Evidence of Effectiveness:
The information gathered in the faculty study has been used to develop initial standards of excellence to support and guide faculty participation. The DAFPFT Partnership Online accomplishments to date could not have occurred without the committed participation of online faculty members. Initial standards (before survey) included one-on-one training, hiring a Faculty and Distance Learning Coordinator and an Instructional Designer to work with faculty; hands-on workshops; faculty exchange days; and improvements in library services, including a research portal, server, desktop support, videography support, and RealPresenter support. Based on information gathered in the survey, emerging standards include rewards for added faculty workload, interdisciplinary and cross-institutional collaboration, more faculty sharing of course content and best practices, encouragement to faculty to utilize available support, and analysis of media shelf life prior to development. Future goals for excellence include providing a comprehensive online tutorial (for students as well as faculty) for basic computer and Internet skills, informing students of online expectations at the time of registration, increasing faculty technological resources, providing more instructional design training and support, providing more modulation and reuse of information, building and refining multimedia skills, and solidifying intellectual property policies. Effectiveness is shown in that most didactic courses are now online, with some clinical web-enhanced courses. Two collaborative courses are taught by faculty from three universities and include students enrolled in the four partner universities from the three disciplines. Several course modules are now well established. A virtual Lifelong Learning Lab is in progress. Clinical learning has been recreated using multimedia technology. GDAPFT continues to survey the faculty involved to assess changes in their level of satisfaction. Statistics on change/improvement will be available at a future time.
How does this practice relate to pillars?:
faculty satisfaction: The Greater Detroit Area Partnership for Training (GDAPFT) was initiated in 1995 to develop and implement a regional interdisciplinary educational program to prepare nurse practitioners, nurse midwives and physical assistants for clinical practice within underserved areas in Southeastern Michigan. Four academic partners (Oakland University, University of Detroit Mercy (lead agency), University of Michigan, and Wayne State University) and five health care systems collaborate to offer courses in a variety of formats, including asysnchronous learning networks (ALN). A clear understanding of the faculty experience in online teaching is crucial to developing faculty satisfaction and commitment to teaching in this new educational environment. GDAPFT, through its study of the experience of the faculty members from the four partnering institutions, has contributed to higher faculty satisfaction and provided the foundation for establishment of standards of excellence for online teaching. Primary faculty concerns were identified through means of a Faculty Satisfaction Survey administered to all faculty in the advanced practice graduate programs at all four universities. These concerns included workload, online learning as a legitimate form of education, intellectual property concerns, student assessment online, and technical skills. Additional concerns included impact on promotion and tenure, student learning styles, technical problems, technical expertise, hardware, and time to develop online courses.
Estimate the probable costs associated with this practice:
Faculty salary for the extra time to develop the course(s); nstructional designer staff time to instruct and assist faculty; overhead costs; and hardware and software expenses for platforms, such as Blackboard, WebCT, etc.
