As the demand for more and more online courses increases, faculty members are struggling with making the transition from a face-to-face presentation to an online medium. In general, people tend to teach the way they were taught. In a face-to-face environment, instructors can rely heavily on their experience even if their technique is not the most pedagogically sound. However, when they move to an online environment, the lack of technical expertise coupled with a cursory knowledge of education principles often creates lackluster results. The situation is further compounded by the dynamic nature of technology and the constant need to keep up the continual changes. Both faculty and the university want to create a quality learning experience, and students deserve to be provided a course where they can focus on the content and not be bogged down by the technology. Like any other service organization, the Interactive Teaching and Technology Center (ITTC) at the Arkansas State University strives to find ways to connect with its customers—the faculty of the university. The University is expecting a huge number of faculty members to retire in the next 10 years, and as a result, ITTC will be serving a host of new faculty members. Most incoming faculty members are trained in their particular subject matter, but not in educational principles. They may or may not be very fluent with technology. Confronted with this enormous shift in the faculty pool, ITTC has re-evaluated its approach to faculty development. The current strategy includes several components and is designed to help support the design of quality courses whether they are face-to-face, Web-assisted, or fully online: • Course Development Life Cycle • Evaluation Tool • Exemplar Course • Learning Centers • KnowledgeBase for FAQs and How Tos The foundation to this approach is the articulation of a Course Development Life Cycle (CDLC). Although similar to other curriculum development strategies, CDLC puts an emphasis on the iterative nature of the process and the need for continuous learning. Diagrams of the CDLC have been printed and are posted in the ITTC 25-seat computer lab. During faculty development classes and workshops, the CDLC is briefly discussed and context provided as to how the material being covered fits into the process. An evaluation tool based on several existing rubrics has been developed that is a hybrid rubric and checklist. The tool is presented as a rubric, but each cell may contain several checklist items as well. In the electronic version, each cell also includes links to resources for faculty. Categories or dimensions have been added that put an emphasis on the process being used and not just the end product. In this presentation, the evaluation tool is being used more as a skill-building rubric that is used repeatedly rather than a summative rubric that is used at the end of the process. It provides faculty members with a clear road map on how they can improve their courses in small, incremental steps. Another component of the overall strategy is to provide faculty with an exemplar course. In some cases, faculty members are being asked to create an online course, and they may never have seen one before. At Arkansas State University, everyone who receives access to the Learning Management System, Blackboard 8, is automatically enrolled in a course developed by ITTC. This course is being redesigned so it can also be used to model best practices in online instruction, and can serve as an online reference guide for faculty members as they develop their courses. One of the great assets of ITTC is its 25-seat computer lab. However, the lab is underutilized. To broaden the use of the lab, the staff has begun developing several Learning Centers. Conceptualized as a "class in a box", it provides faculty members with a set of resources and equipment to complete a series of short learning activities about a given topic. Rather than attending scheduled classes or seminars, faculty members can "check out" the materials anytime at their convenience. The Learning Centers all include materials online and many of them can be used as "virtual" centers by the faculty members at their own computers. As technology continues to change, so do the corresponding questions. ITTC is streamlining this process by moving FAQs, tutorials, trouble-shooting guides, and other types of materials to a campus-wide knowledgebase. This solution not only makes it easier for faculty members to find the answers they want, but it also makes it easier for ITTC to provide one-on-one support. ITTC is starting to see encouraging results. Positive feedback has been received from faculty members when the CDLC has been introduced in face-to-face classes or seminars. Many of them will comment that they have simply never been exposed to a formal process for creating their courses before. In November results will be available from: • Success of using Learning Centers in the month-long faculty Summer Institute • Feedback on introduction of Exemplar course to new faculty during orientation in August • Feedback on evaluation tool from Quality committee for campus-wide use • Analyzing the use of electronic resources
