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.