Putting the Pieces Together for Instructor Success

In November of 2008, the Center for Distance Learning at Empire State College, State University of New York, with overwhelming faculty support, raised the profile of Academic Services, the internal faculty development program. At this time a dedicated full time staff member was added to this program, adding to an existing structure of a Director of Student and Academic Services and a part time trainer. Since this time, surveys and studies have been done on the internal workings of the program in an effort to improve and provide the best most innovative program possible. The consequence is a well functioning accessible program with high satisfaction rating among those faculty who experience the program. From 2005 to 2010, the number of faculty teaching at the Center for Distance Learning more than doubled. The process of hiring and training was exhaustive in the early stages of the program. A skeleton program existed of what is currently in place. In 2010 the program touched nearly 300 people in formal development sessions. The reach had become college wide as a result of faculty from other centers starting online teaching. Sharing of information with the college wide Center for Mentoring and Learning has increased visibility. As a result of additional efforts by Academic Services, in the winter of 2010, an expectations document and acknowledgement process was formally put forward by the full time faculty in the Center for Distance Learning. As a result of this effort, a 50% increase in attendance in webinars for our veteran faculty was seen, inclusive of the full time faculty from the greater college community. A survey will follow in the Spring of 2011 to determine student satisfaction levels with course instruction. The flagship of the Academic Services efforts has been the new instructor orientation up to the past year. After surveying faculty who had been through the program in the previous year, it was learned that 87% believed, retrospectively, they were prepared to teach after going through the Orientation. 92% were satisfied with the training experience. Our new faculty, adjunct as well, also feel they are a part of the academic community. Anecdotally, conversations with faculty are supportive and collegial. In efforts to reach out to faculty base, often receive over 80% immediate response rate to queries and surveys. In the spring of 2010, an investigation was initiated that focused on determining the primary causes of student grievances. The results of this effort clearly identified three major factors that contributed to over 80% of the situations. As a result of the situations investigation, there were a number of improvement actions that were identified and implemented to reduce the student situation activity and improve student satisfaction. Some of the improvement actions were in process as the investigation was being completed. The study results validate and emphasized the importance of the actions. Current trend data used to measure and track performance improvement reflects a substantial decline of situation activity over the previous two years. This presentation will discuss the efforts and results of this project, including four primary factors to assist in moving forward: Understanding student experience by examining grievances; identifying needs by reviewing performance patterns; creating solutions; assessing program effectiveness.