Evolution of a competency-based online faculty certification program
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Presentation delivered at the 2016 eVolution in eLearning Conference held at Fairfield University. Covered are iterations of a certification course for online instructors, culminating in a review of the move to a competency-based structure.
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Evolution of a competency-based online faculty certification program
- 1. Making Training More Agile The Evolution of a Competency-Based Online Faculty Certification Program
- 2. Speakers Kaitlin Walsh Instructional Designer/Technologist American International College @theotherkait Jeremy Anderson Manager of Academic Computing American International College
- 3. About AIC
- 4. Let’s Get Some Demographics What is your position? Fac/Staff/Admin What is your experience with CBE and badges? Do you have a faculty certification process? Required?
- 5. Version 1 Hybrid design • Teaching shell with readings and activities • Learning shell optional • Focus on online pedagogy • 2 4-hour lab sessions
- 6. Version 1.5 Fully Online • Need to“walk the walk” • Teaching shell revamped • Learning shell optional • Focus on online pedagogy • 6 weeks to complete • Cohort model Alternate Route • Test on pedagogy • Portfolio of LMS work • Approx.3 hours to complete • Self-paced
- 8. What was missing? Knowledge of Bb • “I know Blackboard”=“I used Blackboard as a student” • Doesn’t mean they know the instructor tools such as grading,posting items or making a course available. • “But s/he’s very tech-savvy/good with technology” • Can work through pedagogy,but have no understanding of how to navigate Blackboard. ?
- 9. What was missing? AIC Policies • How to submit grades? • Where to send students for help? • What counts as attendance?
- 10. Version 2: Three Tracks Blackboardand TechnologySkills • Logging in • Adding Content • Communicating • Assessments • Grading & Feedback OnlineandBlendedPedagogy • Getting to Know OL Environment • PlanningYour Course • Building Presence/ Engagement • Assessing,Grading, Feedback AICPoliciesandProcedures • Policies & Procedures • Admin & Support Resources
- 11. Tracking
- 12. Still some problems… • Not everyone needs to develop a course • Stuck with sandboxes (plus checklists) • Still had alternative assignments to demonstrate competency
- 14. Two CoursesFacilitatingOnline& BlendedCourses •Technology Skills •Online Pedagogy •AIC Policies DevelopingOnline& BlendedCourses •Planning & Organizing •Developing Content, Activities, Assessments •Putting It All Together
- 15. Full Competency-Based Goals The faculty member is comfortable using the LMS Student Learning Outcomes The faculty can navigate a course;The faculty can use basic course tools Competencies The faculty can locate Student Preview;The faculty can make a course available
- 17. Sample Outcomes & Competencies Identify & use common navigational and management functions • Make a course available • Enter Student View • Turn on Edit Mode • Locate Course Tools Select & use appropriate tools for communicating with students • Send an Email • Create an Announcement • Send Announcement as email • Launch live meeting
- 21. Sample Outcomes & Competencies Interact in discussion boards • Locate Discussion Forum • Reply to Discussion Post • Grade discussion Evaluate assignments & deliver feedback • View student submission • Provide comments • Navigate My Grades
- 27. Meant to be stackable • Once you have facilitating skills,just need to add developing • Additional badges in the future • OER • ADA • QM • Advanced tech tools
- 28. Meant to be repurposed • Help desk training • Student support • Program directors,admins
- 30. Experience makes it go quicker • Standardized what we were getting • Cut down on the chance that course was built by a course builder,publisher cartridge,etc. • Ensured they had current Blackboard/course development experience
- 31. Improved Tier 1 Support from GAs/SWs/Help Desk Faculty Certification Bb Badge* Student Orientation Bb Badge Blackboard Support Certification
- 32. Completion Rates Went Up! 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 Percent of Participants Who Completed the Course Original Version Reboot Current Version
- 33. Needed a signup mechanism
- 34. Boosts in self-reported self-efficacy 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 Overall Live meeting platform Grade Center Creating community Policies to teach online Policies to communicate with students Percent of participants who reported they were “very confident” Version 2 Version 3
- 35. Some drops in knowledge… • Available student supports • Available faculty supports
- 36. Still not a ton of awareness about what badges are/are for
Editor's Notes
- As colleges increase their online course offerings, perhaps the biggest challenge is training faculty for the transition. How do we make training relevant and meaningful within their busy schedules? This presentation will highlight the development of American International College’s competency-based online faculty training program, focusing on structure, implementation and benefits.
- Both
- Private four-year college in Springfield, MA Founded in 1885 1,492 undergraduates and 1,650 graduates in Bachelor’s, Master’s and Doctoral Programs Over 3 dozen UG programs and about 15 grad programs About 100 full-time and 300 part-time faculty
- JA Hybrid because many faculty struggled with learning entirely online Problems arose: Low proficiency with Bb – many support calls (students and faculty) Labs were only formal ID support – many poorly designed, minimalist courses
- JA New provost wanted online faculty learning fully online Alternate route: Some had already gone through old iterations, but provost wanted all into new First stab at competency-based – “Show us you can do it” Problems arose: some people are just good at taking tests (or retaking until they scored well) others panicked at the thought of a test. Virtually no one submitted a complete portfolio
- These sorts of comments also represent a fundamental misunderstanding about what the online certification is all about. Being tech savvy doesn’t mean you can write appropriate objectives, or create assignments that align to those objectives.
- Examples of the types of assignments. About 20 hours to complete.
- Blackboard Badges allows participants to track their own progress through the requirements. It also allows us to track progress for reporting to the Deans and Provost.
- Still felt like herding cats because even though we gave them options to indicate they were finished, we still had to track things. Not everyone posted everything in the same place, nor did they complete the checklists. When given alternative assignments, we often got “Have a look at my XYZ course and tell me what counts.” We’ve noticed that instructors who submitted materials like this often needed more help in the long run – they didn’t know what skills they had.
- Where we are today
- Introduced level 1 around Christmas. Will have level 2 out in June
- Created a hierarchy of goals, outcomes, and competencies Each track follows the same model Measurement instruments are matched to the competency
- Provide readings and documentation, then do Two attempts Must achieve 80%
- The basic functions Little benefit to fully interactive – only required one or two clicks Hot Spots were a quick test
- Quizzes – both traditional and hotspot
- Lessons learned: Hot Spots don’t work well in all browsers.
- Show first with audio narration, then do Get 5 tries to master each step, then must contact support Must achieve 100%
- Complex outcomes and competencies – require navigation, multiple clicks, fine detail Activities progress through actual workflows
- Many programs and courses use the extra features, so those were built in, too Rubric grading SafeAssign reports Lessons learned: Captivates did not work in all browsers Many did not achieve competency even w 5 tries Possibly redesign to include helper text after X tries
- Competencies addressed: Technical: Reply in the discussion board Pedagogical: Provide constructive feedback to sample students Pedagogical: Create community by replying to other faculty – practicing what they will need to do
- Kaitlin
- We’ve received a variety of documents from those attempting to expedite the process. By having all participants complete the process and demonstrate what they know, we’re ensuring they get the same experience and have the same skills.
- With the support staff training, we had cross-trained our various helpdesk staff in the past, but we were still getting tickets forwarded to us with easy tasks such as how to make a course available. Creating the course allowed us to document and measure what helpdesk staff knew about Blackboard. In Academic Computing, we could use it to help gauge Student Worker and Graduate Assistant skills for progress and promotion. The support staff training was actually kind of easy to build, since we had already built the Faculty Certification and the Student Orientation. We took the Blackboard track from the Faculty Certification and removed the grading component, and we took the Blackboard track from the Student Orientation as-is. One of the benefits of this for the students is similar to what we had in mind for the faculty: because these can be saved to Mozilla, they can be taken forward as documentation of skills when they apply for jobs.
- 30-40% old version About 43% reboot – once you take out those who left AIC 57% new version
- Originally, we had a cohort model where people signed up a few times a year. The challenge was that there were always late arrivals. Now that this is self-paced, we developed a signup form that we receive via email.
- From version 2 to version 3. Participants asked to rate their confidence with the following tools/concepts on a Likert Scale. This is the percentage who rated each item with “strongly agree.”
- Faculty felt less confident about explaining these