher education programs to provide pre-service and practicing teachers with training in online pedagogy; however, research has shown that such courses are rare within most teacher training programs. This chapter describes “Theory and Practice in Online Education,” an experimental course designed to train teachers for virtual instruction that was offered by the first author in Spring 2011. In this course, students explored the history of online education, online learning theories, the creation of online communities, online assessments, and ways to differentiate online courses for learners with special needs. Students were then able to put this theoretical knowledge into practice by experiencing various forms of synchronous and asynchronous communication and designing their own online course. The authors provide this description in hopes that others may use it as a starting point to create their own courses in online pedagogy.