Faculty Development

One part of my job as Instructional Program Manager is to help faculty members develop pedagogical strategies that work effectively in an online environment. There are a number of challenges to this, and the primary one is probably the looming presence of the technology itself: that is, the complex and powerful online course management system is there in front of the instructors -- they can almost stub their toe on it -- and so when they start to think about incorporating an online component into one of their face-to-face courses, the first thing that comes into their mind is "how do I use the technology" rather than "what do I do with the technology." In other words, they are well aware that they need guidance and probably even training with regard to the nuts and bolts aspects of logging on, making online quizzes, using the online gradebook, and so on. But this focus on the technology AS technology causes them to overlook less tangible things, such as the need to develop new pedagogical approaches, and the need (and opportunity) to make online learning as active and student-centred as possible. On a day to day basis, this problem is manifested in the fact that many of our faculty mistakenly think that our unit -- The Centre for Learning and Teaching Through Technology (LT3)-- is a kind of "technology help desk," the place that they phone when they are having a problem with a computer or with software. In short, it's lamentable that LT3 sometimes gets confused with IST (Information and Systems Technology); and sometimes we are also confused with other quite distinct units, such as Distance Education.

Another challenge with regard to faculty development is simply finding time. Instructors are busy: with teaching, with research, and with life. It's hard to convince them to devote time to a workshop, even one that's designed to help them devise learning activities that will work effectively in an online environment. The workshop I offer -- called The E-Merging Learning Workshop -- demands upwards of twenty hours from a participating instructor. He or she first spends eight or so hours completing a series of online modules; then attends a two-hour coaching session; then completes another online module that requires another few hours; and then attends one final coaching session. We've had success with this workshop in the past, because it successfully gets instructors to re-think how they use "time and space." That is, they come to see the efficacy of using the online environment to do two things. First, to use the online environment to deliver some of the course content, so that the classroom time and classroom space can be re-purposed for more interactive activities such as discussions, question and answer, field trips, lab work, and so on. Second, they come to see the value of using the online environment to have students engage with content in an active and student-centered manner: that is, they're not just reading a posted lecture, but rather are completing online activities (quizzes, simulations, role playing, discussion groups, etc) that pull them into the material, and which allow the instructor to provide them with formative feedback. (We call this instructional model, which we developed at the University of Waterloo, the T5 model -- the "T"s stand for tasks, topics, tutoring (i.e. feedback), teams, and tools). However, despite the demonstrated benefit of the New Classroom Workshop, it's sometimes hard to get faculty members to sign up for it -- due, as I was saying, to their time constraints. And sometimes it's even hard to get the faculty members who do sign up to complete all of the online modules before the first coaching session (which is ironic considering that one of the "instructional challenges" that we discuss during the workshop is how to get undergraduates to come to class prepared!). At York University, in Toronto, they offer similar faculty development program (called doTEL), except that it's ten weeks in length rather than two weeks like our New Classroom Workshop. In the upcoming weeks I'll be looking further into their approach at York -- and I'd welcome suggestions or ideas from other engaged in faculty development. Feel free to leave them here as comments, or to email me directly at markmorton@LT3.uwaterloo.ca