Discovering What Faculty REALLY Need to Know about Teaching Online

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Discovering What Faculty REALLY Need to Know about Teaching Online

Ann Luck & Carol McQuigganThe Pennsylvania State University

22nd Annual Conference on Distance Teaching & Learning August 2-4, 2006

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The Pennsylvania State University

22nd Annual Conference on Distance Teaching & Learning August 2-4, 2006 3

A Little Background…

Lots of groups and individuals doing faculty development at Penn State, but no coordinationFaculty development efforts tend to be our “best guess”Traditionally low participationMore and more “decentralized” distance learning development, but no resources to supportWant to develop faculty resources that can be used by anyone at PSU in multiple ways!


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Research Questions

Q1: With what aspects of teaching online do faculty need assistance?

Q2: What types of professional development experiences are needed by online faculty?

Q3: What format should these professional development experiences take to best meet faculty needs?

Q4: What incentive(s) do faculty wish to receive in return for participating in a professional development experience that is focused on teaching online?


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The Survey Instrument

Web-based32 items in 3 parts: 1. Online teaching experience(s)2. Professional development experience(s)3. Demographics28 multiple-choice type questions; 4 open-ended


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Target Population

Higher education faculty who have taught at least one completely online course at PSU260 World Campus faculty 237 Usable e-mail addresses68 Surveys returnedResponse rate of 28.7% Sample closely reflects population

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Who are our online faculty?

Full-time(n=54; 80.6%)

Male(n=43; 64%)

Rank of Asst. Prof. or lower(n=34; 51.5%)

Teaching at college level more than 5 years (n=53; 78%)

Have taught more than one course online (n=42; 61.8%)

Experience was somewhat positive or very positive(n=40; 81.6%)

Not on tenure track (n=39; 58%)or already tenured (n=26; 39%)

36-55 years old(n=44; 64.7%)


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What Made Online Teaching Experience Positive?

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Note: Survey respondents (19) who taught 5 or more online courses not included in this data


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Student characteristics (15)Enthusiastic, motivated, attentive, returning adult students, working professionals, approached their studies more seriously“Primarily the fact that the students tended to be “returning” adult students who were very interested and motivated to succeed in the course (unlike the “college age” student who commonly does as little as possible to get as high a grade as possible).”


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Experience (10) “The new experience of learning how to teach material using on-line media.”“Ability to experience a new teaching approach.”

Flexibility (7)“I personally enjoy the flexibility that teaching online provides for my schedule”“ability to have students complete individual activities at personal rate but still have team and team activities completed weekly”


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Interaction (7)“I enjoy the high-level of quality personal interaction that I’m able to have with my students.”

Effectiveness of learning activities (5)“I was impressed with how well the online projects and discussion worked. . .”

Support (3)“Excellent support from World Campus Designers and support staff.”


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What Made Online Teaching Experience Negative?

Note: Survey respondents (19) who taught 5 or more online courses not included in this data

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Lack of F2F (16)“I felt disconnected from the students – I had no way to respond to nonverbal cues that indicate their interest and motivation (or lack of).”“Lack of face-to-face time and interaction limits the rapport building that is an important element of effective teaching/learning.”“I’m trying to remain upbeat with this response. I think moving from “live”performance to complete on-line format is a difficult transition.”


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Support (5)“World Campus aspects – registration problems, ordering wrong books, links not working – were laughably bad.”“Conflicting policies, lack of university support, and inconsistent application of standards has made all of my negative experiences ‘top down’– i.e. management related”

Technology (5)“Occasional administrative/software/hardware inadequacies along with the randomness of “when” were the negatives.”


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Assistance/Resources to Develop & Teach Future Online Course

Technical advice, assistance & support (20)“I would want excellent, on-call technical support”“Technical advice and assistance for transitioning course content from written word to graphical or flash-based presentation”“Graphics/multimedia assistance.”“Specific resources for “special” needs (multi-media, copyright research/clearance, short term assistance in writing code or solving specific technical problems, etc).”


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Instructional designer advice & assistance (15)“An instructional designer to discuss implication and strategies at each step of the course development process.”“I want to understand the parameters of the design so that I will know how to include interaction between students and the instructor.”“Instructional designer support that would allow me to put multiple interactive exercises and problems in my course.”


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Colleagues (7)“A community of people teaching the same/related course.”“More colleagues in my department who are also teaching online. “

Tool improvements (7)“More technical options to have homework done and graded on-line.”“An expert system that helps structure basic online instructional methods based on the teaching goals and objectives of the course.”


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Advice for Colleague Teaching Online for First Time – Preparation

Things you need to do BEFORE teaching onlineCourse & teaching preparation (19)Observe an online course/be an online student (11)Work with an instructional designer (9)Talk to colleagues (9)Learn ANGEL (6)Locate technical assistance (3)Gain access to resources (3)Consider it a work-in-progress (2)Use what you learn to improve your resident instruction (1)

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Course & teaching preparation (19)“Know your subject! Know where you're going with the course. In other words have your course objectives written and in your memory.”“Get organized. Prepare lesson and course objectives. Prepare content to meet those objectives. Prepare assessment tools (variety of different tools) to see that objectives being met.”“Carefully consider your expectations regarding students' interaction and assignments. What do you need from them in order to feel like you are effectively teaching them?”


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Course & teaching preparation (19)“Do not see online learning as a direct transfer of what is done in a face-to-face learning situation to an electronic context. Online learning necessitates a "re-thinking" of the best means of presenting content and building a successful learning environment. Get background into the "best practices" and approach of the most successful online courses that are similar to the course you have in mind.”


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Advice for Colleague Teaching Online for First Time - Teaching

Things to do while teaching the courseEstablish a presence (7)Give prompt, effective feedback (7)Provide detail and clarity (6)Set expectations (4)Provide interaction (4)Play a facilitative role (3)Be flexible (2)


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Establish a presence (7)“I'd tell my colleague to make customer service a priority during the course's offering. High quality interaction and "being there" for the students is the best way to combat the commonly held misconceptions that on-line education is impersonal and that on-line instructors are "unplugged" from their students.”


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Give prompt, effective feedback (7)“I have scripted general feedback to weekly lessons. I use that primarily and add personal comments on top of that when I correspond with each individual student.”

Provide detail and clarity (6)“Assume nothing - spell every activity out in as much detail as possible. Explain your grading scheme. Provide assessment rubrics.”


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Advice for Colleague Teaching Online for First Time – Time

“Expect for teaching online to take a lot more time than teaching face-to-face, and budget time accordingly.”“Be prepared to devote a lot of time at the "front end." Careful and thoughtful development requires time, thought, a consideration of all options that are available, and an open mind.”“Make sure you have time for students almost 24 hours.”

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Helpful Aspects of Professional Development Events

Sharing experiences (11)“Hearing about the experience of other online instructors is very helpful.”“Interaction between course development teams in other colleges and universities are far and away the most beneficial professional events. The shared insights of those who actually develop and offer courses are terribly important.”


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Type, length, and when?

Self-paced/self-directed materialsSeries of short sessionsSummer session

Type

Informal face-to-face

Informal online

Formal face-to-face

Formal online

Length

Full day

Self-paced

Half day

When

Fall semester

Spring semester

Break before Summer


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Course Design & DevelopmentTopics of Interest

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Course Delivery Topics of Interest

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Administrative Issues of Interest22

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Makingcoursesavailable

Overview ofWorld Campus

StudentServices

Overview ofWorld Campus

Help Desk

71% 29% 25.8%22nd Annual Conference on Distance Teaching & Learning

August 2-4, 200630

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Barriers to Participation

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Primary Incentive for Participation

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Recog

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Financ

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Certific

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Course Design and DevelopmentChoosing appropriate technologies to enhance my online courseConverting course materials for online useCreating video clipsDetermining ways to assess student progress in an online courseAdapting traditional lecture material to an online environmentCreating audio clipsDesigning and developing attractive Web sites


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Course DeliveryFacilitating online discussion forums (e.g., threaded message boards)Building and enhancing professor/student relationships in the online classroomFacilitating Web conferencing sessions (using tools like ElluminateLive, Centra Symposium, WebEx, or Horizon Wimba)Increasing interactions in an online course (e.g., student-to-student, faculty-to-students)Managing my online teaching workload


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Access to instructional designers and colleagues who have experience teaching onlineTechnical advice & assistanceDesign assistance & resourcesGive/share/discuss real-life examples/experiences


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Q2: What types of professional development experiences are needed by online faculty?

Self-paced/self-directed materials: Web-based resources, video tapes/DVDs, CDs, handouts, etc. Informal face-to-face events: presentations, brown bag meetings, etc. Informal online events: Web-based presentations, chat sessions, etc. Formal face-to-face events: a regularly scheduled course or set of training modules Formal online events: Web-based, regularly scheduled course or set of training modules


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Q3: What format should these professional development experiences take to best meet faculty needs?

Series of short (less than 1 day) sessions/workshops conducted over several weeksFull daySelf-paced program (i.e., completed at one’s own time/pace) = 11 (20.4%)Half dayIn Summer, Fall, or Spring semester, or break before Summer semester

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Q4: What incentive(s) do faculty wish to receive in return for participating in a professional development experience?

Recognition toward promotion/tenure (n=12; 23.5%)Financial incentive (n=9; 17.6%)

Assistance teaching online course (n=7; 13.7%)

Receipt of a University-sponsored certificate of achievement in online teaching (n=6; 11.8%)

Release time (n=6; 11.8%)

None (n=6; 11.8%)


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Next Steps…

Presentations to various stakeholdersPublish articleForm campus-based faculty learning communities?Develop learning objects for a central “pot” of resources?Connect campus faculty learning communities?Develop a mentoring program?Who will do what? Funding?


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Discussion

What might be the best model for faculty development to meet diverse needs?How does this meet with your own experiences?What resources already exist that we can all draw from?

Discovering What Faculty REALLY Need to Know about Teaching Online

Education

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