Richter (2015) reported self-assessed competency in the use of educational technologies as the best predictor of online teaching efficacy. Richter also found that competency increased when online teaching efficacy increased (Richter, 2015). Faculty who have had the least experience with online education perceive the most barriers to teaching online (Lloyd, Byrne, & McCoy, 2012). Findings from these studies support the need to address teachers’ sense of online teaching efficacy through faculty support and development.
Open-ended questions were posed to solicit faculty opinions regarding their sense of efficacy and competency during the original study but were not analyzed initially. The survey research questions that provided the data for a secondary data analysis are as follows:
- Do you have any overall comments about your ability to effectively locate, design, and use educational technology to facilitate and evaluate student learning?
- Do you have any overall comments about your ability to use educational technologies to help students achieve program outcomes?
- Do you have any overall comments about your ability to use educational technologies to effectively implement principles of good teaching?
- Do you have any overall comments about your ability to create effective learning experiences in the online environment using specific tools?
- Please feel free to type in any other comments related to your experiences or perceptions of teaching nursing courses online.
A phenomenological-hermeneutic approach was used to determine the relationships and meanings embedded in the narrative comments to uncover perceptions and identify themes in the nursing faculty members’ comments about teaching in an online environment. The text was read and analyzed as a whole to become familiar with the content and context. The secondary data analysis of data from a faculty survey exploring faculty perceptions of online teaching identified technology, time, and relationships as the most important issues for online teaching. These findings are consistent with earlier studies reporting time related issues, social presence in virtual teaching, and institutional support (Frazer, Sullivan, Weatherspoon, & Hussey, 2017; Lloyd, Byrne, & McCoy, 2012; Mastel-Smith, Post, & Lake, 2015). Based on findings of this study and evidence from other studies, faculty view support such as an instructional designer, preparatory courses, allocation of time, and peer and/or mentor support as valuable. The number of online nursing education programs will continue to grow. To accommodate this growth faculty require support to learn and use new technology, recognition of the time involved with online teaching, and relationship through mentoring.