Analysing the Importance-Competence Gap of Distance Educators With the Increased Utilisation of Online Learning Strategies in a Developing World Context

The competence of distance educators has a significant impact on learners’ success. The paradigm shift for universities to become distance and electronic learning environments justifies the urgency to address competency gaps in distance educators’ competencies efficiently. From a strategic human res...

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Autor principal:	Adéle Bezuidenhout
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN
Publicado:	Athabasca University Press 2018
Materias:	academics distance learning faculty importance-competence gap online staff development Special aspects of education LC8-6691
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/9895e7fd76064502b7ba368034cc744e
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spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:9895e7fd76064502b7ba368034cc744e2021-12-02T17:16:06ZAnalysing the Importance-Competence Gap of Distance Educators With the Increased Utilisation of Online Learning Strategies in a Developing World Context10.19173/irrodl.v19i3.35851492-3831https://doaj.org/article/9895e7fd76064502b7ba368034cc744e2018-07-01T00:00:00Zhttp://www.irrodl.org/index.php/irrodl/article/view/3585https://doaj.org/toc/1492-3831The competence of distance educators has a significant impact on learners’ success. The paradigm shift for universities to become distance and electronic learning environments justifies the urgency to address competency gaps in distance educators’ competencies efficiently. From a strategic human resource development perspective, the systems theory is used to explain the idea of maximising outputs with the minimum inputs (Biddle, 1986). In this study, distance educators at Unisa reflected on their experienced competency gaps. Where previous studies mainly focus on the size of the gaps, the aim of this article is to highlight the competency gaps likely to have the biggest impact. For this study, we used stratified non-probability sampling, and selected 407 academics who were, at the time of the study, permanently employed at a mega ODL university in South Africa. These academics represented a wide range of colleges, campuses, ages, and genders. The results of this study have implications for capacity building of academic staff in developing world contexts and other contexts where resources are scarce. Adéle BezuidenhoutAthabasca University Pressarticleacademicsdistance learningfacultyimportance-competence gaponlinestaff developmentSpecial aspects of educationLC8-6691ENInternational Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning, Vol 19, Iss 3 (2018)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN
topic	academics distance learning faculty importance-competence gap online staff development Special aspects of education LC8-6691
spellingShingle	academics distance learning faculty importance-competence gap online staff development Special aspects of education LC8-6691 Adéle Bezuidenhout Analysing the Importance-Competence Gap of Distance Educators With the Increased Utilisation of Online Learning Strategies in a Developing World Context
description	The competence of distance educators has a significant impact on learners’ success. The paradigm shift for universities to become distance and electronic learning environments justifies the urgency to address competency gaps in distance educators’ competencies efficiently. From a strategic human resource development perspective, the systems theory is used to explain the idea of maximising outputs with the minimum inputs (Biddle, 1986). In this study, distance educators at Unisa reflected on their experienced competency gaps. Where previous studies mainly focus on the size of the gaps, the aim of this article is to highlight the competency gaps likely to have the biggest impact. For this study, we used stratified non-probability sampling, and selected 407 academics who were, at the time of the study, permanently employed at a mega ODL university in South Africa. These academics represented a wide range of colleges, campuses, ages, and genders. The results of this study have implications for capacity building of academic staff in developing world contexts and other contexts where resources are scarce.
format	article
author	Adéle Bezuidenhout
author_facet	Adéle Bezuidenhout
author_sort	Adéle Bezuidenhout
title	Analysing the Importance-Competence Gap of Distance Educators With the Increased Utilisation of Online Learning Strategies in a Developing World Context
title_short	Analysing the Importance-Competence Gap of Distance Educators With the Increased Utilisation of Online Learning Strategies in a Developing World Context
title_full	Analysing the Importance-Competence Gap of Distance Educators With the Increased Utilisation of Online Learning Strategies in a Developing World Context
title_fullStr	Analysing the Importance-Competence Gap of Distance Educators With the Increased Utilisation of Online Learning Strategies in a Developing World Context
title_full_unstemmed	Analysing the Importance-Competence Gap of Distance Educators With the Increased Utilisation of Online Learning Strategies in a Developing World Context
title_sort	analysing the importance-competence gap of distance educators with the increased utilisation of online learning strategies in a developing world context
publisher	Athabasca University Press
publishDate	2018
url	https://doaj.org/article/9895e7fd76064502b7ba368034cc744e
work_keys_str_mv	AT adelebezuidenhout analysingtheimportancecompetencegapofdistanceeducatorswiththeincreasedutilisationofonlinelearningstrategiesinadevelopingworldcontext
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Analysing the Importance-Competence Gap of Distance Educators With the Increased Utilisation of Online Learning Strategies in a Developing World Context

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