Effectiveness of and Student Satisfaction with Web-Based Compared to Traditional In-service Teacher Education Courses

Since the Smith-Hughes Act in the early 1900's, there has been a continuing need to prepare people who possess competence in occupational fields to teach in high schools, technical colleges, and community colleges. Most often these people begin teaching with little teacher education. They are hired first, and later receive in-service teacher education while they are teaching. Originally, most states offered these in-service courses through land grant institutions that were subsidized with funds from the Smith-Hughes Act. Itinerant teacher educators were hired to provide the new occupational teachers with the needed pedagogical instruction. As the fields of trade and industrial and technical education grew, the need for occupational teachers and, consequently, for in-service teacher education increased. In an effort to become more efficient and to provide more opportunities for new teachers to receive in-service training, there was a move to develop teacher education modules that could be offered to occupational teachers and be supported by local resource personnel and teacher educators. Some institutions, such as Ohio State University, continue to use modules as a key part of their career and technical education (CTE) teacher education programs. As the technology for teacher education became more sophisticated, some institutions began to provide instruction through interactive television. More recently, there has been a move within teacher education in general, and career and technical education in particular, to provide Web-based instruction (WBI). Some institutions, such as Northern Arizona University, offer entire ________________