Abstract:

Instructor roles and online presence have been shown to have significant implications for student learning outcomes and experiences. Previously conducted research regarding online learning environments and overall student success indicates that the organization of online learning resources, in addition to instructor behaviors, influences student learning and engagement. Additionally, instructor presence in an online learning environment may influence student success in specific subjects at varying levels, often depending on the student’s relationship or prior experience with both the subject and technology. Since the rapid transition to primarily remote instruction due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the discussion of the role of the instructor in a distributed environment has become especially relevant. To better understand the changes in discussions regarding the role of the instructor, the authors conducted a systematic thematic analysis of literature surrounding this topic by analyzing articles with publication dates between 2019 and 2020. The intention was to compare themes between the two years to identify whether the broader understanding, interpretation, and discussion of the instructor’s role in an online setting has changed. Drawing from Education Resources Information Center (ERIC) and ProQuest Education Database using key search phrases, 54 unique articles from 2019 were identified and 46 from 2020. After preliminary screening and subsequent review of abstracts, 12 articles from 2019 and 11 from 2020 met inclusion criteria. Initial theme coding and analysis indicated some commonalities in themes between 2019 and 2020. Both years presented similar themes of social presence, Information and Communication Technology (ICT) integration, and learning environment. Presence was addressed in both years; however, there was a strong focus on teacher presence in 2019 and a complete absence of this theme in 2020. Conversely, all discussion of presence in 2020 concentrated on social presence. Statistical analysis indicated that year of publication did have a significant impact on the primary theme. Goodman and Kruskal’s λ was calculated to determine whether the year of publication was associated with the primary theme, yielding λ = .727 (p = .008), demonstrating a strong, statistically significant association. Additionally, Cramer’s V test for association was run between year and primary theme, yielded φ = .774 (p = .008), further demonstrating a strong association between year of publication and primary theme. Also analyzed were the impact of educational setting on the theme in both years, and the impact of discussion of COVID-19 within the 2020 article group. The results suggest that the discussion of the role of the instructor did in fact shift after the emergence of the COVID-19 crisis.

Keywords:

Instructor Roles, Distance Learning.