The Center for eLearning was established at Florida Atlantic University (FAU) as a result of a university-wide task force. A brief overview of the center’s start-up activity is followed by a thorough report of the first faculty development program created and implemented. The structure of the program is described, and data are provided showing evidence of faculty improvement and positive ratings for the program. Conclusions about the program and modifications for its second iteration are included.

Experienced e-learning faculty members share strategies for implementing a comprehensive postsecondary faculty development program essential to continuous improvement of instructional skills. The high-impact META Model (centered around Mentoring, Engagement, Technology, and Assessment) promotes information sharing and content creation, and fosters collaboration among a fifty-member faculty team that is geographically dispersed and teaching one hundred percent online. Among its goals are to increase student satisfaction, promote instructional quality and continuous improvement, and motivate faculty. Model components include customized individual mentoring, an emphasis on continuous professional engagement and development, the integration of technologies to reinforce ongoing communication and interaction, and ongoing assessment measures using self, peer, and student evaluations to guide the development of exemplary practices.

In order for faculty to make a successful transition to teaching in the online classroom, they must receive professional development specifically geared toward this challenge. Bay Path College offers a faculty development program that incorporates three distinct components all geared toward aiding faculty to adjust to teaching online and providing assistance while courses are in progress with the goal of ultimately impacting the overall online learning experience for faculty and students alike. This article describes the College’s three-tiered approach to faculty development and explains the role that initial training, peer mentoring, and ongoing support play in preparing faculty and shaping their confidence in their abilities as an online instructor.

Faculty development is a critical process, enabling instructors to remain abreast of new discipline specific content and innovations in the scholarship of teaching and learning. The explosion of online higher education and advances in technology provide examples and rationale for why faculty development for e-learning is needed.  Literature on faculty development and e-learning is reviewed and a multi-campus faculty development program using distance technology and a community of practice model for nursing educators will be described. Successful strategies, barriers and an evaluation of the multi-campus faculty development model experience will be presented in a format that allows for replication across disciplines.

As co-editors of this special issue on faculty development for online teaching, we would like to make a few points before readers engage in the articles included in the issue. First, we intended the special issue to include research on faculty development programs, especially research that was based on an appropriate theory. These studies seem especially important given their exploration of the usefulness of theory for creating faculty development activities and evaluating theireffectiveness