ADULT EDUCATORS' ADOPTED ONLINE TEACHING ROLES IN ONLINE AND BLENDED LEARNING ENVIRONMENTS

In the past years, the number of courses taught in an online or blended learning environment increased significantly in Flemish adult education centres. In view of the focus of current research in the field of online teaching practices on the perceived importance of online teaching roles; indications of which online teaching roles are actually enacted have been overlooked too often. Moreover, the focus is often on higher education or university level courses, whilst studies on online teacher roles in online and blended courses in adult education centres are far less available. Therefore, the current paper presents the results of a survey administered in Flemish adult education centres involving 163 educators (in the Dutch speaking part of Belgium). The survey questioned how often the adult educators performed a specific role (developmental, instructional, social, evaluative, and administrative) in their online teaching practices. Preliminary analysis suggests that adult educators mainly adopt an evaluative and administrative role; the participants indicated that they frequently analyse online assignments and provide digital feedback. Next to that, they also work frequently on making the course objects easy accessible for the adult learners. The social role is one of the least enacted roles; which can be illustrated by the finding that teachers rarely or never follow and/or guide online discussions among the adult learners. The results from the current analysis can inform adult educator professional development initiatives and contribute to the knowledge and recommendations pertaining to the teaching roles of adult educators. Furthermore, the presented paper can contribute to the current debate on the perceived importance of various online teaching roles and how these can differ from the actual enacted roles.