Preparing In-Service Teachers for K-12 Online Schools: A Case Study

The certification process for preparing teachers to teach in face-to-face K-12 classrooms in the United States is well established. Most certification occurs at the college or university level. However, licensing and preparation to teach in K-12 online schools is a relatively new field. Some of the preparation is taking place within the K-12 online schools. Georgia Southern University's Instructional Technology programme has a state of Georgia three-course approved endorsement to prepare in-service teachers for online classrooms. The students in the final course of the endorsement programme completed their field placement in the K-12 Georgia Virtual School. These students spent 16 weeks working with mentor teachers who guided their professional development. The mentor teachers provided the practicum students with complete access to their courses. At the beginning of the semester, the mentor teachers were interviewed by the practicum students so they could establish an understanding of the expectations of teaching online. The practicum students were expected to explore the online course syllabus, course content, and course tools. The practicum students were given various topics throughout the semester to explore with their mentor teachers. This case study describes the online field placement of a class of in-service teachers who completed a practicum in the Georgia Virtual School. The case study describes the experiences of the first group of Georgia Southern University candidates to complete the field experience in an online classroom. Findings indicated that the field-experience participants had a positive practicum experience. However, students had mixed reactions regarding their futures as online K-12 teachers.