Journal of Online Learning Research and Practice Volume 7, Number 2, 2019 | Page 31

Journal of Online Learning Research and Practice
for educators to communicate, share
knowledge and resources, and reflect
via asynchronous interactions. Many
companies are developing more online
learning applications for students and
ignoring teachers’ expertise. According
to Berry (2009), 15% of teachers are involved
in a professional online community
and 28% have read or written a blog
about teaching. A learning community
of teachers, in an online environment,
is designed to provide guidance to novice
teachers through learning and sharing
ideas online (MacKnight, 2008). We
reviewed these and other online systems
to reflect on their design before we
redesigned the Spectrum educational
tool to support teachers and preservice
teachers in learning and refining their
classroom management skills.
Spectrum Development
Text-based case studies for preservice
teachers are textual descriptions
of an author who
narrates the case study. For every case
study, there are reflection questions
based on the case study that allow
teachers to think and analyze the scenarios.
At the end of the case study, the
narrator explains his or her analysis of
the reflection questions and shares his
or her thoughts. Dr. Tripp’s idea and
goal to provide more interactive content
to support her classroom management
courses prompted the creation
of Spectrum. In our initial discussions
(i.e., sessions about requirements), we
identified compelling examples of situations
where decisions in classroom
management may improve the class or
cause it to devolve into chaos.
ELearning and Case Studies
With the advent of the Internet and
applications to access information,
learners have access to the content of
their choice. Easy access to content
has supported the concept of eLearning.
Learning through the Internet offers
many advantages, which include
control over the content, learning sequence,
and pace of learning. The main
goal of eLearning is to provide content
flexibly to learners without having to
depend on time and location. According
to data, 96% of Americans “now
own a cell phone of some kind” (Pew
Research Center, 2019, para. 2). Developing
eLearning environments, which
can also be accessible from mobiles,
such as an iPhone, iPad, etc., is important
because the growth of mobile technologies
is substantial.
ELearning-based preservice teacher
training reduces costs when compared
to traditional classroom training.
In traditional classroom training, case
studies are mostly in textual form and
are expensive company-based resources.
In addition, text-based case studies
do not create a quality impression of
an authentic classroom for teachers.
Transforming case studies from textbased
to multimedia-based solves multiple
problems.
Multimedia-based case studies allow
teachers to grasp concepts more
effectively, visualizing the classroom
environment in a practical way. By incorporating
the concept of multimedia
in developing eLearning for preservice
teacher training, participants may
overcome various constraints of for-
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