On-Line Professional Staff Development: An Evaluation Study.

This paper reports the design, implementation, and evaluation of a teleseminar on instructional design (ID) and computer-mediated communication (CMC) for the purposes of staff development at The University of Southern Queensland, Toowoomba, Australia. Participation was open to any staff with an involvement or interest in distance education. This study was motivated by the following research questions: Is CMC a viable medium for the professional development of staff in distance education? Does the nature of moderation of CMC-based discussions influence the nature of contributions from subscribers? Do participants use different strategies (interactive, cognitive, and metacognitive) in CMC-based discussions? To address these questions a teleseminar was instituted with a focus on the issues of ID and CMC. CMC-based moderation techniques were used to manage the discussion. Both qualitative and quantitative evaluation tools were used to measure the outcomes of the teleseminar. Results of these evaluation data show that CMC proved to be a viable medium for the professional development of staff, that the moderation strategies influenced the nature of contributions from the subscribers, and that participants used a range of strategies to manage the discussion and their participation in it.