Turkish Mentors' Perception of roles, competencies and resources for online teaching

Abstract

Developments in computer-mediated communications are not only providing new opportunities for educators but also changing roles and competencies in learning and teaching environments. Experts agree that teaching online requires different roles and competencies. The literature includes several studies on roles and competencies for online teaching. However, as Le Boterf underlines, roles and competencies largely depend on context. This survey study intends to identify roles, competencies and resources for online teaching in Turkey by asking online mentors of Anadolu University what they think about the roles they should perform and the competencies and resources they should possess in order to teach online successfully. Results have shown that the participant Turkish online mentors agree on the significance of the assessor, the content expert and process facilitator roles; on the other hand, they indicate lower level of necessity for the material producer and the administrator roles. Results have also revealed lack of design competencies among online mentors. Overall, the study has supported Le Boterf's claim about importance of context on identification of roles and competencies.