This presentation describes a framework for Online Language Teaching (OLT) Readiness, built drawing widely from online pedagogy, CALL literature, and our experience of OLT practitioners. We argue that, given the normalization of online instruction, these skills and competencies should be integrated in CALL teacher education programs and professional development initiatives.
Online education continues to become more integral to the mission of post-secondary institutions in the United States, as demonstrated by the fact that one in three students is enrolled in at least one online course in a given semester (Seaman, Allen, & Seaman, 2018). Benefits of online education are numerous, including increased access, flexibility, just-in-time access to instructors and feedback, and affordability (Li & Irby, 2008). In order to capitalize on those benefits, language educators at Michigan State University (MSU) and the University of Chicago (UC) began developing online LCTL courses to be offered to students across multiple Big Ten Academic Alliance (BTAA) institutions. As the initiatives were underway, it became clear that LCTL instructors’ familiarity with online teaching ranged widely. This is not at all surprising, especially considering that most LCTL instructors have never participated in any kind of online learning experience - let alone taught online. As a response to this finding, the two centers began a collaboration to: 1) identify the skills and responsibilities that define Online Language Teaching (OLT) Readiness 2) build a construct and a set of Can-Do Statements to function as a roadmap for teacher education and performance assessment 3) build and offer an online professional development course to empower language instructors across the BTAA and beyond 4) develop a performance assessment to measure instructors’ OLT Readiness This presentation will focus on describing our proposed framework for defining OLT Readiness, which was built drawing widely from online pedagogy and CALL literature as well as our own experience of OLT practitioners. We will argue that, given the normalization of online instruction, the skills and competencies outlined in this framework should be thought of as fundamental educator skills and should be integrated in CALL teacher education programs and professional development initiatives.
