TDNet Discover

The purpose of this qualitative document-based study was to examine how instructional readiness was defined and operationalized across public, faculty-facing materials from community colleges and regional public universities. For the purposes of this study, instructional readiness was generally defined as the degree to which institutional guidance prepared instructors to teach effectively within technology-enhanced environments. The study was guided by Self-Directed Learning (SDL) Theory, which emphasized goal setting, strategy selection, monitoring, and reflection as processes that support instructor preparedness. The dataset consisted of publicly available webpages and documents related to faculty onboarding, learning management system readiness, and teaching expectations. A directed content analysis was used to apply SDL-informed deductive codes, followed by inductive coding to capture additional patterns not anticipated by the theoretical framework. All coding was completed in Taguette to manage, organize, and interpret text-based data. Trustworthiness was be established through pilot coding and an audit trail. Findings indicated instructional readiness was communicated implicitly through expectations and evaluative language rather than explicitly articulated as a developmental process, with institutional documents often emphasizing outcomes over preparatory support. Instructional readiness was frequently positioned as an individual faculty responsibility and was supported unevenly across document types and institutional contexts. The findings contributed to a clearer understanding of how institutions publicly represented instructional readiness and the extent to which this language supported faculty preparation for effective teaching.