0.4 Discussion  (Page 20/23)

Carrie became unhappy with the frustrations the students encountered in taking the online quizzes and becoming familiar with the online course environment. It took energy she could have put into teaching to try to resolve the technical problems for the students. Most of Carrie’s students had already mastered working in Blackboard, but for the theories course they had to learn a new system. This factor alone caused Carrie to rethink using the online course materials for the following semester. She decided to use WebCT for the course shell, and to include a link to the Online Day materials. She would require the students to watch all the videos and to take the practice tests as well as the online quizzes. Carrie, though somewhat disheartened by this compromise, felt the content of the Day textbook and website was worth adapting for the future, and was willing to expend the effort. She represented the Holding phase of Maintenance .

The second Maintenance stage instructor, Neal, taught the course face-to-face. Neal had reviewed the course package for a journal, so he knew about the content and the various technology components. However, Neal only required the students to take weekly online quizzes and watch the course videos. He did not attempt to use the discussion board, or to have students submit assignments on the website. For the final exam, Neal gave the students an online portion from the test bank which counted as two-thirds of their grade. He, like Carrie, represented the Holding phase of Maintenance .

Miller had never used technology in teaching before. Although her colleagues had all begun to use technology to some degree, Miller had taught face-to-face classes and prepared printed copies of all the supplementary reading which were sold in the bookstore. Because she had been away from the classroom for a number of years serving administrative duties for the department, Miller had missed out on much of the technology training offered. She had recently been introduced to Blackboard in training sessions, but when she tied to implement it on her own, the difficulties outweighed its perceived value. Miller decided to teach a hybrid course in her last semester of teaching in the northeast, before moving to a larger university setting in another state. Miller devoted enough time learning the software and the course content to become proficient in implementing it. She used use of most of the online components with her hybrid class, including the discussion board. Miller had moved beyond Establishment into the Transition phase leading to Maintenance .

Each of these mid-career instructors represented a different aspect of the mini-cycle of the Maintenance phase. While Carrie was scaling back from teaching online to teaching a hybrid adopting a holding position, Miller was advancing her career and taking a bold step forward in her use of instructional technology. Neal, the only instructor who taught at the undergraduate level, seemed content to continue teaching in his usual style, adopting only the piece of technology that most closely resembled his usual teaching methods.