Developing Instructor TPACK: A Research Review and Narrative Synthesis

The number of instructors teaching online in higher education has increased in recent years, and this trend is likely to continue. To be at their most effective at online teaching, instructors need a specialized form of knowledge. This knowledge, theorized as Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK), can help instructors design meaningful learning experiences for students that help them engage and learn. For this reason, administrators and policy makers need information about kinds of educational opportunities and experiences that can help instructors develop their knowledge bases for teaching online and with technology. Researchers have begun to study this phenomenon. In particular, an increasing number of researchers have focused on professional development experiences designed to improve instructor knowledge bases for teaching online. In this narrative research review, we synthesize the results of 13 studies to identify practices related to improved TPACK among university instructors, organizing results by type of intervention. We make recommendations for the ways in which policy makers and administrators can help instructors develop this important knowledge base for teaching.