What FacultyWant

Lawrence C. Ragan Denise Nelson

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Agenda

• 12:00 Introductions• 12:05 Brainstorm Priorities (participant activity)• 12:08 Brainstorm Feedback (participant activity)• 12:15 Review of Categories and Faculty

Feedback (Nelson/Ragan)• 12:35 Discussion of Strategies• 12:40 ID Growth Areas for Future Research

Faculty Survey

• Question:

Briefly list and describe the three key processes/systems/services that supported you during the development of your online course(s)? In other words, what did your development team do for you that made your experience a success?

Types of Responses

• General observations of satisfaction

• General gratitude for services

• “Functional performance” remarks

• Attitude/morale booster

• NO REAL NEGATIVE COMMENTS (we didn’t ask for any either)

General Categories

• Distance Education pedagogy

• Instructional design/technology

• Faculty development

• Production services

• Project Leadership/management

• Morale Support

Distance Education Pedagogy• Faculty appreciated . . .

– Online learning expertise and experience– Each (team member) was able to make suggestions and improvements. – Designers providing Website links/ journal articles related to rubrics, how to make

course interactive and providing ideas of how to develop a quality course. – Focus on possibilities and identification of resources.– Having someone who knew what can be done virtually- what works/doesn't work

virtually; what bells and whistles can be used to make the course 'zing.’– The suggestions re learning activities were wonderful because I wasn’t familiar at

all with online courses, & had no idea what was possible to make the course richer. In the end I felt very proud of what we created!!

– The understanding of the types of learning objects and activities that were possible in an online learning environment.

– The designer offered me guidance and support on how to moderate online learning activities such as chats and discussions and techniques that might help me best support online learners.

Distance Education Pedagogy

• Faculty appreciated . . .– Suggestions as to how certain theory could be presented– The ability to draw on the experience of the course designer and use ideas

presented in previous online courses. Many perioperative nursing subject areas overlap with other nursing instruction and should be reused if possible.

– The designer tactfully suggesting ideas that would work in an online environment. There is an inherent difficulty in working with faculty who typically do not have an education background or courses in teaching OR technology.

– Discussing (strategies) early in the process (which) gave me an opportunity to consider this while we made decisions about development and prepared me for the point when we delivered courses to the online learners.

Instructional Design/Technology

• Faculty appreciated . . .

– The different perspective helped. Other people look at the content from a different view, which helps identify strengths and weaknesses

– The support and the exchange of ideas during the blueprinting process which aided in the development of learning activities. The guidance given to organize the learning steps in a sequence to increase the learning for the online student The instructional designers remained so focused on assisting with a variety of learning activities, in particular, the review exercises.

– Synergy created by the instructional designer + faculty

– The developer needs to be a teacher at heart - willing to help and nurture instructors who are inexperienced in web design learn and grow!

– The opportunity to review a number of other online courses that had recently been developed. This introduced me to the online environment and provided me with a variety of examples of how the technology could be used for effective course design/delivery.

– (Providing) a template to follow during development. This helped me to keep focused throughout the development process.

Faculty Input• I really enjoyed working with the entire

instructional support team.

• I didn’t know all the options since I’m the content expert. The instructional design team opened up a whole world of options for me and recognizing how this math material can be delivered to students at a distance.

• They helped make the course more engaging.

• The lead designer developed a timeline, in consultation with me to chunk it down so that it didn’t overwhelm me.

• She was incredibly encouraging, throughout the process.

• My instructional designer Jen was a one-person applause machine!

• She always gave me feedback and guidance and morale support!

Janet May, Distance Educator and Math Instructor,

Penn State University

Instructional Design/Technology

• Faculty appreciated . . .– Another important strategy was being encouraged to develop more

structured learning activities with concrete evaluation rubrics.– Another strategy I found helpful was using PBL.– The first key process is the blueprint development. It is a relatively simple

tool but serves to ensure organization and thorough examination of the course prior to the start of actual development.

– Introductory meeting. Setting up a meeting before summer break so we had an idea of what needed to be done over the summer was useful. There was a lot of pre design work that needed to be done before our first meeting in September.

– Clear communication of respect for faculty’s content expertise– Informing faculty of the technological & related novel learning activity

options available & encouraging creative application of these to the content/process

– Keeping me abreast of new technologies and supporting my (sometimes steep) learning curve in creating dynamic learning activities.

Instructional Design

• Faculty appreciated . . .– My instructional designer allowed me to work and think in the way that I do

best.– My instructional designer was adaptable in helping me to create my online

classes by using techniques comfortable to me.– Creating continuity within and across courses. – My instructional designer had answers to all my questions, and I had

hundreds. – She always provided me with options and alternatives and then, let me

make the decision. She always knew who to go to to solve a particular issue. Expertise was the most important service provided during my experience authoring the study guide.

Instructional Design

• Faculty appreciated . . .– The suggestion to move away from proctored exams to timed (1-hour)

online exams. This eliminated perhaps the most annoying activity in teaching the Turf 235 course.

– How to "chunk" course content into manageable portions.– How to truly interact via message boards: ask additional questions, change

direction of discussion, add breadth and depth, get discussion back on track, etc.

Faculty Development

• Faculty appreciated . . .

– The ongoing (faculty) support. The orientation at the beginning was good, but as a first time designer, the orientation information was hard to absorb until I was actually in the thick of things.

– SUPPORT, SUPPORT, SUPPORT!!!!!!!!! Cannot emphasize that enough, especially for the novice & terrified computer user / typist.

– The designer could not have been more patient...which is exactly what I needed. She supported my limited strengths as a developer, and encouraged my areas of interest. She has a very good ‘take’ on people. I would think this is a MUST for any designer.

Production Services

• Faculty appreciated . . .– The support and expertise of video production and the hundreds of

"attention to detail" photo images used in the course.– The graphic development to enrich the course, eg. the drop and drag

exercises. The virtual campus team was always willing to go the extra step to enhance the learning of the online student.

– Access to a graphics specialist - to add interest, to develop animations really helped me a lot

– Another key component for success was the tremendous skill and creativity of both the educational technologist in obtaining photo and video assets, and of the graphic artist in creating such a wide variety of assets for the courses.

– Editing: This was also extremely important because it made me feel confident that any mistakes I made in the process of writing would be detected and corrected.

Project Management/Leadership

• Faculty appreciated . . .– Working collectively as a team to achieve a high quality, high interactivity

course i.e. working with graphic artist, course developer and media technician who all strive for excellence.

– Course designer consistently checking in re: course and its progress, showing enthusiasm and support

– Attention to detail + timelines– Giving faculty enough lead time to locate a variety of resources/ assigned

time to focus solely on course development (this is more of a systemic issue, but it may fit into your presentation)

– My instructional designer was infinitely flexible in working with me.– Defining what I needed to do by when! This way I didn’t need to worry about

those details.

Morale/Attitude

• Faculty appreciated . . . – (designers) excitement about all the possibilities for online course,

development is infectious!– Attitude: Everyones attitude made for a positive experience. This was

especially important at the beginning of the project and was probably very time-consuming on her part.

– She fit my personality and my way of doing things. When I had doubts about this project, she made me feel like I could accomplish it successfully.

– She never criticized and always provided positive feedback.– Positive attitude that (allowed me), without online teaching experience, to do

it. This helped motivate continued development and add confidence during the first anxiety-filled weeks of delivery.

– Being positive about the success of the course being developed. Kept me positive too.