TEACHERS ROLES/RESPONSIBILITIES

&
TEACHERS CHALLENGES
IN USING WBL
Role Task areas
Content facilitator : Facilitate the learners understanding of the content (in-course
activity)

Technologist : Making technology choices to improve the online environment

Designer: Designing worthwhile learning task (Pre-course activity)

Manager/administrator : Administration and record keeping

Process facilitator : Welcoming, establishing ground rules, creating community, managing

communication,modeling social behavior, establishing own identity

Adviser/counsellor: Providing students with advice or counseling on a one to one basis

Assessor : Provides grades and feedback

Researcher: Creation of new knowledge relevant to content

TEACHERS CHALLENGES IN WEB BASED
LEARNING
 TECHNICAL PROBLEMS
Technical problems are inevitable with virtually all instructional media.
For example, running out of chalk when teaching with a blackboard.
However, as instructional media become more dependent upon
technology the impact of technical problems becomes greater.
In the absence of chalk a good teacher could improvise and teach, but
serious computer problems will completely disrupt a WBL course.
POOR INSTRUCTIONAL DESIGN
The quality of instructional design varies in all teaching settings.
However, in wbl this is more obvious because once complete a website can be viewed and critiqued
by all users. Furthermore, in contrast to a face-to-face course in which a talented instructor can
teach with minimal preparation, instruction in WBL must be explicitly planned and implemented.
Research shows that many perhaps most WBL courses have an inferior instructional design. A
classic example is the textbook on the web publishing the text of an existing syllabus or book on
the internet and calling it a course. Such courses offer little if any advantage over the previous
format while incurring the disadvantages listed here, and hardly qualify as instruction. While poor
instructional design is certainly not unique to WBL, the challenge of implementing effective designs
on the internet and the absence of an instructor for needed clarification may make WBL more
sensitive to flawed designs.
 FIRST, THERE IS THE INFLUENCE OF TEACHERS INDIVIDUAL FACTORS, WHICH MAY BE THE MOST IMPORTANT
FACTORS. HARA (1999) POINTED OUT THAT MANY TEACHERS HAVE COMMENSURATE DOUBTS ABOUT THE
USAGE OF TECHNOLOGY. TEACHERS ARE OFTEN HEAVILY LOADED WITH CLASS-HOURS EACH WEEK, AND SPENT
A LOT OF MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EFFORT ON THE JOB OF TEACHING PREPARATION. AS A RESULT, THEY MAY
NOT BE ABLE TO SPARE MORE TIME TO DESIGN TEACHING MATERIALS INTEGRATE INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
INTO TEACHING. PARTICIPATING IN THE WEB-BASED COLLABORATIVE LEARNING CONTEST REQUIRES THE
USE OF EXTRA TIME, E.G. THE LUNCH BREAK. IN ADDITION, SINCE ENGLISH IS THE MAJOR COMMUNICATION
TOOL FOR THIS CONTEST, IT IS ALSO A CHALLENGE TO TAIWANESE TEACHERS. THAT IS TO SAY, INSUFFICIENT
LANGUAGE ABILITY CAN MAKE TEACHERS RELUCTANT TO GET INVOLVED IN THIS TYPE OF ACTIVITY.
 SECOND, THE SCHOOL ENVIRONMENT COULD NOT SUPPORT TEACHER TO CONDUCTING WEB-BASED
COLLABORATIVE LEARNING. TO IMPLEMENT WEB-BASED COLLABORATIVE LEARNING, ONE VERY
IMPORTANT POINT IS WHETHER OR THE SCHOOL HAS BUILT UP A SUITABLE ENVIRONMENT. FOR EXAMPLE,
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF CYBER SOCIETY AND EDUCATION 30 THE GROUPING OF THE STUDENTS, THE
SCHOOLS INFORMATION EQUIPMENT, AND INTERNET CONNECTION SPEED ALL AFFECT THE TEACHERS
WILLINGNESS TO INTEGRATE INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY INTO THEIR TEACHING