how the distribution of new faculty training can affect participation and engagement online
DESCRIPTION
Presentation made to Instructional Technology Council's eLearning 2010 conference. The presentation discusses how distributing the faculty development training throughout a term has a positive impact on faculty development as opposed to only training faculty once at the start of a term.TRANSCRIPT
ITC eLearning 2010February 21, 2010© 2010 Savannah College of Art and Design
How the Distribution of New FacultyTraining Can Affect Participation andEngagement Online
Scott DinhoCoordinator of Educational TechnologySavannah College of Art and Design
ITC eLearning 2010February 21, 2010© 2010 Savannah College of Art and Design
Presentation Overview
• SCAD eLearning• Training Gap• Intervention• Current Results• Lessons Learned• Questions
ITC eLearning 2010February 21, 2010© 2010 Savannah College of Art and Design
SCAD eLearning
ITC eLearning 2010February 21, 2010© 2010 Savannah College of Art and Design
Vice President– administrates eLearning and interacts with
other college administrators
Instructional Design– ensures instructional quality– creates master courses
Educational Technology– trains and supports faculty– manages and maintains live courses
eCampus– student support and services
Organization
ITC eLearning 2010February 21, 2010© 2010 Savannah College of Art and Design
A SCAD-eLearning “course”:– represents 10-weeks (50 hours) of
instruction– operates “asynchronously”– consists of “lectures,” discussions,
assessments, and hands-on project work– meets accreditation requirements for
student/student and student/professor interaction
– uses rich media to support a variety of learning styles.
SCAD eLearning Courses
ITC eLearning 2010February 21, 2010© 2010 Savannah College of Art and Design
Live CourseSection 1
Master CourseLive Course
Section 2
Live CourseSection 3
ITC eLearning 2010February 21, 2010© 2010 Savannah College of Art and Design
Summer 2003:– ARTH 764: Rock Art: Legacy of Lascaux
Fall 2003: – 5 courses– 26 total course “seats” filled
SCAD eLearning—Then
ITC eLearning 2010February 21, 2010© 2010 Savannah College of Art and Design
One of three SCAD campuses:– Savannah– Atlanta– eLearning
Fourth campus in Fall 2010– Hong Kong
SCAD eLearning—Now
ITC eLearning 2010February 21, 2010© 2010 Savannah College of Art and Design
Fully Online Degree Programs– 5 Bachelor of Arts– 11 Master of Arts– 3 Master of Fine Arts
Non-credit Program– English as a Second Language
SCAD eLearning—Now
ITC eLearning 2010February 21, 2010© 2010 Savannah College of Art and Design
SCAD eLearning—Now
Winter 2010 Quarter Classes– 171 individual class sections– 129 different courses– 18 departments
ITC eLearning 2010February 21, 2010© 2010 Savannah College of Art and Design
SCAD eLearning—Now
Winter 2010 Quarter Students– 757 at Savannah campus– 486 at eLearning campus– 257 at Atlanta campus– 5 at Lacoste, France location– 2,095 individual students– 2,296 total class “seats” filled
ITC eLearning 2010February 21, 2010© 2010 Savannah College of Art and Design
Courses Offered
ITC eLearning 2010February 21, 2010© 2010 Savannah College of Art and Design
Fully Online Enrollments
ITC eLearning 2010February 21, 2010© 2010 Savannah College of Art and Design
SCAD eLearning—Now
Winter 2010 Professors– 113 Professors Overall– 32 Professors eLearning Only– 20 First-time eLearning
ITC eLearning 2010February 21, 2010© 2010 Savannah College of Art and Design
ITC eLearning 2010February 21, 2010© 2010 Savannah College of Art and Design
SCAD eLearning Provides
• Fully developed course materials• Online-Teaching Workshop• eLearning Specialists
ITC eLearning 2010February 21, 2010© 2010 Savannah College of Art and Design
Training Gap
ITC eLearning 2010February 21, 2010© 2010 Savannah College of Art and Design
ITC eLearning 2010February 21, 2010© 2010 Savannah College of Art and Design
Online-Teaching Workshop
Online Content– Lives on Blackboard– All fully online professors enrolled– HTML content
• Overview of SCAD eLearning courses• Benefits of online learning• Blackboard training
– Links to articles and resources
ITC eLearning 2010February 21, 2010© 2010 Savannah College of Art and Design
Online-Teaching Workshop
Online-Teaching Guidebook– Physical document – PDF version accessible through
Blackboard – Contents
• Fully online teaching requirements and expectations
• Blackboard skills
ITC eLearning 2010February 21, 2010© 2010 Savannah College of Art and Design
Online-Teaching WorkshopBefore Term Online-Teaching Workshop Session
Week 1
Week 2
Week 3
Week 4
Week 5
Week 6
Week 7
Week 8
Week 9
Week 10
ITC eLearning 2010February 21, 2010© 2010 Savannah College of Art and Design
ResultsOnline Materials Ignored
Face-to-Face Session Forgotten
Online-Teaching Manual and Online Materials
Often Out of Date
Use of Course Communication Tools What are those?
New Faculty Engagement with Students
Inconsistent and Generally Low
ITC eLearning 2010February 21, 2010© 2010 Savannah College of Art and Design
Results
Online Materials
Face-to-Face Session
Online-Teaching Manual and Online Materials
Use of Course Communication Tools
New Faculty Engagement with Students
Ignored
Forgotten
Out of Date
What are those?
Inconsistent and Generally Poor
ITC eLearning 2010February 21, 2010© 2010 Savannah College of Art and Design
Intervention
ITC eLearning 2010February 21, 2010© 2010 Savannah College of Art and Design
ITC eLearning 2010February 21, 2010© 2010 Savannah College of Art and Design
Online-Teaching Guidebook
Fully incorporated into online materials– No longer available as PDF download– Blackboard skills removed
ITC eLearning 2010February 21, 2010© 2010 Savannah College of Art and Design
Online Materials and Resources
Revised for relevance and ease of maintenance– Less focus on general benefits of online learning– More focus on skills, requirements, and
expectations specific to SCAD eLearning– Removal of redundant information, links, and
documents– Removal of Blackboard skills content in favor of
links to specific Blackboard manual topics
ITC eLearning 2010February 21, 2010© 2010 Savannah College of Art and Design
ITC eLearning 2010February 21, 2010© 2010 Savannah College of Art and Design
Current Results
ITC eLearning 2010February 21, 2010© 2010 Savannah College of Art and Design
Spring 2009 Pilot
•Only change was addition of follow-up sessions with weekly reminder message related to each session
•Six new fully online professors
– 4 Savannah campus– 1 Atlanta campus– 1 eLearning campus
only
•Varied subject areas– Art History– Electronic Design– English– Painting– Photography– Sequential Art
ITC eLearning 2010February 21, 2010© 2010 Savannah College of Art and Design
Spring 2009 Pilot
Overall improvement in observable professor engagement compared to previous quarters
– more announcement posts– more professor discussion posts – more student discussion posts– fewer days without login– all made some use of available synchronous
communication tools– all reporting a positive experience and desire
to teach again at the eLearning campus
ITC eLearning 2010February 21, 2010© 2010 Savannah College of Art and Design
Spring 2009 Pilot
Discussions during sessions – were lively with little need for prompting
activity– showed unseen holes in training
• Basic new faculty training gaps
ITC eLearning 2010February 21, 2010© 2010 Savannah College of Art and Design
Lessons Learned
ITC eLearning 2010February 21, 2010© 2010 Savannah College of Art and Design
Lessons Learned
• Professor engagement in the courses can be improved when we improve our engagement with them
• Online professors are willing to attend training session during the term and off of the regular day schedule
• Trainers learned as much as the trainees• We must cultivate an ongoing community of
practice so that these early gains are not lost.
ITC eLearning 2010February 21, 2010© 2010 Savannah College of Art and Design
Future Plans
Communities of Practice– Q&A sessions for online faculty– Encourage and promote discourse among fully
online professors • Adobe Connect sessions• asynchronous discussion forums• incorporating success stories into online training
materials
ITC eLearning 2010February 21, 2010© 2010 Savannah College of Art and Design
On-going Question
How to create and sustain a fully online community of practice without
– stifling interaction by moderation– promoting the spread of “worst practices”
by lack of moderation– turning a beneficial supplement into a
burdensome requirement
ITC eLearning 2010February 21, 2010© 2010 Savannah College of Art and Design
Questions, Comments, and/or Suggestions?
Scott DinhoCoordinator of Educational TechnologySavannah College of Art and [email protected]