During the past three years, many teachers have experienced the growth in managing their virtual classrooms due to the impact brought by the COVID-19 pandemic. Now, with the gradually fading worries from this threat, face-to-face instruction has resumed. Yet, the effort invested into improving online/distance learning continues. Take the tertiary education in Taiwan for example. Although many universities have encouraged their faculties to keep exploring the potential of distance-learning, the reality is only a few teachers have embarked on this journey filled with the unknown and challenges. This study reports how a group of twelve university teachers (from four disciplines) tried to support one another through a community of practice (CoP). A CoP is described as a group of people who come together to learn, share information, and reach their objectives because of their common interest or similar goals. All twelve participating teachers shared the same goal of designing and implementing a distance-learning course offered in the blended format combining both synchronously and asynchronously taught sessions. As a CoP, these teachers went through 26 weeks of working together and helping another navigate through course design and implementation. Three data collection tools, including the transcripts of their pre-training sessions, their records of in-semester meetings, and individual interviews, were employed to examine the functions of this CoP and the participants’ perceived gains. The findings have indicated that this CoP was not only beneficial in assisting its members to overcome challenges, brainstorm solutions, and share course activities but also conducive to teacher development.

Authors:
Karen Chung-Chien Chang, National Taipei University, Taiwan

About the Presenter(s)
Dr. Chang is currently a full professor at National Taipei University, Taiwan. Her research interests cover translation/interpretation studies (especially court interpreting), L2 writing, learner autonomy, teacher identity, and distance learning.

See this presentation on the full schedule – Saturday Schedule

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