Internet Teaching By Style: Profiling the On-line Professor

Abstract

The goal of this article is to offer the results of a pilot study which examined the personality type and teaching style preferences of faculty who elected to teach an on-line course. The article will present a description of personality assessments, including the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) and Anthony Gregorc's Transaction Ability Inventory used to determine teaching tendencies and styles. In addition, a structured written questionnaire developed by the researchers was used to assess teacher satisfaction with worldwide web-based instruction. Utilizing the results of these psychological assessments, a preliminary analysis of the personal characteristics of college professors who chose to teach on line will be presented. This pilot study found that some preferred teaching styles may be more compatible with the dynamics of distance learning formats. By determining successful teaching styles for on-line courses, we can develop more effective faculty development programs t...