Preparing to Teach Online
as Transformative Faculty
Development
Carol McQuiggan
Faculty Center for Teaching &
Instructional Technology
Penn State Harrisburg

Context
• Founded in 1966
• Enrolls 3900
students
• Degrees from
associate to
doctorate
• 185 full-time faculty
• 122 part-time faculty

Range of faculty experience
Virtual worlds. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Email
Faculty Just beginning
embracing to integrate
online technology into
education their teaching

Teaching online – what changes?
• Loss of face-to-face contact
• Extensive planning
• Attention to detail
• Amount of advance
preparation/organization
• Shift in instruction
• New roles

Professional development to
prepare faculty to teach online
• Recognized need
• Many models, but no underlying theory
• Mandatory > Voluntary
• Many competencies applicable to face-
to-face teaching
• Hmmm. . .

So what do we have so far?
• Faculty professional development
models with no apparent underlying
theory
• Faculty who teach as they were taught,
leading to. . .
• Unquestioned assumptions and beliefs
about teaching (and students)
• Competencies and tools that are
applicable to F2F teaching without an
explicit connection

Faculty professional development
that:
• Recognizes faculty as adult
learners, and faculty development
as adult education
• Intentionally facilitates the
questioning of assumptions and
beliefs about teaching
• Intentionally informs F2F teaching
practices

Adult learners: Question
Consider prior assumptions &
knowledge, beliefs: Reflection;
experiences; Metaphors; Ask
Uniqueness; questions that probe;
Context; NOT one- Write teaching
size-fits-all philosophies
Intentionally
inform F2F
teaching practices:
How could you use
this teaching
strategy/tool in
your F2F classes?

Preparing to teach online as
catalyst for change
• Professional development for faculty
preparing to teach online presents a
unique opportunity to assess previously
held assumptions and beliefs about
teaching and to inform their F2F
teaching practices – don’t pass up this
opportunity!

“The only real voyage of
discovery. . . consists not in
seeing new landscapes but in
having new eyes. . .”
~Marcel Proust

Transition time!
From Carol to Larry

The C2 Faculty Development Model . . .
a dedicated, skilled
(competent) and confident
faculty.
Lawrence C. Ragan
Director of Faculty Development

Desired Outcome of Fac Dev
Program
Goals:
• Develop and support a dedicated, skilled
(competent) and confident faculty to address the
instructional needs of learners served through the
World Campus.
Evidence of Success:
• Student satisfaction (reduced complaints)
• Student enrollments maintain/grow
• Faculty satisfaction with experience
• Increased faculty value of participating in WC
programs

Student-centered, & engaged, Learning Space
Competent and Confident Faculty
Faculty
Services
&
Systems

Student-centered, & engaged, Learning Space
Competent and Confident Faculty
Professional Development
Opportunities
Faculty
Faculty
Information Research
Services
Management &
Systems
System
Community of Practice

Pro Dev Opportunities
Develop a rich set of offerings that span all
user levels
Entry Moderate Advanced Advanced
Entry level
Moderate

Pro Dev Opportunities
Develop a rich set of offerings that span all
user levels
OL 2000 OL 2500
OL 3000: Just2It!
OL 1000 Online Issues Forums
Orientation to OL
Sloan-C College Pass
Entry Moderate Advanced Advanced
Entry level
Moderate

Research Projects that inform
practice
Strategies for Managing the Online
Workload
Competencies for Online Authoring &
Teaching Success

Student-centered, & engaged, Learning Space
Competent and Confident Faculty
Professional Development
Opportunities
Faculty
Research
Services
&
Systems

Community/culture of Practice (1)
• Create and support Faculty Advisory/Input
Group
– Serve as sounding/input board
– Define needs of various audiences
– Identify and address variety of barriers
– Generate and manage “special projects”
– Create linkage to Faculty Senate
• Address University policy of reward and
recognition statutes

Community/culture of Practice (2)
• Establish a culture of excellence in practice
and scholarship
– Support annual “faculty fellow”
– Support research initiatives (grant driven)
– Support scholarship (including
publications) in online teaching and
learning and specific discipline
• Establish Faculty Mentor program

PSU Faculty Development HUB
System and Services
• Access to fac dev
calendar of events
• Access to resources
such as templates and
tools
• Access to research
• Access to faculty
community
• FAQs
• Course demos
• Other external links

Student-centered, & engaged, Learning Space
Competent and Confident Faculty
Professional Development
Opportunities
Faculty
Research
Services
&
Systems
Community of Practice

Faculty Info Management System
• Goal: Create seamless mechanism for
tracking and managing information on WC
faculty
• Enable targeted mailings for programming
• Enable personalized faculty development
planning
• Match systems and services to faculty
needs via program participation

Student-centered, & engaged, Learning Space
Competent and Confident Faculty
Professional Development
Opportunities
Faculty
Faculty
Information Research
Services
Management &
Systems
System
Community of Practice

The learner benefits most from . . .
a dedicated, skilled
(competent) and confident
faculty.
Thank you!