Introduction

“…what is controversial is whether online platforms allow us to revisit teaching in productive and innovative ways. We contend that one of the most important promises of online education is not so much in the quality of the resulting products as in how online environments allow educators who develop courseware to enhance the status of their pedagogical practice.” (Larreamendy-Joerns & Leinhardt, 2006, p. 596-97)

Introduction

Distance learning, e-learning, online learning – just what does it mean to provide access to learning while allowing for distance in time and space? The history of distance education spans almost two centuries and has taken a number of different forms. Students enrolled early forms of distance learning (often referred to as correspondence courses) regularly exchanged course materials and completed assignments through the postal service. With the development of accessible Internet telecommunication technologies, interactions between students, instructors, and content has evolved in a variety of ways that have transformed mere correspondence into a true two-way medium that allows for and enables new ways of addressing content in distance courses. With the high demand for online courses (see Figure 1), instructors are now expected to create courses that are not only valuable, but also interactive and engaging. As new possibilities for content delivery emerge, attention needs to focus on the best ways of leveraging digital tools to allow for successful student outcomes.


Figure 1 (Seamen, Allen, and Seamen, 2018)

Source: Grade Increase: Tracking Distance Education in the United States. The full report can be downloaded from the Online Learning Consortium Website.

Instructionally-designed Online Courses Based on a Learning Management System

Design Strategies include two broader general methods (Bates, 2016). The most common method involves instructionally-designed online courses based on a learning management system. This method may involve single faculty, or teams of faculty, with variations that include teaching assistants, instructional designer(s) and other technical support staff (e.g., web designers). Often, one of these three scenarios characterizes the distance-learning environment when this method is used (Moore & Kearsley, 2011 p. 133):

Scenario 1

"Students are in a learning experience in which you, the instructor, provide material using a course management system (CMS) (e.g., Blackboard, Canvas, Moodle, Sakai, etc.), which is accessed via the Internet. Students interact with you and their fellow classmates via email and/or chat forums. There is a discussion board, and students never have official meetings with the instructor or your classmates" (Moore, Dickson-Dean, & Galyen, 2011 p. 133).

Scenario 2

"Students are in a learning experience in which you, the instructor, provide material using a course management system (CMS) (e.g., Blackboard, Canvas, Moodle, Sakai, etc.), which is accessed via the Internet. Students can interact with you and their fellow classmates via email and/or chat forums. There is a discussion board, and students have official (e.g., class sessions) and non-official (e.g., office hours) meetings with you and/or their classmates that are conducted face-to-face (via video classrooms or physically meeting in the same location) or in real time (via the use of synchronous web-based course systems)" (Moore, et.al, 2011 p. 133)

Scenario 3

"Students are in a learning experience where the material is provided in a course management system (e.g., Blackboard, Canvas, Moodle, Sakai, etc.), which must be accessed via the Internet. Students cannot interact with you, as instructor, or with classmates.” (Moore, et.al, 2011 p. 133)


Design Based on Open Education and Emerging Technologies

A second method addresses designs more often based on open education and emerging technologies. This method includes a small but growing number of online course designs that exploit specific characteristics of new media and open education approaches, possibly delivered by learning management systems, including:

      • ‘Connectivist MOOCs’ that focus on the contributions of all participants in an extended online network;
      • Courses built using social media tools such as blogs, wikis, and e-portfolios;
      • Approaches that exploit open educational resources, such as open textbooks and content freely available over the Internet; and
      • Courses built around emerging technologies, such as virtual worlds, gaming, and augmented reality.

Common features of such courses are increased activity and choices for learners, more diversity in course designs, and ‘agile’ or quick design and development. In such courses, students are often encouraged to seek, analyze, evaluate and apply content to real-world issues or contexts, rather than the instructor being primarily responsible for content choice and delivery (Bates, 2016). The development of these learning environments requires additional resources including financing and design teams (see, for example, Kleiman, Wolf, & Frye, 2013 ).


“…much online learning in general, and online teacher professional development in particular, remains organized as interactive courses using a learning management or content management environment such as Moodle or Blackboard.” (Fishmann, 2016 p. 16)

Focus of the AMTE Task Force

This task has placed its focus on the Former of the two methods as learning environments provided via course management systems are the primary arenas in which many mathematics teacher educators engaging with instructional models and technological applications.

In subsequent sections hope to address the following questions:

      • Where do you – as a mathematics teacher educator – start?
      • What does it mean to provide instruction in an distance-learning environment?

Mathematics teacher educators visiting this site are knowledgeable about the field of mathematics education. But what specialized knowledge is required regarding the field of distance education, and specifically online course design and implementation, in order to offer effective and successful distance learning experiences? What is involved in getting to either of the first two identified scenarios; simply broadcasting or posting learning materials to learners is not distance learning? This site reflects the creators’ current efforts to review literature in distance education and to engage with mathematics teacher educators already doing this work to suggest guidelines that might help address this question more effectively and successfully in mathematics education.

To help visualize what online learning in mathematics teacher education looks like we include sections that provide exemplars of models based on the creators' experiences. Specifically, this site takes into account both the implementation of high-quality mathematics teacher education practices and illuminates the types of supports necessary for students to be successful in an distance-learning environment. Finally, we show you what this might look like in your classes.