“I Know Them Better Than Students in My On-campus Courses”: Exploring a Personalized Approach to Online Instruction
Abstract
The study described in this article explored the nature of instruction in an online course in a teacher education program. Participants included the university instructor and 16 classroom teachers enrolled in a graduate-level literacy assessment course. Data included online bulletin board messages, e-mail messages, informal interviews, chat transcripts, the instructor’s teaching journal, and all modules constructed for the online course. Constant-comparative analysis revealed instructional content related to (a) the course focus of assessment and instruction for struggling readers, and (b) how to learn effectively in the online environment. Specific categories within these areas emerged with respect to the design of the course and the instructional interactions between the instructor and the teachers.
