Teachers as Designers of Online Activities: The Role of Socio-Constructivist Pedagogies in Sustaining Implementation

This research characterized the range of schoolteachers’ practices as designers of online activities and the relation between their pedagogical perceptions and these practices. Data-sources included forty online activities designed and developed by novice and expert teachers, as well as interviews with these teachers. Findings indicate that although all teachers held positive perceptions about online instruction, novices perceived it rather as a burden, whereas experts appreciated it as an inseparable part of their practice.Using the ‘Analyzing Online Activities’ (AOA) rubric, developed in this research to assess online activities, we found that both groups scarcely utilized collaborative learning in their activities. We claim that collaborative learning strategies are the key to adoption of online instruction by novices who would be willing to integrate online instruction into their practices when they will not need to become enslaved to it.