Growing Online:Developing a Faculty Development Plan with the Help of Softchalk

Leah MacVie | Instructional Designermacviel@canisius.eduCanisius College, Buffalo, NYwww.canisius.edu

About Leah

Instructional Designer for Canisius College,

Ph.D. student at Union Institute and University,

Informal Learning and Alternative Forms of Credit,

Involved with Mozilla Open Badges and P2PU, &

Co-Founder of TEDxBuffalo.

About Canisius

A medium-sized, Catholic and Jesuit university in urban Buffalo, NY that offers transformative undergraduate, graduate and professional programs through on-ground and online delivery.

About Canisius@Online

Canisius has been online for 8 years: 8 online programs, 4 online

certifications, 3 hybrid programs,

and 175 online

courses/semester.

Responding to Growth

Teach faculty how to:•Develop online courses,•Teach online,•Evaluate their online courses, and•Implement new technologies online.

But also….How to be part of the greater online faculty community.

5 Challenges

1.Resistance from faculty against formal training,

2.Faculty unfamiliar with online delivery format,

3.Accommodating different levels of expertise,

4.Wide variety of online courses and programs,

5.Translating the Jesuit value of teaching to the “whole person” to the online environment.

What We Created

1. Online Faculty Development Path,2. Readiness for Teaching Online Survey, 3. 3 core workshops, 4. Mission and Identity lessons, 5. LMS and technology workshops,6. Online Course Review Tool, 7. Griff Guide to Teaching Online, 8. Online learning communities, and9. Professional development

opportunities.

The Online Faculty Development Plan

Five Phases of Online Faculty

Used Palloff and Pratt's Five Phases of Online Faculty

Development from The Excellent Online Instructor

to guide the professional development offerings:

1.Visitor2.Novice3.Apprentice4.Insider5.Master

Readiness for Online Teaching Survey

3 Core Workshops

1. Blended/Hybrid Course Development Workshop

2. Online Course Development Workshop

3. Advanced Technologies in the Online Environment

Structure of the Workshops Completely virtual:

Introductory webinar, One-on-one meetings

with the ID, and Synchronous sessions

with the group.Good example of the student perspective,Demonstrates appropriate use of technology, andForms a relationship for future consultations. 

Mission and Identity Lessons

Self-paced lessons,

Each page will contain: A video, A script, A video quiz, Resources, & Reflection

questions.

Online Course Review Tool

Griff Guide to Teaching Online

Professional Development Opportunities

Teaching Teachers with Softchalk

•Workshop lessons are created using Softchalk.

•Consistent layout and branded lessons.

•Save digital ‘real-estate’ with compact lessons.

•Models good lesson building and ada/udl accommodations.

•Easily matches activities to objectives.

Teaching Students with Softchalk

Instructors across campus use Softchalk to:

•Display lessons to their hybrid and online courses,

•Present content to their face-to-face courses.

Rosanne Hartman’s leadership lesson, used with permission.

Father Pat Lynch’s nukes and the church lesson, used with permission.

I find Softchalk a much easier presentation platform to use than PowerPoint. ~Father Path Lynch

Students Creating with Softchalk

Students in religious studies and theology and special education are creating digital storytelling books and presentations with Softchalk.

Downfall

This plan is labor intensive on one individual.

Benefits

Multiple instructors trained and form a community of learners.

Path and tools are flexible.  

Jesuit Mission and Identity is seeped in resources and training.

Thoughts About the Future

1. Workshops continuously evolve with new technologies.

2. Office of Online Learning to service both online faculty and online students.

3. Online learning to service new programs and existing program growth,

4. Online course development model, &5. “What is online teaching” info session.

Take-Aways

Key points: Create an online development plan, Give faculty the tools:

Griff Guide, Course Review Tool, mission lessons,

Offer regularly scheduled workshops and events: Beginner, inter, advanced, online,

technology, online and f2f.

Get your Hands on the Goods

Online Faculty Development Path

and Components:http://goo.gl/t1L5Q

Softchalk:www.softchalk.com

Questions or comments?

Leah MacVie | Instructional Designermacviel@canisius.eduCanisius College, Buffalo, NYwww.canisius.edu

Leah MacVie | Instructional Designermacviel@canisius.eduCanisius College, Buffalo, NYwww.canisius.edu

Resources:Online Faculty Development Path and Components:http://goo.gl/t1L5Q Softchalk:www.softchalk.com

Growing Online:Developing a Faculty Development Plan with the Help of Softchalk

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