Incorporating Contextual Knowledge in Faculty Professional Development for Online Teaching

Abstract

Online learning has become an important component of the higher education landscape in the United States. However, faculty are often either ill-prepared in using cutting-edge educational technologies in the classroom or have reservations about online teaching. Mishra and Koehler’s (2006) Technological Pedagogical and Content Knowledge (TPACK) model, often used in K-12 settings to describe the role of technology in the pedagogical process, can be adapted to meet the professional development needs of faculty. The model we propose, TPACK-ConK, adds another layer of knowledge, context knowledge, to the model in order to account for the specific professional development needs of faculty in higher education. TPACK-ConK can be used by Centers for Teaching and Learning to better construct professional development for faculty engaged in online teaching.

PDF