Peer Review

Preparing Educators to Teach in a Digital Age: A model of Professors Empowerment

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Reviewed:: Oct 24, 2021 by Teacher Education

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Overall Rating:

Content Quality:

Effectiveness:

Ease of Use:

Overview:

This article describes the practical implementation of parts of Teaching in a Digital Age: Guidelines for Designing Teaching and Learning by A.W. Bates (2015) in a course for educators in Austria and the development of medical education for universities in Iran. With the publication of the second edition of Teaching in a Digital Age in 2019, the authors show the impact of the book in training educators and educational developers. This article emphasizes the benefits of making decisions about educational technologies using Bates’ SECTIONS model and of learning about massive open online courses (MOOCs). This article is an international research that has been able to introduce the national MOOC of Iran in the form of joint and multiple international research worldwide. The use of an international book in two universities in Austria and Iran is one of the highlights of this research. Teaching in a Digital Age introduces the principles of effective teaching in a digital age and provides instructors with a framework for teaching and learning using technology. Chapter 5 the book Teaching in a Digital Age with the title MOOCs selected as reference for 13th National Scientific Olympiad for Medical Sciences Students Iran 2021 in the field of medical education.

This article was published in the IRRODL Journal, a highly international magazine at the Q1 level (The International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning, editor-in-chief, Dr.Rory McGreal). IRRODL is in the top 10% of most-cited educational journals and is the highest-ranked Canadian education journal and 8th-highest open-access education journal in SJR, also has a JCR impact factor of 2.297 and according to Google Scholar in 2020, has a ranking of 5th among educational technology journals and a rank of 7th of all education journals.

This article was reviewed by Dr. Tony Bates, a contemporary distance education theorist (on the personal website with thousands of views), and by Dr. Stephen Downes, the inventor of the cMOOC and Connectivism on OLDaily in Canada. In this research, Dr. Tony Bates has also contributed to Dr. Mohsen Keshavarz in the section on Iran.

The news of the publication of this article was published in the Ontario Contact North ǀ Contact Nord weekly on April 21, 2021, and the article information will be published in the next Merlot newsletter in September, issue 49, 2021(Multimedia Educational Resource for Learning and Online Teaching [MERLOT] is a program of the California State University in the USA). This article was considered by the international community and distance education researchers, especially in the MOOCs field.

Type of Material:

Open-access journal article

Recommended Uses:

Self-paced instructional or informational material to help guide instructors on the types of online teaching and learning materials on the market.

College classes or professional development activities in Teacher Education

Technical Requirements:

Article accessible via HTML, PDF and e-pub that contains links to resources and a YouTube video.

Identify Major Learning Goals:

The authors connect parts of the book "Teaching in a Digital Age: Guidelines for Designing Teaching and Learning (Bates, 2015) to teaching practice regarding medical education universities in Iran. Discussion of educator training and developing educational content is included.

Population: novice or experienced online instructors of any discipline

Prerequisites: rudimentary familiarity with online-teaching and online-learning platforms

Major learning goals: understand current online-teaching pedagogy (specifically, SECTIONS model and different MOOCs); identify guiding principles on educational technologies to use in the classroom

Target Student Population:

Lower- and upper-division colleges, Professional training

Prerequisite Knowledge or Skills:

Basic understanding of connecting research and practice in Education. Basic computer/device with internet and ability to download PDFs or similar files.

Content Quality

Rating:

Strengths:

The article presents a balanced discussion on popular online teaching and learning platforms. By using examples from Western and non-Western cultures, the article on the usefulness of Bates' Teaching in a Digital Age: Guidelines for Designing Teaching and Learning (2015) in an applied setting (i.e., in the classroom) and as an instructional/reference-type of resource for faculty.

Without specifying to discuss nuances between disciplines, the article clearly evaluates popular online pedagogical technologies that are described in an assessible way to help instructors determine which educational technology would better suit their in-class objectives. Overall, this article provides a wonderful primer on popular educational technologies (from the standpoint of the learner and instructor) in an understandable way that speaks to novice and experienced online instructors.

Well-written, comprehesive, and clear research-based article

Concerns:

Although the information discussed in the article is applicable to lower-division schools, community colleges were not mentioned in the article.

Potential Effectiveness as a Teaching Tool

Rating:

Strengths:

The article acclimates the novice online instructor on the popular types of educational technologies on the market by outlining the differences and strengths between the products. A summary of content in each chapter of Bates' book, Teaching in a Digital Age: Guidelines for Designing Teaching and Learning (2015), is provided. The article also adresses the usefulness of the textbook from the perspective of the teacher and student.

Connection between research and practice is clear. Ongoing research agenda and growth of the larger project are included.

Concerns:

The article is useful for faculty who plan to curate course content, not those who are given a specific curriculum to follow that will be delivered online.

Ease of Use for Both Students and Faculty

Rating:

Strengths:

No software is used, but the urls in the article are clear, stable, and easy to navigate. The article is logically ordered and uses headings to denote the difference between the student application in Austria and teacher training in Iran. Depending on their focus, readers will be able to navigate to the sections that match their intent to read the article.

Easy to access online via internet web browser. Full article is available and well-formatted for reading.

Concerns:

The article loosely follows the headings found in an empirical article. Towards that end, modifying subsections within the two main sections that divide the type of use for the textbook would have allowed readers to skip ahead to the sections that matched their need or interest. For instance, readers looking for practical tips for application could quickly move to that section of the article.

Other Issues and Comments:: Overall, this article provides a wonderful primer on popular educational technologies (from the standpoint of the learner and instructor) in an understandable way that speaks to novice and experienced online instructors. Practical examples through additional resources and the YouTube video enrich the content.
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