Supervisors' Perceptions on Using Course Management Software During Business Education Student Teaching Experiences. (Paperback)

Advances in technology and learning theory have significantly changed the landscape in higher education. These changes also impact the preparation of teachers and the supervision of student teachers. The purpose of this study was to understand the perceptions of business education university supervisors at National Association of Business Teacher Education (NABTE) Institutions regarding the use of course management software in the supervision of business student teachers. The study also aimed to provide a description of how and to what extent course management software is currently being used in the supervision of business education student teachers at NABTE Institutions. A Web-based questionnaire was used to collect data from university supervisors of business student teachers at NABTE Institutions throughout the United States. The questionnaire contained both closed and open-ended questions. Open-ended questions were analyzed using a content analysis approach to find reoccurring themes and close-ended questions were analyzed using descriptive statistics. Thirty-six business education university supervisors at NABTE Institutions responded to the questionnaire. Ten of the 36 university supervisors reported using course management software in their supervision practices. The most used features of course management software were announcements, dropbox, and e-mail features. University supervisors using course management software do so most often to communicate with student teachers and collect information. Overall, 73.3% of respondents to the questionnaire felt that they have administrative support for new and innovative methods in the supervision of student teachers; yet, an analysis of the open-ended comments demonstrates that gaining support is complicated and may have conditional elements. An analysis of the data is inconclusive about overall support for using course management software as a whole, but the majority of business education university supervisors have not yet ruled out the use of course management software in the future. A need exists to conduct additional research on course management software and student teacher supervision. The benefits and value of using course management software in relationship to learning theory and best practices in student teacher supervision must be examined.