A journey into the mind of professors at the university of Tehran: The typology of conceptions about instructors´ roles

The achievement of eLearning goals is one of the objectives of many universities, among which, the proper role of professors who are active in this field is a major challenge. Strengthening the Performance of eTeachers¹ is the main way to deal with this issue. One of the important influences on eTeachers´ performance is their attitudes and perceptions about their roles. This paper focuses on perceptions of eTeachers´ roles in the University of Tehran. We have applied the inductive research technique Q_methodology, which is a research method used to study people´s “subjectivity”, to investigate the views of 31 eTeachers about their roles. The results show that these members have four distinct conceptions about eTeachers´ roles which are based on their techniques and devices in eLearning web. The authors labeled these conceptions as: knowledge transmitter, participator, intermediary, and eContent designer. The four conceptions will examine in more details and are interpreted based on existing theories in the final section of this paper.