Matching Training to Experience: A Phased Approach to Faculty Development

With the continued growth in online learning has come increased focus on what constitutes best practices in online teaching. The training of online instructors has not kept pace with the demand for excellence in the online environment, however, a demand voiced by students and administrators alike. The result has been poorly constructed courses, high levels of student attrition from online courses, and continued allegations that online education is simply not as rigorous as its face-to-face counterpart. Furthermore, faculty are often left on their own to find appropriate training or to create their own approach to online teaching based on conversations with colleagues or information they find online or in journals. To add to this problem, often faculty development programs are presented using a "one size fits all" approach, with little regard to whether a faculty member is a novice in teaching online or has taught online for many years. This workshop addresses this problem by presenting, and allowing participants to explore, a phased approach to faculty development. A World Café approach will be used, allowing participants to move between groups that will share strategies for addressing training needs in each phase of faculty development. The World Café approach is structured brainstorming that occurs as participants move between topics and tables. Ideas are captured on easel paper using color, graphics, and the like, for sharing with the larger group at the conclusion of the session. Final products from each group will be photographed and shared with participants online for their future reference. The agenda for the workshop is as follows: • Presentation of the phased model • World Café exploring the model: There will be tables in the room for discussion of each phase of the model (Visitor, Novice, Apprentice, Insider, Master). At each table the focus of the discussion will be to come up with training strategies appropriate to that phase. Participants will spend 15-20 minutes in each group. A designated facilitator will remain at each table while the remainder of the group rotates between tables. • The large group will come back together and designated facilitators will report out the results of all of the group discussions at that particular table. • Final thoughts on faculty self-development, wrap-up, and questions The learning objectives for this workshop are: • Participants will explore a model of faculty development that allows for individualization based on level of experience • Participants will develop strategies for training programs with the goal of achieving effectiveness and excellence in online teaching • Participants will develop strategies faculty can employ for self-development over and above what their institutions might offer.