Context: MarylandOnline (MOL) is a consortium of independently governed higher education institutions: sixteen community colleges and four universities. MOL's mission states that it is "a statewide, inter-segmental consortium, dedicated to championing distance learning in Maryland. Through collaboration among Maryland community colleges, colleges, and universities, MarylandOnline facilitates students' access to articulated courses, certificates, and degree programs offered via distance; and promotes excellence in Web-based learning in the physical as well as in the virtual classroom. With strategic partners, MarylandOnline enhances the quality and availability of higher education for the citizens and employers of Maryland and for students worldwide." (http://marylandonline.org/) This presentation focuses on year two of MOL's "Online Adjunct Teaching" pilot project. This project is intended to fill a need of MOL member institutions for training opportunities designed for experienced adjunct faculty who are transitioning to online teaching. Problem: The problem this project seeks to address was first identified by the Maryland Distance Learning Association's Instructional Design Affinity Group (IDAG) in 2007. IDAG is a group of instructional designers primarily working in higher education institutions in Maryland and surrounding states. Many IDAG members are responsible for providing training for instructors in the areas of pedagogy and technology used for teaching online. IDAG members were aware that institutions were developing similar training sessions for their online instructors. From a desire to reduce this duplication of effort, and to expand the number, quality, and consistency of trainings offered to online instructors, came the idea to develop state-wide training. Many MOL institutions were also grappling with the task of how to properly prepare new online instructors to teach online. With the success of MOL's Quality Matters program (http://www.qualitymatters.org/), and its impact on defining and certifying the quality of course design, institutions turned their attention to the importance of quality in the delivery of those courses. Institutions were interested in developing a method to train instructors in the skills needed to successfully teach online courses. Instructors themselves seem interested in obtaining some type of formal designation indicating they have a certain level of knowledge of teaching online. Adjuncts often teach for more than one institution and currently may be required to complete potentially identical training at each institution. In contrast, some adjuncts do not have access to training at all, due to their institution not offering it or not offering it in a format/time frame that is convenient for them. Creation of a common inter-institutional certification training program would 1) increase the availability of training to instructors, 2) provide assurance to institutions that those completing the training have consistent levels of training and 3) give institutions access to a pool of trained adjuncts. Approach: In 2008, IDAG received a grant from MOL to fund an exploratory research project on the feasibility of offering a shared, inter-institutional training program for adjuncts. The objectives of the project were to: 1. Identify competencies needed by effective online instructors. 2. Identify the cost and structure (delivery method, length) of selected currently available online instructor certification/training programs. 3. Identify training topics currently being offered by Maryland higher education institutions. 4. Identify training needs of Maryland institutions that were not being met. 5. Determine if there was an interest in a state-wide training/certification program for online instructors. The research methods included a survey of Maryland institutions, interviews with personnel at institutions around the United States that offered online teaching certificates/training, and a literature review focused on online teaching competencies. The research conducted of Maryland higher education institutions showed there was a need for, and an interest in, a state-wide training program for adjuncts to develop online teaching competencies. Using data from the Maryland survey of institutions, and research of current literature, recommendations were made that an online training course be developed for adjuncts that encompassed the major competencies needed in order to successfully teach an online course for the first time. Recommendations included that the primary focus of this training should be on teaching online, not on designing an online course, as adjuncts often are asked to teach a course that has already been designed. A second MOL grant in 2009 funded the development and pilot offering of the "Online Adjunct Teaching" course. A team of instructional designers and experienced online instructors from various institutions, with input from an advisory board made up of Maryland distance learning administrators, designed the pilot nine-week asynchronous online training course. Maryland adjuncts interested in teaching online were invited to participate in the free pilot course which ran from April to June 2010. Sixty-five adjuncts applied to take the course, from which twenty were chosen to participate. The pilot course design was evaluated from the perspectives of the adjuncts participating in the course, the instructor of the course, the design team, the project director and chair, and the institutional distance learning administrators. Results: At the time of writing this proposal, the pilot course is currently underway with evaluation being completed in August 2010. The presentation discusses these evaluation results and identifies how the pilot project process and product informed the team's recommendations to MOL on the future of the "Online Adjunct Teaching" course. Presentation Focus: The presentation discusses both the processes involved in creating this online adjunct teaching pilot course and the product, (the course), from four perspectives: the project director focuses on the logistics of setting up shared, inter-institutional training for diverse, independently governed institutions; the design team coordinator talks about the course development process which was accomplished at a distance; the pilot course instructor discusses her experience teaching the course; and the project chair summarizes the evaluation results of the pilot course. The presentation team concludes by identifying recommendations to the MOL board for the next steps of the project, and we discuss how our experiences on this project may be of use to other institutions.
