This document discusses developing sustainable staff development for online teachers. It begins by outlining the transition from emergency remote teaching during the pandemic to redesigning teaching for blended/hybrid models. It then examines some challenges of this transition, such as adapting pedagogy for online contexts. The document proposes a spectrum of continuous professional learning and development (CPLD) needs for online teachers from new to experienced. It presents an ecological CPLD support model including personal, middle-out/program, institutional, and inter-institutional levels. Examples of CPLD strategies are given for each level, such as open educational initiatives, professional frameworks, and peer observation. In conclusion, the document states that common successful C

1. Developing sustainable staff
development for online teachers:
What works and why?
RIDE 2023
Richard Walker, University of York
Dianne Forbes, University of Waikato
March 2023

2. Our pandemic journey
Moving from:
Establishment of online teaching provision, preparing students for summer
assessments (2019-20):
▪ Web conferencing sessions replacing timetabled tutorial and lecture sessions
▪ VLE as a content repository
To:
Redesign of teaching (2020-21 onwards):
▪ Re-envisioning of contact time: implications for the structure of teaching and
assessments to meet the new normal of blended/hybrid delivery:
▪ Structured & flexible learning pathways
– Greater choice in how our students participate in teaching and assessment tasks
– Focus on active learning; opportunities for co-creation of learning activities with students;
▪ Community and peer support

3. Consequences for academic practice: Some challenges
▪ Pace of change – alignment of teaching
methods with tools to support student learning
▪ Adaptation from classroom to online practice:
‘unlearning’ of traditional pedagogy (McWilliam,
2005)
▪ Defining and shaping tutor identity i.e. ‘online
teaching persona’ (Harper & Nicolson, 2012) and
tutoring strategies
▪ Re-envisioning of instructional role and
different dimensions of instructional support to
facilitate student learning (Danielsen & Nielson, 2012)

4. How can we support sustainable continuous
professional learning and development (CPLD) for
staff in developing their online teaching practice?
What works and why?

5. A spectrum of CPLD needs for online teachers
New to online teaching Developing practice Experienced practitioners
CPLD Focus Baseline skills and orientation Developing technical pedagogical
content knowledge
Programme leadership
Illustrative
development
areas
Similarities / differences between
classroom and online teaching
Understanding your online learners
(access, learning needs, technology)
Tutor roles and responsibilities:
- Mastering tools / technical competence
- Developing online facilitation &
management skills
Effective communication:
Establishing a tutor ‘voice’
Pedagogical redesign, informed by
evidence-based practice.
Pedagogical approaches to engage
learners:
- flexible & inclusive learning
designs
- social and peer-based learning:
- fostering communities of
practice
Exploring the full potential of
technologies to support different
pedagogical models
Programme-level leadership strategies
and instructional design approaches
Mentoring and supporting tutoring
practice across (multidisciplinary)
programme teams
But no ‘one size fits all’ to tutor development – CPLD is multi-layered and multi-dimensional

6. CPLD ecological
support model for
online teaching
Personal
‘inside out’
Middle-out /
programme driven
academic networks &
communities of practice; teaming
& distributed leadership; peer
mentoring & peer review
Institutional
Inter – institutional /
societal
Reflection on practice and
individual research;
peer-to-peer support;
student partnerships
toolkits & standards; training
workshops; peer mentoring;
awards & dissemination of
evidence-based practice
open education courses & resources; professional training
& accreditation; cross-institutional peer mentoring;
communities of practice; research & dissemination of
evidence-based practice

7. ‘Inter-institutional / societal’ CPLD
▪ Open educational initiatives:
– e.g. #Openteach: Professional Development
for Open Online Educators project
▪ MOOCs:
– e.g. Bloomsbury Learning Exchange’s ‘Get
Interactive: Practical Teaching with
Technology’ (coursera)
▪ Professional development frameworks
– e.g. ATLAS (Aligning Teaching and Learning
across the Technological Sector)
▪ Professional accreditation
– e.g. CMALT (CMALT support at UoY);
UKPSF; SEDA etc.
▪ Cross-institutional initiatives

8. Waikato-York: Cross-institutional peer observation
“…an opportunity to have a
rethink about things and
work with someone I have
never worked with before, so
there was no institutional
agenda at work here, it was
about growing ourselves”
Waikato
Tutor
“…getting experience of the
external culture of an institution –
that was motivating. It is
important to keep abreast of
developments in distance learning
in other institutions, to see
whether the way they do things
could benefit our own students.”
York
Tutor
(Walker & Forbes, 2018)

9. ‘Institutional’ CPLD
Centrally managed provision:
▪ Instructional design support: ADDIE / ABC frameworks
▪ Training workshops (TPACK):
– e.g. workshops:
▪ Academic Community Building
▪ Inclusive Learning
▪ Active Online Learning
▪ Peer observation and dissemination of good practice
▪ Self-study courses

10. Tutoring Online Resource
▪ The Tutoring Online resource
▪ The 6-part training course

11. York Online Tutoring Course
6 one-hour sessions delivered over Zoom,
using Google slides and Padlet
Content covered:
1. What is an online tutor? / differences from in-person teaching
2. Aspects of context which affect online tutoring practice
3. Teaching presences: the Community of Inquiry model (Garrison & Anderson)
4. The early stages of module delivery (e.g. community building)
5. The middle-late stages of delivery (e.g. supporting, learning and closing)
Draws on self-study, synchronous breakout sessions and
reflective practice in online tutoring and peer observation

12. ‘Middle-Out’ CPLD
Programme-level and then shared out:
▪ Distributed leadership and training at the programme level
▪ Co-design instructional processes
▪ Share sessions and interdisciplinary perspectives
▪ Professional learning communities

13. Personal ‘Inside-out’ CPLD
Individual reflection: self-managed learning
▪ Micro-level engagements: peer-to-peer led CPLD
▪ Reflection in/on practice
▪ Personal evaluation of tutoring and student engagement and outcomes
▪ Research and scholarship: e.g. UX for online learning

14. Discussion
What strategies do you use to
support staff development for
online teachers?
How do you address the full
spectrum of CPLD requirements
for online practitioners?

15. In summary and conclusion
Common themes in CPLD:
▪ Online, situated and flexible
▪ A balance of digital
competencies and pedagogies
▪ Collaborative and social
▪ Active and creative
▪ Continually evaluated

16. References
Danielsen, O., & Nielsen, J. L. (2010). Problem-oriented project studies - the role of the teacher as
supervising / facilitating the study group in its learning processes. In L. Dirckinck-Holmfeld, V.
Hodgson, C. Jones, M. de Laat, D. McConnell & T. Ryberg (Eds.), Proceedings of the 7th International
Conference on Networked Learning 2010: 558 - 565.
http://www.lancs.ac.uk/fss/organisations/netlc/past/nlc2010/abstracts/PDFs/Danielsen.pdf
Forbes, D. & Walker, R. (Eds.) (2022). Developing Online Teaching in Higher Education: Global
Perspectives on Continuing Professional Learning and Development. Springer Nature Singapore. ISBN:
978-981-19-5586-0 https://link.springer.com/book/9789811955860
Harper, F.; Nicolson, M. (2013). Online peer observation: its value in teacher professional
development, support and well-being. In International Journal for Academic Development, 18 (3).
Available online at http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/1360144X.2012.682159
McWilliam, E. (2005). Unlearning pedagogy. In Journal of Learning Design 1 (1), (pp.1-11).
Walker, R. & Forbes, D. (2018) Cross-institutional peer observation by online tutors: Sharing practice
‘outside the family’, Innovations in Education and Teaching International, 55:3, 285-
293, DOI: 10.1080/14703297.2017.1281751

17. @difo38
@RichardM_Walker