Reaching Faculty in a Busy World

TMI/TMO/TLT = Too much information. Too many options. Too little time (Steve Gilbert, The TLT Group). As the University of North Carolina at Charlotte has added more instructional technologies, we in the Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL) have worked hard to offer the most effective formats for faculty development. We are lucky if 5-10 professors sign up for our traditional workshops. Usually fewer actually attend, often because they have overbooked themselves or an important meeting pulls them away. TMI/TMO/TLT - time is NOT on our side. In the fall of 2010, we conducted a campus-wide needs assessment of our faculty. One of the questions asked which kinds of instructional events they would be interested in attending, listed by the instructional approach. Approximately 40% of faculty indicated that they were "very interested" in online tutorials, downloadable web-based resources, and also webinars. By creating an innovative and wide-ranging mix of faculty development opportunities, we are able to deliver just-in-time support. Our increasingly busy faculty can now engage with instructional materials on their own timetables. While they still say face-to-face workshops are their most preferred format of professional development, an increasing number are choosing to participate through these other, newer methods. We use a variety of new media and formats, including: • Live, online workshops delivered via Web conferencing software • Lunchtime 30 minute "How Do I" Webinars on one specific topic, with the recordings available as videos on demand • Online video tutorials and how-to guides • Using Google Docs as a crowd-sourced handout in traditional workshops • CTL blog • CTL "Teaching & Learning Matters" podcast • Asynchronous online training courses and workshops available in our Learning Management System (LMS) • Technology Showcase presented by professors for their peers • Customized departmental and program workshops Through the new media, we are modeling how faculty can reach their students. Some have told us that this is specifically why they attend online training, to get a sense of what their students experience and also to learn how they might introduce new approaches in their classes. In this presentation, participants will learn how we expanded our faculty development to a new and growing variety of more convenient formats and how they might implement similar approaches. Attendees will also participate in a "think-write-pair-share" activity to generate formats and approaches they can take back to their institutions.