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Professional development for rural and remote teachers using video

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Article  in  Asia-Pacific Journal of Teacher Education · October 2017

DOI: 10.1080/1359866X.2017.1296930

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 2016-0100.R3

Professional development for rural and remote teachers using video

conferencing

First/Contact Author:
Name Damian Maher
Title Dr
Institution University of Technology Sydney
Phone 9514 5612
Email Damian.maher@uts.edu.au
Postal address PO BOX 123, Broadway NSW 2007 Australia
Ethics statement
included in body of
manuscript (if
relevant)
Four (4) key words Professional development, video conferencing, teachers,
rural settings

Secondary Author:
Name Anne Prescott
Title Associate Professor
Institution University of Technology Sydney

Author Biographies (approx. 25 words each)

Damian Maher Dr Damian Maher is a senior lecturer in teacher
education and focuses on the use educational
technology, both in his teaching and research.
Anne Prescott Associate Professor Anne Prescott works with mathematics
teachers and teacher education students focusing on
improving practice in the classroom.

1
Acknowledgements (Optional)
This project was funded by the International Research Centre for Youth Futures.

Professional development for rural and remote teachers using video conferencing.

Abstract

Teachers in rural and remote schools face many challenges including those relating to

distance, isolation and lack of professional development opportunities. This article

examines a project where mathematics and science teachers were provided with

professional development opportunities via video conferencing to help them use

syllabus documents to develop their teaching programs. The study is qualitative and

draws on teacher conversations and surveys using a community of inquiry theoretical

framework to analyse the data. The results demonstrate that teacher professional

development via video conferencing has both strengths and weaknesses but can

support teachers through collaboration to develop their expertise in writing teaching

programs.

Keywords: video conferencing, rural education, professional development

Introduction

With changes to syllabus documents, accreditation and the challenges of teaching, access to

professional development is an essential component of each teacher’s career. For a myriad of

reasons, teachers in rural and remote areas struggle to participate in professional development.

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Video conferencing has become a useful addition to the classroom for students in rural areas, so

this paper considers the benefits of VC for teachers undertaking professional development.

Professional development

Professional development, or professional learning as it is also called, is an important part of

teachers’ professional lives and can be defined as “the process of improving staff skills and

competencies needed to produce outstanding educational results for students” (Hassel,1999, p.1).

The importance of professional development is exemplified by its inclusion in the Teacher

Accreditation Standards (AITSL 2011) and highlighted in the teacher satisfaction and retention

literature (see for example Langer, 2002; Schuck et al. 2012). The evidence suggests that, where

teachers feel supported and informed in their practice and there are on-going professional

development opportunities, teachers remain in the profession (Gaikhorst, Beishuizen, Zijlstra &

Volman, 2016). Training new teachers is very expensive in terms of the financial costs, the

personal costs and the social costs to the school and the wider community as the teacher numbers

change every year so retention is a more effective solution to the problem.

Collaborative relationships support teachers’ participation in professional development

opportunities (Clandinin, et al., 2015), drawing on participants both inside and outside of the

school setting (Stoll, Bolam, McMahon, Wallace & Thomas, 2006). Having shared values has

been found to be centrally important for successful professional learning outcomes (Andrews &

Lewis, 2007), as is participants having the opportunity to engage in reflective dialogue as they

seek new knowledge (Ferrier-Kerr, Keown & Hume, 2015). It is through collaborative dialogue

that such reflective practice is able to come about.

3
There are many different types of professional development opportunities which include:

informal dialogue, courses and workshops, reading professional literature, education conferences

and seminars, professional development network, individual and collaborative research,

mentoring and peer observation, observation visits to other schools and qualification programs

(OECD, 2009). Wilson (2013) identified five general characteristics of effective professional

development:

“(i) focusing on specific content,

(ii) engaging teachers in active learning,

(iii) enabling the collective participation of teachers (sometimes administrators),

(iv) coherence (aligned with other school policy and practice)

(v) sufficient duration (both in intensity and contact hours)” (Wilson, 2013, p. 310)

It is not just the type of Professional Development (PD)that is important, but also the time frame

in which it is delivered.Research indicates that one-off professional development sessions bring

little change to teacher practice (McConnell, Parker, Eberhardt, Koehler & Lundeberg, 2013) and

that teachers benefit most from professional development when it occurs over a period of time

(Darling-Hammond & Richardson, 2009). Therefore, successful PD includes a focus on

deepening teachers’ content knowledge and active teacher engagement over time (Desimone &

Stuckey, 2014).

Rural teachers

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The definition of what constitutes rural and remote is taken from the Rural, Remote and

Metropolitan Areas classification (Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, 2015). A rural area

is any city or town outside of a metropolitan area where the population ranges between 5000 and

100 000 people. A remote area constitutes any town of less than 5000 people. The term rural is

used here to refer to both rural and remote settings, but it is important to be aware that many of

the issues discussed here are accentuated in remote areas.

Rural teachers value the opportunity to network with other rural teachers with similar

experiences and problems, reducing the sense of isolation and the perception that they are the

only ones with such difficulties (Sharplin, 2002). While face-to-face professional development

gives urban teachers the opportunity for professional development, for many reasons, rural

teachers have fewer opportunities (Rossi & Sirna, 2008).

There are also aspects related to working in rural and remote schools that place increased

demands on teachers compared to those in large urban areas due to isolation. The sense of

isolation due to distance and disconnection for rural teachers (McCluskey, Sim & Johnson, 2011)

comes about in part because they can sometimes be the only teacher in the school teaching a

particular subject. For example, a special education teacher may be alone in their school whether

urban or rural but teachers in urban schools know there is another special education teacher in a

nearby school but this is not usually true in rural settings (Berry, 2012).

While a community of practice develops within rural schools,there are limited opportunities for

mentoring within subject areas given the lack of staff expertise both in the subject area and in

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 the process of mentoring. In this article mentoring is regarded as an activity, a process and a long-

term relationship between a more experienced teacher and a less experienced teacher (Aspfors &

Fransson, 2015).This lack of mentoring can be a significant issue for early career teachers, who

need mentoring and support in their early years of teaching (Schuck et al., 2012), particularly in

subject content and pedagogy. Without a mentor in the field of their expertise, professional

learning opportunities about subject content have increased significance in rural schools.

Teachers in schools in small rural towns with small student numbers (fewer than 150 students)

are more likely to receive mentoring in pedagogy but less likely in subject content (Glover et

al., 2016).

In addition, teachers in rural areas are more likely to be in the position of teaching subjects for

which they have no training – a situation facing many teachers in NSW (Schuck et al., 2012).

While Monk (2007) observes that rural schools in the US have a below-average share of highly

trained teachers, in Australia the high turnover of teachers in rural schools often means that

teachers are less experienced and therefore requiring increased PD. In addition, the average age

of teachers is increasing and, as they retire, a greater proportion of teachers will be less

experienced placing increased demands on professional development(NSW DET, 2015).

In the current accreditation climate, teachers who do not participate in PD are less likely to gain

promotional positions or be able to use their vast experience gained from working in rural areas

to move to urban schools. This personal cost for teachers means that there is a reticence about

taking up rural teaching positions in the first place. Many education departments offer initial

teacher education scholarships for pre-service teachers prepared to work in rural areas.

6
Video conferencing

Teachers have been using technology to overcome some of the drawbacks of rural education for

some time now. It was once less likely subjects would not be offered in schools with small

cohorts of students. Technology now allows students to join with others in a single virtual group

across a number of schools. For example, the new virtual secondary school in NSW enables

students to study specialist subjects while remaining in their local school (DEC, 2016).

Similarly, by offering online professional development to teachers, presenters can support

learning over a long time frame and “potentially reach larger audiences; convene role-alike,

geographically dispersed groups of teachers with common needs and interests; and meet

teachers’ needs for flexible, self-paced learning experiences” (Goldenberg, Culp, Clements,

Anderson& Pasquale, 2014, p. 289).

Online professional development can be either asynchronous or synchronous. Asynchronous

examples include the use of email or Edmodo (Hodge, 2015), as well as dedicated web sites such

as PLANE (Maher, Sanber, Cameron, Keys & Vallance, 2013). These forums allow for

anywhere and anytime professional development but can be limiting as they are generally textual

in nature. Synchronous online professional development can be carried out via audio or video

conferencing (VC), chat, instant messaging or white boarding for example. Synchronous

communication is more media rich allowing for more social support (Hrastinski, 2008). While

synchronous professional development can be supported anywhere, it is limited to specific times.

7
Previous research aboutonline communities of rural teachers incorporating the use of VC

amongst other tools is limited. For example, Herbert, Campbell and Loong (2016) and Howard

& McKeown (2011) investigated the online PD of rural teachers.In each case, teachers

recognized the possibilities of online PD but had not always availed themselves of the

opportunities. Another study, also conducted in Australia, found that “teachers perceive

videoconferencing as an effective tool for facilitating PLCs [professional learning communities]

when distance and time are practical barriers to face-to-face meetings” (McConnell et al., 2013,

p.267). Further research could enhance the possibilities of PD for rural teachers.

It is important that professional development equips teachers with the necessary skills and

knowledge to support their students. There are a number of factors that impact on the success of

teaching STEM subjects in rural settings. Access to qualified teachers in these subjects is one

major issue (Whannell & Tobias, 2015).Another significant issue is the support rural teachers

receive to keep up to date with changes, especially where attendance in face-to-face professional

learning is problematic (Herbert, et al, (2016). Whilst there has been research focusing on

professional learning for STEM teachers in rural settings (Whannell & Tobias, 2015), there has

been limited research exploring how the use of VC can support this process.

Glover et al. (2016) suggested that very little is known about the specific characteristics of PD in

rural schools, necessitating further research in this area. The focus of this article is to explore the

professional development demands and opportunities for Australian teachers in rural settings and

how video conferencing could support such opportunities.

8
Twenty mathematics and science teachers across New South Wales (NSW) participated, with

VC sessions focusing on their prior experience of professional development and developing their

understanding of formative assessment. After discussing key factors of formative assessment, the

teachers were asked to write a program for a topic of their choice, beginning with devising an

assessment task and then working out a program of content leading up to that task.

In undertaking the research, we investigated the constraints and affordances that teachers

encountered in undertaking face-to-face professional development, exploring ways that VC

could support them in ways that face-to-face opportunities did not. Therefore, the question that

guided this research was:

In what ways can video conferencing support rural mathematics and science teachers in their

professional learning?

Theoretical framework

The theoretical framework that underpins this article is the Community of Inquiry model which

is a framework to guide the research and practice of online learning. The genesis of this

framework can be found in the work of John Dewey and is consistent with constructivist

approaches to learning (Garrison & Arbaugh, 2007).The framework consists of three key

elements-Social Presence, Cognitive Presence and Teaching Presence (Garrison, Anderson, &

Archer, 2000). It is the interactions of all three elements of the model that produce the

educational experience for participants (Figure 1).

9
Figure 1: The Community of Inquiry model (Garrison, et al, 2000, p. 988)

Social Presence is defined as “the ability of participants in the Community of Inquiry to project

their personal characteristics into the community, thereby presenting themselves to the

participants as “real people” (Garrison et al, p. 89). The relationships between teacher and

learners, and between learners from disparate sites are important issues because “the degree to

which individuals perceive intimacy, immediacy, and their particular role in a relationship”

(Belderrain, 2006, p.149) produces Social Presence: the sense of being together with others and

having a sense of engagement with them (Biocca, Harms, & Gregg, 2001). The most common

form of Social Presence in education is the face-to-face (F2F) classroom, while in mediated

relationships, as in VC, vital aspects such as body language and facial expression can be more

difficult to ascertain (Short, Williams, & Christie, 1976). Social presence differs from

interactions but they are interdependent (Belderrain, 2006).

10
 Cognitive Presence is defined as the “extent to which the participants in any particular

configuration of a Community of Inquiry are able to construct meaning through sustained

communication” (Garrison et al, 2000, p. 89). It is the key element in critical thinking, an

essential component of higher order thinking and learning (Kanuka & Garrison, 2004).

Garrison, Anderson, and Archer (2001) set out a four-phase process for cognitive presence: (1)

a triggering event, where some issue or problem is identified for further inquiry; (2)

exploration, where participants explore the issue, both individually and corporately through

critical reflection and discourse: (3) integration, where learners construct meaning from the

ideas developed during exploration and then (4) resolution, where learners apply the newly

gained knowledge to educational contexts or workplace settings.

Teaching Presence consists of two main elements constructed by the teacher. The first is the

design of the educational experience, including the selection, organisation and presentation of the

course content. The second element involves facilitation “for the purpose of constructing

meaningful and worthwhile knowledge” (Garrison et al., p. 92).Teaching presence begins before

the course commences through the instructional design process in which the course development

team plans and prepares the course of studies and designs learning activities for active

engagement and interaction (Lowenthal, & Parscal, 2008, p. 5).

Taken together, Social Presence, Cognitive Presence and Teaching Presence form a framework

for understanding any pedagogical experience, whether in the classroom between teacher and

students or in a professional development course between teachers and facilitator. This

framework, therefore, helps in the analysis of data when rural teachers undertake PD using VC.

11
Methodology

The study used qualitative methodology (Lincoln & Guba, 1985), embracing and understanding

the contextual influences (i.e. physical and structural settings, social context – participants’

backgrounds, experiences, qualifications etc) (Hennink, Hutter & Bailey, 2011). In this instance

we drew largely on informal discussion with the teachers via VC sessions and an online survey.

The surveys provided insights into participants’ perspectives and practices (Nunan, 1992) and

covered a broad range of ideas (Sandelowski, 2000), and were beneficial for understanding

teachers’ prior experiences in relation to professional development. The online survey consisted

of 15 questions. Some questions required participants to provide written feedback and others

required a numerical response via a Likert scale. The survey was developed by incorporating

questions that arose in the literature about professional development, rural school education and

understanding assessment. The survey was piloted with a number of teachers and ex-teachers,

some of whom had worked in rural areas so could see the relevance of the questions.

Participants

Notices were sent out to teachers via the state’s secondary school association newsletter

advertising for volunteers who were mathematics or science secondary school teachers in rural

areas. Their schools nominated the teachers who were involved in the study. As teachers

responded via email they were organised into VC groups of four to six teachers.

12
Ten mathematics and ten science high school teachers from seventeen rural NSW secondary

schools responded. The school sizes ranged from 55 students in a K-12 school up to 800 students

in a secondary school.

Participants gave their written permission to be included in the project and ethical clearance for

the project was received by the university and the education department to which the schools

belonged.

The process

Five VC sessions were conducted: two of the sessions were for science teachers from seven

different schools and three sessions were for mathematics teachers from 10 schools. Each group

participated in one VC session consisting of up to six teachers meeting online with the presenter

for 90 minutes in the morning to discuss using assessment as the driver in developing their

curriculum programs. Prior to the session, the teachers sent their programs to the presenter and

these were used to support the discussions that took place during the morning sessions. The VC

sessions included information about Assessment of Learning and Assessment for Learning. The

teachers used the middle section of the day to design a program starting with an assessment task

followed by the lessons and/or activities. The group then came together for an hour at the end of

the day to collaboratively discuss progress.

The teachers used their programs over a three month period to support their teaching and while

they were encouraged to email the presenter and each other if they had any questions, comments

or useful resources to share, few did. Interesting links and resources were sent by the presenter

13
via email to the teachers throughout this period. After this three month period the teachers met

with each presenter in an additional one hour VC to discuss how the program had been

implemented.

At the end of the study the teachers filled in an online survey which asked about their

experiences working in rural schools. We asked about issues related to professional development

in rural areas as well as the effectiveness of the VC sessions. Fifteen teachers completed the

survey.

Analysis

The data were analysed using a thematic analysis approach (Boyatzis, 1998). The spoken data

were transcribed into a written format, were initially coded, and then categorised according to the

three elements of the Community of Inquiry model (Garrison, et al., 2000).This model is useful

for examining interactions as it focuses on three important elements relating to understanding

professional development which are the Social, Cognitive and Teaching Presence.

In analysing the data we drew further on the three elements to provide a more nuanced

understanding of the interactions taking place by including categories and indicators. Table 1

shows indicators and categories related to each element upon which we drew. Not all the

categories or elements were used in the analysis because they did not arise in the data.

Table 1: Categories and Indicators of the Elements of the Community of Inquiry Model

14
The complete analysis of the data included cross-referencing the data from each VC session and

from the surveys, and the cross checking of codes and themes emerging from the data including

discussion among team members.

Findings

In analysing the data we begin by exploring the rural teachers’ views regarding difficulties

associated with face-to-face professional development. The VC interactions were examined as to

how they supported the teachers’ professional development, drawing on the three elements of the

Community of Inquiry model.

Professional development in rural areas

15
In the questionnaire, teachers highlighted the need for professional developmentand their needs

were the same as the needs of their urban-based colleagues:

Access to relevant professional learning activities.

Access to professional development. We need ALL the capital-based [city] training opportunities

to be replicated in rural centres.

Whilst the teachers recognised they needed professional development, they noted the lack of

such opportunities and attributed this to issues related to time, distance and cost. Time is an

important consideration for teachers where travelling to and from professional development

venues means travelling very long distances. In the questionnaire, the rural teachers saw VC as

having distinct advantages for them in reducing the number of hours spent travelling to and from

professional development sessions (Parr, Nuttall & Doecke, 2007):

Not having to travel 700km!!

No time wasted travelling.

Not only was time a factor in travelling long distance but also costs – both for the school and the

teacher. As the teacher below points out in the questionnaire, professional development is more

likely to be approved at the school level when costs are minimal:

It is easily accessible and doesn't put the cost of TPD [Teacher Professional Development] up,

making it more likely to be approved by the executive staff.

16
The teachers also reported in the questionnaire costs they themselves were required to pay when

travelling to professional development courses in the survey. When funds are scarce some

teachers decided to pay costs out of their own pocket, rather than ask the school to pay:

There are courses available, but some of the most useful would require me to travel at my own

cost which is just not possible due to distance.

Cognitive presence

A significant outcome of professional development is that teachers develop and apply new ideas.

The category within the Cognitive Presence element relating to this concept is the notion of

‘resolution’ (Table 1).The afternoon VC session allowed the teachers to discuss changes they had

made to their pedagogy as a result of the concepts learned in the morning session and

subsequently applied to their programming:

Presenter: Have you managed to put in assessments and work that way?

Teacher: Rather than make it a formalised assessment, the final task is a treasure hunt

Presenter: that’s exactly right.

Teacher: They have picked up skills to read a map, how to read coordinates and grid references

and directions

It was clear from VC sessions and from the survey that the teachers felt they were able to learn

and apply new ideas from participation in the sessions. One of the teachers thanked the presenter

at the end one of the sessions and stated: It is good to have clarity around why we are doing it

and the point of all of this [assessment]. Further to this, a teacher commented in the survey:

17
The project has helped to clarify the components of units of work and how to sequence lessons

and learning activities, making use of the allocated time.

Social presence

It was important for the project that the teachers felt comfortable and willing to talk with each

other from the beginning of the first VC session. Because many of the teachers had not met each

other before, they were initially asked to introduce themselves and talk about their school, both

familiar topics that were not threatening. They shared information related to numbers of students

and the number of teachers in their department and issues in teaching in their school, allowing

the group to contextualise the nature of the schools they worked in and their feelings of isolation:

I am currently teaching at Kurangi* School which is in the central west …..and I am the only

science teacher. Because I am on my own I am struggling to get the community involved. (*N.B.-

the names of schools and participants have been changed).

For a number of teachers, having greater knowledge of the other participants’ situations, similar

to their own, put them at ease and potentially contributed to more useful collaboration as is

demonstrated later in the Teacher Presence section. One teacher in the questionnaire stated:

It was helpful to sit and talk with others in my own situation and to see what works for them and

what doesn't.

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While VC offered opportunities for social engagement, some of the participants still felt that it

did not replicate the experience of face-to-face professional development. In the questionnaire

they commented that the lack of connectivity between participants can inhibit interactions:

Interactions with other participants are much more limited.

You feel more motivated to stay in contact if you've met in person, whereas video conferences

can be distancing (so to speak).

Another aspect of the social element evident during the VC sessions was emotional expression.

After the initial session, participants spent time writing their programs and came back to discuss

their progress:

Presenter: I have had a look at what you have done and it looks really good – teaching – rapid

feedback and building on ideas.

Alix: (very enthused- voice different and expansive hands waving)

It’s really good to sit back and have a look at it and say that’s not a really good learning

strategy. Making sure you go back to make sure you are covering what is meant to

covered by the Board of Studies. I was reading Hattie and he said it is important to get

kids engaged but there also has to be content.

The ability of the VC sessions to support Social Presence through sound and video was

emphasised when the teacher presented her assessment and programming that she had developed

after the first session. The volume of her voice increased and her hand gestures became more

19
animated allowing all participants to be caught up in her enthusiasm. The VC style supported

multiple modes as reported by other researchers (e.g., Hrastinski, Keller & Carlsson, 2010)

Teaching presence

Teaching presence in a video is complex. During the sessions the presenter initially defined the

topics to be covered under the instructional management category, as illustrated by the excerpt

from one of the science sessions:

I would like to outline the outcomes for the day. First, at the end of the day all of us will have an

understanding of the syllabus priorities. The second outcome is for you to have an enhanced

ability to write teaching and learning activities. The third thing is a deeper understanding that

timely and appropriate and feedback to students is a powerful motivator and support for

learning.

As the sessions progressed and the participants became more comfortable talking with the

presenter, there was an increased opportunity to build understanding as shown in the example:

Presenter: On the first page of materials I gave you I asked you to jot down briefly words you

understand assessment to mean. Judy, what words did you come up with?

Judy: Challenging students’ knowledge and understanding

Presenter: You see assessment as challenging?

Judy- It’s about challenging them-ahh, it’s such a broad question- it shouldn’t be something they

haven’t seen before.

20
Presenter-It’s about a reasonable challenge then.

An important aspect of learning is the ability to build understanding and VC successfully

mediated this aspect. In the example above, the presenter started with a question which was

answered and then built upon, providing the opportunity for the teacher to integrate and build her

own understanding of assessment.

The number of participants, which was no more than six people for any one session during the

project, allowed for the category ‘building understanding’ to be realised through shared personal

meaning. Because the presenter had seen each teacher’s program before the session, each

participant was able to speak directly with the presenter about his or her program and build

rapport in a meaningful way. In the example below the presenter talks with a teacher who

included visiting a local water treatment plant in her program, encouraging her to link the

classroom activities with the ideas the students could gain from this visit:

What I suggest you might do is pick the first week of the program and tease it out to gives clues

what the student will do as a result of engaging with that. For example, you bring in kids’

experiences. Think how you can bring the work of the shire into the classroom such as the water

treatment plants.

Discussion

21
The results of the survey, which asked about participants’ experiences relating to professional

development, are discussed. This is followed by a discussion of the data drawing on the three

elements of the Community of Inquiry model.

Professional development in rural areas

As noted earlier, the issues of time, distance and cost are significant issues impacting on

professional development opportunities. Costs increase when paying for teachers to travel to

venues as well as potentially paying for accommodation. For small rural schools travel and

accommodation can be a considerable part of the professional development budget so that not all

staff is able to participate in professional development each year.

Another consideration for rural schools is finding and paying for relief teachers while teachers

are away. Where extra days are required for teachers to travel, the school costs increase. What

may be a one day professional development session for a metropolitan school can cost a rural

school three days for relief teacher support. There is also the added difficulty of locating relief

teachers which can be difficult in rural settings (White & Reid, 2008).

In a study conducted by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)

on professional development of two million teachers across 23 countries including Australia, it

was found that, on average, around one-quarter of teachers who engaged in some professional

development had to pay some of the cost themselves, and a further 8% had to pay all of the cost

(OECD, 2009). For rural teachers extra financial costs such as wear and tear on cars and

22
relationship costs where teachers are away from family can also make professional development

difficult.

There is also the difficulty in getting presenters to travel out to rural settings. The cost is often

prohibitive for small schools individually who are then required to join with other schools which

again requires travel by teachers. The issue of specialist resources that some subjects require

when professionally developing teachers can mean that transporting them to remote settings can

be difficult and costly.

Also, whilst there is important networking occurring at the PD sessions, these benefits are often

dissipated as the teachers move away from each other. One example of PD networking in Sydney

NSW is the Teachmeet where teachers from all educational sectors can meet face-to-face as

required and then easily network after such meetings. Keeping the learning community together

is more difficult in rural settings. VC is an effective method of facilitating learning communities

(McConnell et al., 2013) where ideas can be discussed and resources can be shared, helping

teachers in rural setting network more easily.

There are also cost-benefits of VC for schools compared to face-to-face interactions. “Where an

institution already has the facilities for video conferencing and multimedia, very little extra

investment, if any is required” (Foley, 2003, p. 835). All the schools in the project had the

required VC system in place which, for the most part, worked effectively. There was only one

time when connection problems disrupted the VC for one participant and the teacher moved to

23
another VC facility 5 minutes away from the school. To help reduce aspects of time and cost, VC

can be utilised to provide for increased professional development opportunities for rural teachers.

Cognitive presence

Through the VC dialogue and sharing of programs, the teachershad more time to work and

reflect on their programs thus encouraging them to apply new ideas, highlighting the Category of

resolution, an important aspect of Cognitive Presence (Garrison, et al, 2000). Having the time to

work and reflect on their programs, put them into practice and finally come together to share

ideas made these sessions different from traditional F2F PD sessions. Such reflection is an

important aspect of the professional growth of teachers (Cornish & Jenkins, 2012).

Professional dialogue, and what Simoncini, Lasen and Rocco (2014)describe as inquiry or

reflective conversation, (Le Cornu, 2006) is “a discussion between peers that allows the other to

explicitly articulate, appreciate and extend their understanding of practice” (Nsibande, 2007,

p.4). Through analysing the VC sessions it was clear that the real-time dialogue provided the

teachers with opportunities to engage both with each other and the presenter allowing the

teachers to present and develop their ideas. The use of the video medium, unlike online text

discussions, allows for visual resources to be drawn upon further adding to the reflective nature

of the discussions.

The teachers’ comments in the results section illustrate that professional development using VC

can be an effective way of supporting their needs. Content about assessment was not new for

24
these young teachers as they would have covered these same ideas in their university courses, but

they said reworking a program from assessment to content was completely new.

One of the negative aspects can be that teachers become caught up with activities at the school

during the VC sessions, limiting the opportunities to learn and apply new ideas, thereby

impacting on Cognitive Presence. For example, one teacher received an internal phone call and

then had to leave. Another teacher had to organise the roll which meant he missed out on some

of the early content covered. It can be more beneficial for teachers to focus on the PD if they are

removed from the day-to-day activities they normally undertake by leaving school to go to a

different venue.

Whilst having the teachers in their schools did limit Cognitive Presence there was one decided

advantage - teachers were able to work on their program development for the middle session in a

comfortable familiar environment with all the required tools at hand and therefore felt they made

a lot of progress.

Social Presence

The VC enabled these rural teachers to talk in an informal way about their situation. The

opportunity for teachers to share stories with other like-minded teachers is helpful(Blake and

Campbell, 2009), particularly when that teacher is the only teacher at their school teaching that

subject. The VC sessions did not provide the same potential to build a strong sense of

community (Mitchell, Hunter & Mockler, 2010) as compared to face-to-face interactions.

25
The teachers commented there were limited interactions, highlighting the lecture-based style

afforded by the VC, thereby limiting Social Presence (Bernard & Abrami, 2004; Martinovic,

Magliaro & Pugh, 2010).

Garrison et al. (2000) found that the educational experience is “a collaborative communication

process for the purpose of constructing meaningful and worthwhile knowledge” (p. 92) because

cognition cannot be viewed as separate from the social context. In their terms, collaboration is an

essential element of cognitive development, affecting the nature of learning outcomes and

activities ...” (de Freitas & Neumann, 2009). Our findings show that the use of VC allowed for

some collaboration with teachers building an understanding of each other’s contexts. Through

providing participants with this opportunity, a sense of social cohesion began to develop which

then facilitated further discussion about the issues of isolation leading into the pedagogy of

assessment practices and programming.

Rogers and Lea (2005) suggested that development of a shared group identity is also an

important factor determining the quality of group collaboration. The discussions by teachers

demonstrated they shared many aspects of their workplace, facilitated by a shared identity as

rural and remote teachers. Bringing these teachers together would have been more challenging in

a face-to-face meeting because they came from disparate areas of the state. Consequently,

participating in the VC session reduced their sense of isolation. Perhaps more and regular VC

sessions would have eliminated their sense of isolation.

26
However, in analysing the data, it was found the opportunities for greater collaboration through

the medium of VC were limited compared with a face-to-face setting. In a face-to-face situation

there are at least two channels of communication operating, the first channel consists of the

presenter and the group interacting, taking turns to speak. The second channel consists of one-to-

one interactions or small group interactions between the participants that can happen in

conjunction with the first channel.

During a VC sessions there was little opportunity to chat in this second channel thereby

minimising the Social Presence and ultimately inhibiting the learning process. Some VC

software tools, such as Adobe Connect, do have a chat feature, but this is generally used by

participants to post questions to the presenter rather than between participants.

Teaching Presence

In this study, some of the actions of teaching presence, as set out by Horzum and Uyanik (2015)

include focusing on subject matter and outcomes through which a bridge for the transactional

distance between learner and instructor is established. These actions are very similar to that of

face-to-face sessions where typically the sessions start off being very teacher- directed.

Because the presenter outlined the outcomes for the sessions at the beginning of each session, the

style of the sessions was initially established as lecture-based, compared with a face-to-face

session where participants can easily interact in pairs or groups. The participants in this study did

not know each other beforehand and, despite the early discussion of their school situation,

teacher presence dominated the early stages but relaxed as the sessions progressed.

27
As the data suggests, the number of participants allowed for the Category of building

understanding to be realized. This notion is reinforced by Bower et al. (2012) who suggested that

VC is useful when participants are geographically dispersed and the planned interaction is either

one-on-one or for small groups. However, as the number of participants increases, the

interactions between presenter and teachers reduce and a lecture-based-style of learning becomes

more prominent i.e., the Teacher Presence changes as the number of participants changes. In this

study the small number of participants allowed for shared personal meaning to be realised.

Conclusions

As the findings of the study indicate, the use of VC allowed for effective professional

development to be undertaken for teachers from dispersed geographical locations.

The use of VC allowed the teachers to stay in their schools where the multipoint connections

between the geographic locations (Newman, 2007) provided the access necessary for

professional development. The VC sessions provided a definite cost advantage to the schools and

to the teachers themselves. The schools did not need to pay for extended travel and

accommodation. The reduced time away from schools cut down on the need for casual staff, an

added cost which can be difficult for small rural schools to cover. Teachers did not need to use

their own resources and time to support their professional development in this project because

the resources were provided by the school and the time was within school hours.

The use of VC allowed for discussions to occur over a period of time – an important aspect of

Social Presence and therefore professional learning (Borko, 2004), and something that is very

28
difficult in rural areas where face-to-face meetings of teachers from different schools is costly.

This time frame allowed a community of learners to be established where the teachers were able

to learn with and from each other by engaging in professional dialogue which facilitated critical

reflection. Such dialogue is essential for teachers to grow professionally (Bereiter &

Scardamalia, 2008).

In terms of Teacher Presence, the teachers were connected to each presenter who was able to

help them develop their understanding of programming units of work, using the teachers’

programs as part of the instructional process. VC provided access for teachers to gain expertise

they would not normally have had (Cognitive Presence) (Finkelstein, 2006) and, since the

interactions were conducted in real time, discussions with participants occurred and immediate

feedback was provided (Social Presence) (Augestad & Lindsetmo, 2009).

Some of the teachers commented that the use of the VC was not as effective as face-to-face

sessions. Providing participants with multiple channels of communication, such as building in a

twitter feed for example, could provide for a greater collaborative experience, thus enhancing

Social Presence. Additionally, pedagogical practices, such as breakout sessions, where

participants can chat in groups with the teacher moving from group to group using tools such as

Skype or Google Hangout can allow more collaborative opportunities, thereby enhancing

Teacher Presence.

The small groups of teachers participating in the VC sessions proved to be both an advantage and

disadvantage. As suggested, VC works well for small groups and allows for personalisation and

29
gives opportunities for all participants to be involved in discussions (Bower et al., 2012).

However, a downside to this is that the opportunity for teachers to network and grow a

community of learners, which Akyol and Garrison (2008) state is important, is not as high as it

might be where thirty or more teachers are involved in a professional development session,

which is typical of face-to-face sessions.

Understanding the different dimensions of the Community of Inquiry Framework- the Cognitive

Presence, Social Presence and Teaching Presence is essential for all PD teachers, whether face-

to-face or in VC. However, this research has shown that these Elements are realised in different

ways in VC sessions. A teacher who acknowledges these issues is more likely to arrange

opportunities for participants to engage in each Element – open communication, and group

cohesion, for example, are more likely to enhance information exchange and the connection and

application of ideas.

This importance of this research is that it gives PD teachers the opportunity to look afresh at their

sessions and, if participants are aware of the framework, they can make the most of engaging

with the material within the VC session – an important factor for rural and remote teachers who

have limited access to PD.

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