DOI: 10.5176/2251-1814_EeL18.146
Authors: Anya S. Evmenova, Jered Borup and Joan Kang Shin
Abstract: Online professional development (PD) can be a powerful way to make meaningful connections among English language teachers from around the world while providing instruction on effective teaching practices. This paper reports the preliminary results of a study conducted in the first year of a global online PD program for English language teachers worldwide. It is based on surveys developed around the community of inquiry (CoI) framework by Garrison, Anderson and Archer (2000) and adapted for this study based on the international participants who were all non-native speakers of English. These surveys were completed by participants in seven sections of a fully online distance TESOL professional development course with participants from over 50 countries. They measured participant perception of teaching presence (TP), social presence (SP), and cognitive presence (CP). Initial results show the effectiveness of the online PD course design to build an international network of English teaching professionals who benefited greatly from the global interactions with instructors and fellow participants. Consistent results across sections with different participants from diverse contexts and different instructors with varying degrees of experience and expertise in the course content suggest that aspects of the course design were instrumental in the development of high levels of TP, SP, and CP.
Keywords: online; professional development; TESOL PD; community of inquiry; COI; teaching presence; social presence; cognitive presence; instructor social presence
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