Preparing faculty for online classes
I sometimes read academic journal articles in my free time. My wife makes fun of me for this, but I find them interesting and I can at least tell myself I’m being productive. Last week I came across the article “Orientation, Mentoring, and Ongoing Support: A Three-tiered Approach to Online Faculty Development.” The title sounded right up my alley, so naturally I gave it a look.
It described one college’s efforts to prepare faculty who have never taught an online class before. As the name suggests, the college used a three tiered model: orientation, mentoring, and ongoing support. Orientation refers to giving faculty a background in online learning. This phase includes information on learning theory, specifically in an online environment. It also covers information on the college’s learning management system. Faculty are also given an opportunity to develop their syllabus. The second phase is mentoring. At the very beginning of the training, faculty are assigned an instructional designer. The instructional designer assists the faculty member in crafting their syllabus and serves as a resource in answering questions about online learning and technologies. The final phase is ongoing support. Here, the faculty continues to interact with his/her instructional designer as well as other knowledgeable staff members as the course progresses. The faculty member is able to receive advice about activities, technologies, etc. that might work well in the course.
According to the article, the college decided to implement such a program as they discovered that while faculty members may be experts in their fields, it cannot be assumed that they will immediately know how to teach an online course. Since the implementation of the training program, the college has continued to offer more online courses, thus creating the need to have more faculty trained in teaching online classes. Overall, faculty have found the course to provide them with preparation and growth as a professional.
As I read this article, I kept thinking to myself “there really is a lot that goes into an online class.” The resources that are provided to faculty—background in online learning theory, knowledge of an LMS, syllabus development, tech support, advice on technologies, advice on activities, ongoing conversations with an instructional designer, and more—are all critical to success in teaching an online class. Someone could have taught a college class for thirty years, but upon being thrust into teaching an online class, might have absolutely no idea of how to go about it. The article emphasizes the point that we cannot just assume that faculty innately know how to teach an online class. In reading this article, that fact is solidified for me. Not only was it solidified, but I became convinced that we must do far more than simply prepare faculty for success; we need to prepare them, provide them with countless resources, and then remain in open dialogue with them as they continue on their journey in teaching their first online class.
Vaill, A.L., & Testori, P.A. (2012). “Orientation, Mentoring, and Ongoing Support: A Three-tiered Approach to Online Faculty Development.” Journal of Asynchronous Learning Networks, 16(2), 111-119.