The use of online synchronous discussion for web-based professional development for teachers Yihsuan Chen a , Nian-Shing Chen b , Chin-Chung Tsai a, * a Graduate School of Technology and Vocational Education, National Taiwan University of Science and Technology, #43, Sec. 4, Keelung Road, Taipei 106, Taiwan b Department of Information Management, National Sun Yat-sen University, No. 70, Lienhai Rd., Kaohsiung 80424, Taiwan article info Article history: Received 26 July 2008 Received in revised form 19 March 2009 Accepted 25 May 2009 Keywords: Adult learning Computer-mediated communication Learning communities Lifelong learning abstract This article described the experiences of an inservice professional development program for teachers with a focus on online synchronous discussions. Transcripts of six online synchronous discussions con- taining 3600 messages from an online teacher professional development course were analyzed. In addi- tion, the researchers interviewed 10 participating teachers in order to understand their perceptions toward online synchronous discussions. According to the online discourse data, the online synchronous discussions served not only as a learning tool, but also an avenue for teachers to request and provide information, socialize and support each other. The analyses also revealed that the teachers posted more social messages in the beginning and the end of discussion, and most messages did not involve any cog- nitive and metacognitive skills. Moreover, the interview results showed that the information exchange during online synchronous discussion was not effective for some participating teachers. Based on the interview data, synchronous discussions appeared to hold little advantage when compared to face-to- face discussions for several participating teachers that we interviewed. The problem may be resulted from lack of self-regulated skills by the participants or from the role played by the moderator. Ó 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction Online professional development (OPD) provides Internet-based learning opportunities, including educational courses, activities, work- shops, resources, and online interactions with instructors, mentors, and colleagues (Treacy, Kleiman, & Peterson, 2002). Online professional development provides opportunities to participate in professional development activities that might not be offered locally. Designing and implementing successful professional development programs is receiving much attention in several domains such as medical field. For example, the shortage of nurses and cost constraints create challenges for nurse educators to provide the necessary professional develop- ment. For nurses, computer-based training is as effective as or more effective than traditional training methods, and a blend of the two approaches offers the most cognitive improvement (Benson, 2004). Since the context in which teachers work is undergoing rapid change and this means that teachers need better and ongoing professional development to keep them up to date. There is growing evidence that if teachers are provided with access to ongoing professional devel- opment programs, they are more likely to be more innovative (Dede, Jass Ketelhut, Whitehouse, Breit, & McCloskey, 2006). While many different technologies have been used to support or provide OPD, questions still remain as how synchronous online dis- cussion may support quality and success in professional development and teacher education. With the prevalence of OPD little is known about the best practices for the design of theses OPD models. Therefore, the goals of our research were to explore the percentage and fre- quency of online synchronous discussion in an OTPD program in terms of social cues, interaction types, cognitive and metacognitive skills and how messages vary by different posting periods. In addition, the researchers interviewed the participants in order to find out their perceptions towards the synchronous discussions for improving the design and functions of OPD. 1.1. Online teacher professional development The need for OTPD that can fit with teachers’ schedules, that are creative and resourceful and ongoing has led to the creation of OTPD programs (National Academy of Sciences, 2007). To address this issue in current TPD programs, educators have started to utilize 0360-1315/$ - see front matter Ó 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.compedu.2009.05.026 * Corresponding author. Tel.: +886 2 27376511; fax: +886 2 27376433. E-mail address: cctsai@mail.ntust.edu.tw (C.-C. Tsai). Computers & Education 53 (2009) 1155–1166 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Computers & Education journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/compedu