Date of Award
Spring 5-14-2021
Document Type
Dissertation (799 registration)
Degree Name
Doctor of Education in Educational Leadership
Department
Graduate Studies
Committee Chair
Ximena P. Suarez-Sousa
Keywords
online teaching self-efficacy, Quality Matters, online course design, faculty development, community college faculty, university faculty, COVID-19 pandemic
Abstract
How best to prepare and support faculty to design and teach effective online courses is a topic of great significance to higher education institutional leaders and faculty developers. This research project was motivated by several research questions that were formulated to explore how specific demographic characteristics including online teaching experience, hours of professional development completed, gender, institution type, whether or not the participant has participated in a Quality Matters official course review, and whether or not the participant had experience as an online student were related to online teaching self-efficacy and the extent to which participants reported implementation of effective online course design practices. Using a non-experimental sequential quantitative correlational explanatory research study design, data were collected using a questionnaire and a course review component. Participants included 104 online faculty from a large public higher education system located in the upper Midwest that includes both community colleges and universities. The study also included an external review of six online courses. The findings suggested that both online teaching self-efficacy and self-reported ratings of implementation of effective online course design practices were higher when individuals have completed at least 20 hours of professional development meant to prepare them to teach online, have participated in a Quality Matters official course review, have experience as an online learner, and have experience as an online instructor. The findings offer insights into how those with varying levels of online teaching self-efficacy rate their online course design practices and suggest that faculty may not be able to accurately self-assess their course design abilities. Specific findings related to a subset of participants who were new to teaching online due to the COVID-19 pandemic are included. The results, implications for those who are planning for and providing professional development meant to prepare faculty to teach online, and future research are discussed.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
Recommended Citation
McMahon, Elizabeth, "Designing Effective Online Courses: Exploring the Relationships Amongst Teaching Self-efficacy, Professional Development, Faculty Experience, and Implementation of Effective Online Course Design Practices" (2021). Dissertations, Theses, and Projects. 477.
https://red.mnstate.edu/thesis/477