Online and Blended Teaching Readiness Assessment

• Create the first evidence-based online instructor readiness instrument with valid psychometric properties.

• Contribute to the University's 'all-hands on deck' response to the rapid shift to remote teaching due to COVID-19.

• Provide instructors with immediate/individualized feedback based on their online teaching strengths and limitations, advise faculty developers throughout the instructor triage process.

• Obtain institutional data on instructors' perceptions and competencies undertaking the move to online teaching for future considerations.

Research, Evaluation, and Innovation Team - The Centre for the Advancement of Teaching and Learning

• • Research Associate (me)

  • Team Lead

  • Senior Faculty Specialist

The project sought to:

• Understand the attributes that are predictive of being prepared to teach online.

• Develop an instrument with psychometric properties to measure online instructor readiness.

• Provide further instrument development.

The research questions were:

• What attributes predict whether an instructor is prepared to teach online?

• What information does confirmatory factor analysis tell us about the a priori categorization of the OBTRA items?

• Do scores generated from the OBTRA provide evidence for construct validity?

• What are some of the emergent patterns found through instrument testing of the OBTRA?

Throughout the project a number of research methods were utilized, including:

• Needs Assessment

• Secondary Research

• Usability Testing

• Surveys

Results

• Identified the underlying factor structure and evidence of construct validity of the OBTRA for a sample of 223 post-secondary instructors.

• Exploratory factor analysis revealed 5 factors that were interpreted as Technology, Engagement and Communication, Pedagogy, Perceptions of Teaching Online, and Organization.

• OBTRA scores were also found to be positively correlated with scores obtained from measures of instructional practices and teacher efficacy.

Impact

• Successfully deployed and utilized during the instructor triage process, specifically throughout the rapid transition to remote teaching during COVID-19 by over 500 instructors.

• Published in the peer-reviewed journal, Frontiers in Education.

  • Los, R., De Jaeger, A., & Stoesz, B. M. (2021). Development of the Online and Blended Teaching Readiness Assessment (OBTRA), Frontiers in Education, 412. https://doi.org/10.3389/feduc.2021.673594

• The OBTRA has been utilized in another study on K-12 teachers that was recently accepted for publication in the peer-reviewed journal, Journal of Digital Learning in Teacher Education.

  • Mourlam, D., Chesnut, S., Strouse, G., DeCino, D., Los, R., & Newland, L. (accepted). It’s All Relative: Changes in Teachers’ Knowledge and Instruction During COVID-19. Journal of Digital Learning in Teacher Education.