Off-campus UNL users: To download campus access dissertations, please use the following link to log into our proxy server with your NU ID and password. When you are done browsing please remember to return to this page and log out.
Non-UNL users: Please talk to your librarian about requesting this dissertation through interlibrary loan.
Faculty and staff collaboration in designing an on-line foreign language professional development course: A qualitative case study
Abstract
The German language professional organizations responded to the national standards movement with the development of a sequence of on-line courses designed to provide in-service teachers with the possibility of additional professional training. The on-line course modules provide training in language skill areas, such as listening, speaking, reading, and writing. Furthermore, they also offer training in the application of the latest developments in pedagogy and of technology in German foreign language classrooms. A group of distinguished professors in the field of German studies joined together in a team in 1993 to begin the process of designing these on-line courses. The on-line courses will in the near future provide the core curriculum for a M.Ed. degree offered via the internet. In 1996, major funds were acquired and the team was now organized in hierarchies reaching from the national board of directors to local author teams responsible for the creation of individual modules. This research is an in-depth qualitative case study exploring the dynamics of one local author team, consisting of two content specialists, professors, and two technologists in their attempt to create the course module for the area of listening and instructional improvement. The study is based on evidence collected from multiple sources, such as course documents, minutes of meetings, observations, and interviews. The case covers the time period of the year 1997. The data showed evidence of themes and lead itself to assertions about the dynamics of a team-effort in the process of designing a course. The themes provide data on how the background and specialization, the preferred work-mode, and the influence of the national board of directors impacted the local collaboration. Although this research only examines one specific case, the findings with recommendations for the design of further courses like these can provide important feedback to other designers of distance courses.
Subject Area
Language arts|Germanic literature|Teacher education|Bilingual education|Multicultural education|Educational software
Recommended Citation
Ortmann, Christel Helene, "Faculty and staff collaboration in designing an on-line foreign language professional development course: A qualitative case study" (1998). ETD collection for University of Nebraska-Lincoln. AAI9908478.
https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/dissertations/AAI9908478