Competency analysis and faculty development for e-instructors in higher education

Shyu Hsin-yih
Tamkang University
Taiwan

More than half the universities in Taiwan are currently developing e-learning. In order to overcome the challenges e-learning brings for faculty development, it is necessary to enable staff teaching in universities to make effective use of e-learning environments. Recently, staff development interventions have focused mainly on training in the use of the equipment and multimedia authoring of software, but training for online instruction has been scanty. For this reason, our study tried to analyse the roles and competencies of e-instructors and examine the development needs of university teachers involved in online teaching. The research methods consisted of a literature review, interviews and a questionnaire. The roles and competencies of e-instructors were first analysed and then three experts were invited for interview. Fifty instructors responded to the questionnaire. Of the three domains of knowledge, attitudes and skills (KAS) of e-instructors, the results indicated that attitudes was the most important. In addition, there were seven abilities included in the top eight factors of importance, namely ability in management, instructional design, instructional presentation, learning support, knowledge, computer literacy and platform operations, as well as digital content production. An e-instructor training programme was designed and implemented according to results of the importance and needs assessment of competencies, with 13 teachers participating. The data from the questionnaires and interviews indicated that the results were satisfactory. This study was important because the findings suggested valuable guidance for designing e-instructor staff development and also provided useful information on ways of enhancing the implementation of e-learning courses.