Volume Two - Academic Conferences

Zaffar Ahmed Shaikh and Shakeel Ahmed Khoja
graphic regions of the world to discover teachers’ skills and competencies for PLEs. Data from the
three rounds of study were organized and compared with descriptive statistics (interquartile range
mean and ranking).
An agreed and well-formed synopsis was developed by the consensus of the participants for debate.
The study lasted for three rounds, until it reached on a consensus. Personal perspectives were
brought forward indicating perception of importance and consent of the statements as stated in the
questionnaire. Aggregated results based on the survey were developed as concluding reports. Special
care was taken to select the Delphi’s group members. Experts were selected from the international
community. At the start of this study, a total of 36 PLE experts accepted to participate, however,
2 could not respond to final round questionnaire in time, hence totaling to 34 participants. Of the 34
participants, 19 (56 percent) were male and 15 (44 percent) were female.
The review of the existing literature for the design of series of three rounds questionnaire covered five
areas: (a) an analysis of studies that highlighted the need for faculty development in personalized
learning environments, (b) an analysis of the identified personalized learning competencies and skills
noted in the literature, (c) competencies and skills anticipated from today’s teachers to familiarize
learners with personalized learning, (4) competencies and skills anticipated from today’s teachers to
guide learners how to design a personal space for learning, and (5) discussion of the importance of
personalized learning competencies and skills identification for teachers’ training and development.
The Round I Questionnaire (RIQ) included 60 personalized learning skills. Researchers found teacher
competency proposals suggested by Alvarez et al (2009), Trilling (2008) and Williams (2003) also
appropriate for personalized learning methodology. As developed by Shaikh and Khoja (2011a), the
teachers’ personalized learning skills were sought for five core competencies, which were: Planning
and Design (P&D), Instruction and Learning (I&L), Communication and Interaction (C&I), Management
and Administration (M&A), and Use of Technology (UoT).
2. Methodology
The study begins with an examination of teachers’ generic competencies and skills for face-to-face,
distance, online, virtual and personalized learning methods of instruction. It continues with identifying
the personalized learning skills and knowledge that teachers need to have for PLEs. The researchers
found Delphi study a useful methodology to structure the group activity in order to determine teachers’
skills set for PLEs, as practiced by previous competency studies (Williams, 2003; Piskurich and
Sanders, 1998; Rothwell and Cookson, 1997; McLagan, 1989).
Delphi Method is an exercise that has been used in research for gathering opinion of a group of geographically
dispersed experts through multiple rounds of questionnaire to reach a consensus without
holding a group meeting in order to deal with a complex problem (Ziglio, 1996). As suggested by
Kenis (1995) and Webler (1991), this PLE Delphi study employs a modified Delphi version that gets
expert opinion from group members on prescribed set of closed-ended and open-ended questions. At
the same time, gives freedom of agreement or disagreement from issues discussed in series of questionnaires
and allows addition of any further issues
Delphi technique accompanies several features that add rigor in research, such as: selection of geographically
dispersed experts, small number of group members, multiple round survey technique, anonymity
of group members, reporting of previous round responses to individual members, and use of
statistical tests to reflect consensus development (Shaikh and Khoja (b), 2011; Turoff and Hiltz, 1996;
Linstone and Turoff, 1975). As noted by Williams (1996), Delphi technique also neglects the drawbacks
of face to face discussions, such as: “the bandwagon tendency; deference to the most dominant
member of the discussion group; the vulnerability to manipulation; and the reticence on the part
of individuals to change their minds in front of others”. Isaac and Michael (1995) argue that Delphi is
not always aimed at achieving a strong consensus and to force a quick compromise, however, its
main objective is to produce a critical assessment and discussion to increase problem understanding
and information generation. Delphi also respects views of each individual and does not discourage
minority views to move toward group consensus.
The criteria that guided the selection of expert group for this Delphi was a multistep process carefully
devised to emerge the pool of recognized experts of PLE domain. The criteria for expert selection
used in this study were that the expert (a) must be a known PLE futuristic of at least one of four cate-
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