Date of Conferral

2020

Degree

Ph.D.

School

Education

Advisor

Wellesley Foshay

Abstract

Collaboration among instructional faculty to improve technology use in their teaching is insufficiently studied. The research problem addresses this gap in the literature of faculty collaboration using information and communication technologies (ICT) via professional development courses. The purpose of this qualitative study was to elicit instructional faculty perspectives in a U.S. southeast regional community college about collaboration opportunities and ICT in professional development activities. This study utilized Siemens’ connectivism as the conceptual framework. The three research questions focused on opportunities for collaboration within professional development activities; perceived effectiveness of these activities that incorporated ICT with and without human interaction; and self-reports of teaching shift after participation in the professional development activities. An exploratory case study design was used with data collected from: 14 individual faculty interviews, their electronic reflective journals, and documents on professional development activities. Participants were included in the study if they were full or part time and had participated in at least one technology related professional development activity. Themes found upon coding the data resulted in the key finding about how central collaboration was to a successful faculty professional development experience. This study may affect positive social change by providing educators, instructional designers, and researchers with a deeper understanding of the perspectives of faculty members on collaboration using ICT during professional development courses.

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