CBAM as an indicator of faculty development in an online practicum course

Dennis Lyle Dell, Purdue University

Abstract

This research investigated the concerns and perceptions of 43 participants taking a practicum course in a totally online professional certificate program on Web-based teaching and learning, offered by the Indiana University School of Nursing. The Concern-Based Adoption Model (CBAM) and the Stages of Concern (SoC) Questionnaire (Hall & Hord, 1987) were utilized to identify the aspects of concerns regarding the innovation of online teaching and learning. Participants were given the 35 item Stages of Concern (SoC) Questionnaire online in a pre-condition and post-condition with a four week separation. The participants also answered online open-ended questions about their concerns and perceptions regarding online teaching and learning. The CBAM provided a theoretical framework for interpreting concerns on seven levels of a continuum (zero to six) from awareness, information, personal, management, consequences, collaboration, and finally to refocusing the innovation of Web-based teaching and learning. Concerns are critical to the understanding of personal change, and the CBAM recognizes the importance of the individual in change by assessing the concern profile of an individual. After the four weeks of the course, no statistically significant changes in the stages of concerns were found in t-test comparisons of SoC scores. Change was thought to be in small increments. Although faculty members voiced concerns about the consequences of online learning for their students, they also had many Personal and Management Concerns, as indicated by their SoC profiles. Acknowledging concerns, offering a helping hand, and lending emotional support help to resolve concerns and facilitate change. By alleviating the concerns of one stage or phase, educators can motivate individuals to move to a higher level of implementation. By discounting lower level concerns of educators, you may only intensify their concerns. An instructional designer or a change facilitator cannot engineer movement to a higher level; he or she can only offer affective and cognitive support to clients. The generative aspect of the CBAM is intended to promote the facilitation of change through the recognition and validation of faculty members' concerns about Web-based instruction. Concerns are legitimate, and personalized interventions will help reduce their frustrations.

Degree

Ph.D.

Advisors

Lehman, Purdue University.

Subject Area

Higher education|Curricula|Teaching|Adult education|Continuing education

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