1. Chapter 17: Supporting
Distance Learners
.
Best Practice: Successful distance
education programs provide ongoing
support for learners

2. ineffective
Lack of
support
Lack of
contact
High rates
of attrition
Anonymity “feeling
of desolation”
Dissatisfaction
Difficulties
understanding
content
Computer
problems
Uncertainty
of strategy
disappointment
Distance Learning can be very lonely if you have no support.

3. high rates of
completion
Ex. Britain’s Open
University
completion rates
generally reach 70
percent
American online
teacher-upgrading
program, eMINTS,
enjoys a 95
percent
In Pakistan’s Allama
Iqbal Open
University’s radio-
based teacher
training
experienced a
passing rate of 57%.
Robinsons, 1997
Online learning
reveals that when
a facilitator lacks
support they leave
the program at
very high rate.
Sulistyo-Basuki
2007.
LACK OF SUPPORT WITH SUPPORT

4. Why Do Teachers Need Support?
Understanding Change
It may ask them to use new technologies to support
new modes of instruction, assessment, and
classroom organization.
It often asks them to teach with a new curriculum, to
learn new content, and to do it via an unfamiliar tool
(computers) or via a mode of learning—the Web,
radio, television, or print—in which they are separated
from their instructor and perhaps their colleagues

5. Research on change (Rogers,
1995)
innovators
Risk taker
inquisitive
Who always tries
something new
Small percentage of any group—about 2.5%.
people who by nature
always want to try
new things
They like to be at the
front of the process.

6. Research on change (Rogers, 1995)
Early
Adopters
typically opinion
leaders
They have the respect
of their colleagues and
other teachers.
Quick to try
new things
Prefer well-
known and
reputable brands
Interested in
innovation,
technology,
convenience,
lifestyle and design
influential people are not
as adventurous as
innovators, but will
typically keep track of
new things to see what
might be worthwhile
trying
If they decide to try an innovation or new approach, their
opinions and actions will influence others around them.
S U C C E S S ! !

7. Research on change (Rogers, 1995)
Early majority and late majority were most of the people fall
early majority late majority
• bit more
conservative than
the early adopters
• adopt new ideas
just before the
average member of
any group does
• These people go
along with a change,
not out of belief, but
out of necessity
• Concerned about doing a good job
according to existing standards and
methods,• don’t tend to keep track of
things that might be new
and exciting • slow to take the risk of a new
approach
Exhibit more pronounced degrees of resistance toward change or
reluctance in adopting or implementing new ideas

8. Research on change (Rogers,
1995)
THEY simply refuse to embrace whatever change is being
promoted.
resistors

9. Defining Support
“Support” is one of the more common, yet poorly
defined, terms in teacher professional development.
The notion of support has multiple meanings for
teachers and encompasses numerous dimensions.
“Support” is not simply one type of assistance, but rather
a multilayered array of different types of “infrastructure”
that help teachers successfully carry out their
professional responsibilities

10. Administrative
Instructional
School-Based
Community
Technical
Community/
Family
Teaching and
Learning
Materials
Time
Types of
Supports
Needed by
Teachers

11. Strategies for Support
 first level relates to support within the distance learning program
itself—supports allowing teacher-learners to complete their
distance learning course successfully.
 second level concerns support in schools, enabling teachers to
implement successfully what they have learned in distance-based
courses.

12. Programmatic Supports
Types of support are determined by a number of factors:
• the level of self-efficacy and self-directedness of
learners;
• the degree and skill of the facilitator (particularly in the
case of online courses);
• the complexity of learning material, design, and
technology;
• the particular learning goals for teacher-learners;
• and the degree of structure offered by the distance-
based course

13. Programmatic Supports
1. Ensure that the distance-based course is
integrated into the overall teacher training program.
2. Develop blended distance courses.
3. If offering hybrid courses is not an option, partner
with existing local agencies to provide face-to-face
support and interaction with teachers.
Strategies for Programmatic Support

14. Programmatic Supports
4. If support is going to be an issue, select distance
education interventions that are highly structured and by
their very nature offer-in class supports.
5. Provide mentors and partners to first-time or incoming
learners.
6. Offer more, and varied types of teacher professional
development as part of the distance learning program or as
a supplement to the distance learning program.
7. Strengthen the role and responsibilities of the instructor
to include more ongoing support.

15.  8. Use digital supports.
 9. Capitalize on social media to simulate face-to-face
interaction and build personal learning networks.
 10. Build in opportunities for face-to-face interactions among
participants.
Programmatic Supports

16. School-based Supports
1. Secure principal
involvement.
principals must shift
from administrators
to instructional
leaders, a role for
which most principals
are ill prepared and
ill equipped
2. Involve a critical
mass of teachers in the
professional
development.
building strong support
networks and
communities of
practice at the school
level
3. Offer school-based coaching as part of the distance learning
program.
new teachers, who receive coaching and mentoring are less
likely to leave teaching (OECD, 2008; Darling-Hammond &
Bransford, 2005).

17. Supporting New Teachers
Forms of Attrition
 teachers simply fail to
show up for work or do so
irregularly
 leave government schools
for the improved pay
 five times more likely to
quit teaching
Teacher attrition is a serious
global problem, especially
among new teachers

18. Teacher Induction
Teacher
induction is a
comprehensive
program that
acculturates or
“inducts” new
teachers into
the teaching
profession.
(Breaux &
Wong, 2003).
orientation
mentoring
Planning time
Collaboration
On going
professional
development
Reduced
teaching
loads
Participation
of external
networks of
teachers

19. to aid in teacher retention and improve the professional skills of
mentor-teachers (Ingersoll & Strong, 2011) especially mid-career
teachers, who have been shown to gain a number of new skills and
reinforce certain competencies as a result of the mentoring
process.
one-on-one assistance and support from an
experienced professional to a novice

20. Building the Capacity of
Support Providers
 instructors need additional professional development and
instruction when attempting to provide either instruction or
support through asynchronous tools (Abrioux, 2006; Brennan, &
Shah, 2000).
 Coaching, mentoring and face-to-face and online
support may not come easily to a distance-based
instructor.

21. Conclusion
 People and organizations tend to resist change or
embrace it slowly.
 But change is necessary for growth and for
improvement.
 It can be highly beneficial if teachers are provided with
an array of ongoing supports, but it can be
counterproductive and futile if they are not