Improving Online Teacher Education

Use this practical guide to develop collaborative and interactive online experiences for teacher candidates. The author examines methods for integrating evidence-based practices into online teaching environments, including think alouds, case-based instruction, peer feedback, and field experience. The content is applicable to a variety of situations and content areas in education, such as literacy, math, and educational leadership, so that readers can design their own quality learning opportunities for students. A final chapter invites readers to build a digital professional learning network where they can explore areas of tech integration related to specific interests and problems of practice. Improving Online Teacher Education is organized in a nonsequential design so readers can choose which topics and activities are most relatable and useful to their professional environment. It is designed to make online teaching and learning more engaging for instructors and teacher education candidates.

Book Features:

• A focus on developing collaborative and interactive experiences for teacher education.
• Step-by-step instructions for designing each evidence-based instructional practice.
• Numerous examples of what the practices look like integrated into an online course.
• Scaffolded opportunities to guide readers through their own lesson design.
• Lessons align with professional education organization standards.

Rachel Karchmer-Klein is an associate professor at the University of Delaware where she teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in literacy and educational technology. Dr. Karchmer-Klein received the 2020 Albert J. Kingston Award for Distinguished Service to the Literacy Research Association.

“A highly valuable resource for online course design and teaching.”

—Teachers College Record

“An exceptionally well written, organized and presented instructional manual and guide, Improving Online Teacher Education: Digital Tools and Evidence-Based Practices is an ideal and unreservedly recommended addition to school district, college, and university library Teacher Education collections in general and Distance & Online Learning supplemental curriculum studies lists in particular.”

—Midwest Book Review

“Everything you need to radically improve the online experience for your students is here for you. Turn the page and begin the journey.”
—From the Foreword by Douglas Fisher, San Diego State University

“In this engaging, practical book, Karchmer-Klein draws on her extensive experience to describe activities and tools for assisting instructors in designing online courses, fostering their use of instructional practices, employing think-alouds for teacher self-reflections about their instruction, applying of digital tools for classroom instruction, and using peer-feedback and virtual field experiences. For each of these topics, the book includes interactive examples for instructors to apply these activities and tools for their own online courses. It also emphasizes the need for continuous support for both instructors learning to teach online courses and students learning to participate in these courses.”
—Richard Beach, professor emeritus of literacy education, University of Minnesota

Contents (Tentative)

Foreword Douglas Fisher vii

Acknowledgments xi

Introduction 1
Why Teacher Education? 2
Assumptions 3
Why This Book? 7
Book Organization 9

Part I: Framing of Online Instruction

1. Digital Text 13
Attributes of Digital Text 14
Building Knowledge of Digital Text 15
Summary 20

2. Setting the Stage  21
Pedagogy of Multiliteracies 22
Approaches to Online Instructional Design 23
Summary 28

Part II: Developing Evidence-Based Online Instruction

3. Think Alouds 31
Evidence-Based Practice: Think Alouds 31
Digital Think Alouds 33
Your Turn 36
Summary 38

4. Case-Based Instruction 39
Evidence-Based Practice: Case-Based Instruction 39
Digital Case-Based Instruction 43
Choosing and Using Video for Case-Based Instruction  55
Your Turn 59
Summary 59

5. Peer Feedback 61
Evidence-Based Practice: Peer Feedback 62
Peer Feedback in Online Coursework 62
Your Turn 73
Summary 73

6. Virtual Field Experience 75
Evidence-Based Practice: Field Experience 75
Virtual Field Experience  76
Your Turn 84
Summary 84

Part III: Putting It Together

7. Big Picture 89
Putting the Pieces Together 90
Key Principles 95
Summary 101

Appendix A: Completed Course Organization Chart 103

Appendix B: Description of Digital Tools Referenced in This Text 109

References 111

Index 117

About the Author 

Planning Chart for Online Teaching