Faculty Development for E-Learning: A Multi-Campus Community of Practice (COP) Approach (original) (raw)

UNDERSTANDING AND APPLYING TECHNOLOGY FOR FACULTY DEVELOPMENT

Being aware of what is absent in faculty development programs is important for practitioners and researchers so that they can create and advance programs, and support the development of knowledge, skills, and abilities for distance education instructors. Requests for distance education courses persist to grow at the college and university levels, as students and corporations push for more flexibility in education. Administrators emphasize the return on investment, while faculty members develop distance education courses. More and more faculty members are being prompted to facilitate in the distance education and online arena. This paper focuses on the current state of knowledge needed by facilitators to teach and deliver education using androgogical techniques and technologies. Additionally it emphasizes the need to understand the different types of available technologies and understand their applicability to facilitate learning. These technologies are becoming more and more important to facilitators and administrators as the Internet continues to energize educational deliveries.

Understanding and Applying Technology in Faculty Development Programs

CELDA 2013 Conference Proceedings, Fort Worth, TX, 2013

Being aware of what is absent in faculty development programs is important for practitioners and researchers so that they can create and advance programs, and support the development of knowledge, skills, and abilities for distance education instructors. Requests for distance education courses persist to grow at the college and university levels, as students and corporations push for more flexibility in education. Administrators emphasize the return on investment, while faculty members develop distance education courses. More and more faculty members are being prompted to facilitate in the distance education and online arena. This paper focuses on the current state of knowledge needed by facilitators to teach and deliver education using androgogical techniques and technologies. Additionally it emphasizes the need to understand the different types of available technologies and understand their applicability to facilitate learning. These technologies are becoming more and more important to facilitators and administrators as the Internet continues to energize educational deliveries.

For faculty, by faculty: A case study of learning to teach online

International Journal of Nursing Education Scholarship, 2010

The shortage of nursing faculty and the need for MSN-prepared faculty to have access to doctoral education and remain in their teaching roles has resulted in a growing number of nurse education programs moving online. A better understanding of how best to support faculty during this transition is needed. This case study describes the experiences of faculty at one institution as they participated in a grassroots effort to learn about online teaching. Six themes related to the faculty development experience were identified: 1) plugging in; 2) peer sharing, modeling and community building; 3) multidimensional learning; 4) role-shifting and meta-learning; 5) paradigm shifting; and 6) sustaining momentum. Findings are connected to recommendations related to how best to prepare faculty to ensure that quality nursing education continues.

Professional Development: Designing Initiatives to Meet the Needs of Online Faculty

Journal of Educators Online, 2015

The increasing prevalence of online courses mandates an examination of the similaritiesand differencesin the faculty training and development needs of those teaching online. With institutions facing increasingly limited resources, there is a need to prioritize faculty development initiatives that will encourage faculty participation. An examination of interest, attendance and completion rates of faculty development initiatives targeting online faculty revealed no distinct preferences in relation to the focus or format of programs offered. The authors recommend offering flexibility and diversity in faculty development initiatives to accommodate the disparate needs of a remote, heterogeneous faculty population; as such, a sample needs assessment is offered to help guide faculty development programming to support online teaching.

Building Community in Online Faculty Development

2019

The purpose of this mixed-methods study was to examine current best practices building community in online faculty development (FD). Ongoing participation in pedagogical FD is critical to teaching today due to changing technologies, pedagogical strategies, and increasing numbers of at-risk students. However, competing demands make prioritizing FD challenging. As a result, many institutions are implementing online asynchronous FD offerings. Little research exists on online offerings specifically for faculty with needs and motivations different from students. Particularly, it is important to look at social construction of knowledge through community in online asynchronous FD. This study supplemented the scant literature by interviewing 27 online FD designers from 25 institutions in 14 of US states. This included 14 public and seven private doctoral-granting institutions and four commercial enterprises providing online FD as a service. Next, a four-week online FD course was built to explore the designer recommendations. Thirty-one faculty from 10 US states participated. Pre-and postcourse surveys, course submissions, and post-course interviews were collected. Results indicated successful building of community. Five themes were identified. 1) Participants need opportunities for deliberate practice that incorporate application, feedback, and reflection. 2) Participants seek to customize their experience to their unique backgrounds and needs. 3) Participants desire a learner-centered experience that elicits and values their contributions. 4) Community vi TABLE OF CONTENTS

Faculty development needs assessment for online teaching

International Journal Of Community Medicine And Public Health

Background: Academic staff members, who are responsible for teaching and training, should be aware of the principle of online course design, development, and implementation. The aim of this study is to evaluate instructors’ skills and needs for conducting distance learning healthcare courses, including the level of assistance they need to implement and use online and software tools in online courses.Methods: The current study applied online faculty survey used by the Center for Teaching Excellence, University of South Carolina to assess the faculty’s instructional technology needs for training and support. The survey asked faculty staff about a broad number of classroom and online technologies, with a helpful response scale that reveals not only what the faculty is already using, but also what the instructors want to use and what they need help with.Results: The results of this study revealed a significant need of faculty staff members for the training and development of their skill...

Online Faculty Development for Creating E-learning Materials

Education for health (Abingdon, England)

Faculty who want to develop e-learning materials face pedagogical challenges of transforming instruction for the online environment, especially as many have never experienced online learning themselves. They face technical challenges of learning new software and time challenges of not all being able to be in the same place at the same time to learn these new skills. The objective of the Any Day Any Place Teaching (ADAPT) faculty development program was to create an online experience in which faculty could learn to produce e-learning materials. The ADAPT curriculum included units on instructional design, copyright principles and peer review, all for the online environment, and units on specific software tools. Participants experienced asynchronous and synchronous methods, including a learning management system, PC-based videoconferencing, online discussions, desktop sharing, an online toolbox and optional face-to-face labs. Project outcomes were e-learning materials developed and par...