11057

11057

General Session - Conference Presentation Only (no formal paper)

"Just in Time" Web Tools to Engage, Motivate, Inspire, and Challenge an Online Faculty
Holly McCracken, Capella University Minneapolis, MN, USA, holly.mccracken@capella.edu Eileen Dittmar, Capella University Minneapolis, MN, USA, eileen.dittmar@capella.edu

This general session focuses on strategies for implementing a comprehensive Web-based training model essential to the continued development of high performing online instructors. The high-impact model promotes information sharing, facilitates content creation, and fosters collaboration among faculty members teaching undergraduate students in online learning environments, and has as its goals increasing student satisfaction, promoting instructional quality, and motivating participants.

The development and implementation of the technology-rich training model evolved from the need to develop, implement, and sustain a comprehensive faculty training program to enable self-assessment and reinforce continuous quality improvement. Model components include a professional development blog focused on adult learning; an extensive resource wiki to assure great teaching; and, a self-check performance review tool shared between instructors and evaluators. Additional Web technologies utilized include peer-to-peer conferencing in which a six-part training series focusing on online teaching strategies is conducted, and the use of cloud computing features through which regularly scheduled faculty meetings are facilitated.

The goals of such a training model include: promoting collegiality and affiliation within a decentralized organization that includes a geographically dispersed faculty; reinforcing self-assessment and continuous quality improvement in teaching; and, coordinating the organized distribution of information, processes and procedures to promote instructional consistency and learner persistence. Moreover, the model is essential to creating a community of practice for ongoing dialogue and the exploration of participatory pedagogies and instructional methods; facilitating continuous professional development related to teaching practice, and, promoting ongoing capacity building in faculty members’ adoption of technologies for use in their online classes.

All Audiences faculty training, online teaching, blog, wiki, cloud computing, peer-to-peer conferencing