Examining the Cost-Benefits of the Remote Observation of Graduate Interns

As the overwhelming need for teachers continues to grow in the state of North Carolina and other states, it is imperative for Colleges of Education to find alternative means for licensing teachers and to seek innovative ways to attract and recruit second career professionals to teaching. These goals require new approaches to current practices, course offerings, and program structures. The Department of Middle, Secondary, and K-12 Education at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte is in the process of addressing these issues through the online venue. In spring 2009, the Department of Middle, Secondary, and K-12 Education began offering a 100% online graduate internship to lateral entry and non-teaching licensure candidates. The main evaluation of candidate effectiveness and preparation is a series of four teaching observations conducted by a university supervisor during a final internship semester. These evaluations serve as a summative assessment for candidate learning in both the internship and the licensure program. The four observations have been traditionally conducted in person, which has served as a barrier to offering the internship course to both teaching and non-teaching candidates and for broadening course offerings to a larger geographical area. To address the challenges and in preparation for a truly online experience, project directors have designed an innovative approach to conducting teaching evaluations, one that captures the advantages afforded by technology---the remote observation of graduate interns. The objective of this presentation is to provide a detailed overview of the costs associated with a program for the remote observation of graduate intern's classroom teaching experiences. In this presentation, we will discuss findings from a detailed analysis of the costs associated with implementing a remote observation experience, as well as the evolution of these costs over time. This discussion will focus on costs associated with the time necessary to conduct observations, travel costs, equipment costs for the institution, equipment costs for students, and other cost issues. In this presentation, we will also provide a detailed overview of the costs of the remote observation of graduate interns compared with the traditional face-to-face observation process.