Perceptions, attitudes, and experiences related to competencies of virtual language

Abstract

The development of online education demands specific skills from teachers, the lack of these skills produces difficulties, their work might become underrated, learners might be affected, they could drop out of courses or even not enroll in virtual programs again, and institutions eventually lose credibility. This study seeks to identify virtual instructors’ competencies and skills leadleads to an improvement in the teaching and learning process. A questionnaire, along with semi-structured interviews, literature reviews, and field notes facilitated the collection of perceived competencies needed for virtual instructors. The participants (n=33) teachers and instructors from 9 cities in Colombia and one teacher from Spartanburg, South Carolina (USA), with varying professional backgrounds, however, 90.9% of them are licensed teachers, operating as virtual or online instructors. The results show that the participants’ perspectives along with the literature review reveal the difficulties that virtual/online instructors face match the problem considered to develop this study. Furthermore, the participant's perception of the competencies that make up a virtual instructor requires matches the proposal of competencies in this study. Nevertheless, a broader understanding of competencies was found and strategies to connect the proposal of competencies of virtual/online instructors.