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Page 1: Faculty Focus Report 657

Featuring content from

A MAGNA PUBLICATION

Best Practices forTraining and RetainingOnline Adjunct Faculty

Page 2: Faculty Focus Report 657

2 Best Practices for Training and Retaining Online Adjunct Faculty • www.FacultyFocus.com

Best Practices for Training and Retaining OnlineAdjunct Faculty

Becoming a new faculty member is seldom easy. Whether the instructor is simply transi-tioning to a new university or stepping into the classroom for the very first time, there arequestions large and small that arise every day about policies, procedures, techniques, andtechnologies. For online instructors, many of whom teach only part-time, this sense of dis-orientation is made even more difficult by their off-site location and the growing list oftools and technologies they need to learn in order to create a rich learning environment.

These challenges are a major concern, not only for new faculty members but for thecollege as well. The institution has invested significant time and resources in the recruit-ment and hiring process. To lose online instructors due to a difficult transition or inade-quate support would be a waste of time, effort, and resources, not to mention thepotential impact on course quality.

This Faculty Focus special report contains 12 articles pulled from the pages of DistanceEducation Report. The articles feature best practices from colleges and universities whohave solved the training and retention puzzle and come up with innovative approaches toensure their online instructors are trained, connected, and supported throughout theirteaching experience.

Here’s a sample of some of the articles you will find in Best Practices for Training andRetaining Online Adjunct Faculty:

• Giving Part-Time Online Instructors What They Need• The Virtual Faculty Lounge: Providing Online Faculty Development for AdjunctInstructors

• Eight Facts to Know About What Bothers Your Distance Education Faculty, andWhat Keeps Them Coming Back

• Jump Starting Faculty into Online Course Development• A System for Managing Online Faculty• Tips for Designing an Online Faculty Workshop

This special report will provide you with the best practices you need to improve thetraining and retention of your online faculty.

Christopher HillEditor

Distance Education Report

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3Best Practices for Training and Retaining Online Adjunct Faculty • www.FacultyFocus.com

Table of Contents

Giving Part-Time Online Instructors What They Need ................................................................................................4

Training Online Adjuncts the Florida Way ................................................................................................................5

The Virtual Faculty Lounge: Providing Online Faculty Development for Adjunct Instructors ..................................7

Getting By With a Little Help from One's Friends: Mentoring Program Boosts Faculty Retention ............................9

Tips for Designing an Online Faculty Workshop......................................................................................................10

Eight Facts to Know About What Bothers Your Distance Education Faculty, and What KeepsThem Coming Back ................................................................................................................................................12

Training 60,000 Faculty to Go Online ......................................................................................................................14

Jump Starting Faculty into Online Course Development..........................................................................................16

A System for Managing Online Faculty ....................................................................................................................18

How to Train and Maintain Your Distant Faculty ....................................................................................................20

Development on Demand: Professional Enhancement Resources for a Geographically-Diverse Faculty ................22

Designing a Certificate Program for Preparing Faculty for Online Teaching and Hybrid Course Development ......23

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4 Best Practices for Training and Retaining Online Adjunct Faculty • www.FacultyFocus.com

There are many benefits ofemploying part-time instructorsto teach online: they can relieve

the instructional workload of full-timefaculty; they can provide expertisethat is not available within a program;and they can help keep program costsmanageable. Along with thesepotential benefits, relying on part-timeonline instructors creates new chal-lenges, including high rates of instruc-tor turnover.When an online learning program

relies heavily on part-time instructors,a high turnover rate could negativelyaffect course quality and increasefaculty development costs. This iswhy retaining good part-time onlineinstructors is a priority at HumberCollege’s Open Learning Centre,where 90 percent of online coursesare taught by part-time instructors.Ruth Hickey, director of the Open

Learning Centre, provides centralizedsupport for online instructors in anotherwise decentralized institution.Hickey works with academic programcoordinators to identify which courseswill be offered online. (Currentlythere are approximately 200 onlinecourses that have been developed foronline delivery, and 130 to 150 ofthese are offered each term.)Hickey encourages each department

to identify its online faculty as earlyas possible, which enables the OpenLearning Centre to begin workingwith these instructors before the termbegins.“I send out a welcome letter to each

online instructor, reminding them ofthe services that we have in the OpenLearning Centre that can make thisteaching experience positive for thembecause in a lot of cases, onlinefaculty feel that the focus is onmaking sure that the student is happyand that no one is really there forthem,” Hickey says.Each online instructor is assigned a

specific staff member (according toacademic area), which provides asingle point of contact for eachinstructor.

CompensationBecause Humber College is decen-

tralized, part-time instructors’ payvaries among the different academicprograms. Some are paid hourly andsome are paid according to thenumber of students they teach.“There’s a lot of work involved withteaching online. That’s the hardestpart in retaining faculty—the fact thatinitially it looks like you’re not gettingpaid for what you do because youspend so much time fumbling aroundwith the technology,” Hickey says.The goal of the Open Learning

Centre is to support faculty andprovide the services needed to allowthem to “focus on the content andteaching their online courses so theydon’t have to deal with the nitty-grittytechnical support for the students,such as navigation.” Hickey says. “Ithink by providing that type ofservice, the faculty aren’t so over-whelmed. Teaching online is very

time consuming and if you add thatcomponent to delivering the content,you’re basically doubling theirworkload, and who wants to workwith an organization when theirworkload has doubled, and they’renot being compensated for it?”Although fair compensation is

important, some instructors aremotivated by other factors. “There area lot of faculty members who knowthat online learning is hot and it’s thething they need to get into. A lot offaculty do it to try to get into teachingfull time, and if they show that they’reinterested in using the technology,they feel that makes them more at-tractive as candidates for full-timepositions. But ultimately, in order toretain the faculty, we’re trying tomake the experience less frustratingand as positive as possible for themwith limited resources,” Hickey says.

A faculty communityLike students in an online course,

when instructors feel like they arepart of a community, they will likelystick around, Hickey says. To create asense of community, the OpenLearning Centre invites part-timeonline instructors to campus eventssuch as course showcases and facultydevelopment opportunities. (Most ofthe part-time online live near theHumber’s Toronto campus.)An important part of creating this

sense of community as well asimproving instructors’ technologyskills is the WebCT clinic the OpenLearning Centre offers. After complet-ing this clinic—Hickey recommendsthat all online instructors complete itbefore teaching online—instructorscan take part in an ongoing threadeddiscussion about online teaching tech-niques with other instructors whohave completed the clinic. “We try tobuild a sense of community [online],realizing that they’re not necessarily

Giving Part-Time OnlineInstructors What They Need

By Christopher Hill

PAGE 5�

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5

Florida Community CollegeJacksonville (FCCJ) is an onlineinstitution that employs only

adjunct faculty. Since they venturedonline, they have developed a systemfor training their adjuncts, buildingcommunity among them so that theytrain each other, and building a senseof professional spirit among them.Kim Hardy, Dean of Instruction andStudent Success at FCCJ, recentlyexplained to Distance EducationReport some of the more effectivetools in their adjunct program.

1.The orientation program. Everynew adjunct that’s hired is requiredto go through an online orientationprogram, taught by an FCCJ mentor.FCCJ trainers built the orientationclass in BlackBoard. It includes six to10 modules and it talks to the newadjuncts about some of the adminis-trative tasks and other technicalfunctions they are responsible for.

2. The mentor program. Thementoring program was designed forany new online instructor. Adjuncts

are automatically assigned a mentor.FCCJ has a lead mentor who is afulltime faculty member, with aboutten other adjunct mentors. There is amentor for each discipline area. Each

new hire is matched with a mentor.The mentor has access to thementees classes, so they can judgethe help that the mentee may need.This relationship lasts for a semesterbut if the new adjunct wants it for ayear they have that option.Lead mentors are instructors who

are teaching full-time online, andthey coordinate the adjuncts. Theregular online mentors for each disci-

pline are selected based on their per-formance. “They are really good en-thusiastic instructors, who wanted toget involved and who wanted tohelp. We tried to pick out ones sothat we’d have one for each differentdiscipline,” Hardy says. The mentorswere paid a stipend depending onhow many mentees they wereassigned, but with funding cutsHardy is not sure the program isgoing to be able to do that any more.FCCJ is looking at how they might beable to revise the program to com-pensate for that.

3. Certification program Anotherthing new faculty are required to dois go through a certificate program.That was created by FCCJ’s profes-sional development office. Subjectscovered include how to build anonline course, online pedagogy, howto use BlackBoard, introduction tomultimedia, how to do Podcasts andwikis, and more.At the end of the program they get

on campus a whole lot. You have toutilize the technology in terms ofbuilding that sense of community thesame way you do in your onlineclassroom,” Hickey says.

Timely supportThe Open Learning Centre’s website

includes information that can help in-structors manage their courses, but

sometimes there is no substitute forindividual attention from a supportstaff member. As the number ofcourses grows, providing this supportwill be a challenge. “Because of ourlarge number of courses, our resourcesare grown, but not at the same rate [asour online course offerings]. Ourbiggest challenge now is to make surethat our resources are set up in a waythat our instructors can actually accessthem,” Hickey says.

Providing instructors with thesupport they need likely will helpretention, but the need for supportdoes not end even after they havetaught online for a long time, Hickeysays. “You’re always going to need todo that little bit of handholding, evenwith experienced online instructorsbecause technology changes somuch.” �

Best Practices for Training and Retaining Online Adjunct Faculty • www.FacultyFocus.com

Training Online Adjuncts the Florida Way

By Christopher Hill

PAGE 6�

FROM PAGE 4

Every new adjunct that’s hired

is required to go through an

online orientation program,

taught by an FCCJ mentor.

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6

a certificate and a small salaryincrease. Mentees then have to serveas a mentor to a new adjunct.

4. Electronic newsletter This goesout twice a semester. It serves acommunity-building function, con-taining news of adjunct achievementand other news briefs. It alertsadjuncts to events and opportunities.“That’s something else that helps uskeep in touch with each other,” saysHardy.

5. Live webinars For the last twoyears FCCJ has done webinars usingElluminate for adjuncts at the time ofthe school’s fall convocation. Theyuse it to welcome the adjuncts andoffer useful advice. Some of thewebinar is live, other portions prere-corded. There is a question andanswer period.

6. V-Compass FCCJ has a communi-cations and information forum inBlackBoard called V-Compass.Instead of sending adjuncts a streamof e-mails reminding them of variousthings, they have created V-Compassas a clearing house for information.Discussion boards are set up so ifadjuncts need to talk to other in-structors, if they need resources intheir subject, if they need to knowsome administrative policies or ifthey don’t know how to usesomething in BlackBoard, they candiscuss those issues. All thewebinars are on V-Compass. Thereare also interactive tutorials, onlinedemonstrations and videos. Adjunctscan go on V-Compass any time.Adjuncts are encouraged to go onlineand answer each other’s questions,to support each other , to postresources for each other, and getinvolved in mentoring each other,either officially or unofficially.

Hardy tells a story: “I was on ourV-Compass Forum the other day and

there was an instructor, I don’t knowwhere he was but he wasn’t here,and he was having a hard time tryingto figure out how to do something inBlackBoard. We have an administra-tor monitoring this but before shecould even respond, a couple ofadjuncts jumped in and said, ‘Ihaven’t exactly done this but here’s

what I think’. And another personjumped in and said, ‘Yes but youneed to do this and that; and theywere all in there helping each other.”

7. Online workshops and videos.Short two or three minute demonstra-tions on how to do specific opera-tions in BlackBoard are madeavailable online to students andfaculty.

8. Quality assurance. The dean ofFCCJ’s online program decided it wastime to focus on quality. Becausethis was going to look at how FCCJevaluated adjuncts as instructors, hewanted to make sure they all had avoice in the creation of the evaluationsystem. In a move typical of FCCJ

philosophy, he created a forum inBlackBoard and invited all adjunctswho were interested in creating anew quality assurance program totake part in it. Every week for eightweeks he did a video cast with them,talking with them on a differenttopic--courses, discussions, quality inassessments, and so forth. WhenFCCJ put this new quality assuranceinto place, the adjuncts felt like theyhad a stake in it, some ownership.People felt like they had a say in howthis quality assurance was going tobe implemented.

9. The resources page FCCJ has apage where adjuncts post differentresources that they come across. Thementors contribute.

Guiding PhilosophyThe guiding philosophy from start

to finish at FCCJ is peer-to-peer com-munication. Hardy believes that it’sone thing to get input or directionfrom an academic superior or an ad-ministrator. It’s another to hear sug-gestions from peers. “It’s not somuch you’re telling me what to do,but instead here is a suggestions froma colleague. I think that helps a lot,”says Hardy.

“Let’s use the resources we have,”says Hardy. “We have some great in-structors here. They’re the ones whowill be able to help our new instruc-tors really acclimate to this environ-ment and help them with a lot oftheir questions that could beanswered not just by our administra-tors here but also by our fellowadjuncts.” �

Best Practices for Training and Retaining Online Adjunct Faculty • www.FacultyFocus.com

FROM PAGE 5

Discussion boards are set up

so if adjuncts need to talk to

other instructors, if they need

resources in their subject, if

they need to know some

administrative policies or if

they don’t know how to use

something in BlackBoard, they

can discuss those issues.

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7

More and more, Ohio’s two-year colleges are turning toadjunct instructors to teach

their courses. These instructors bringa wealth of real-world experience andsubject-matter expertise to their timein the classroom. However, they oftenlack the knowledge of pedagogicaland learning theory that their full-time counterparts may have obtainedas part of their preparation to teach,or in subsequent faculty-developmentopportunities. Further, the adjunctpopulation is typically a busy one,with demands from full-time jobs,making it difficult to take time outduring normal business hours forcontinuing education.If lack of training in pedagogical

theory is a typical weakness ofadjunct faculty, it is very likely thatthese instructors know it. Not onlycan a lack of training in this area onthe part of adjunct faculty have anegative impact on student retention,it can also contribute to adjunct-faculty attrition, as these otherwiseskilled professionals feel underpre-pared to successfully deal with aclassroom of learners. Helpingadjunct faculty address these trainingneeds will help ensure that studentsreceive a better education and thatvaluable, part-time faculty membersare inspired to continue to bring theirexpertise to the college.

This is the problem that CathyBennett, associate dean of Learning,Information Services, and Technologyfor Belmont Technical College (BTC),has been confronting for severalyears. Working with a committee offormer adjunct instructors, BTC hasdevised a Virtual Faculty Lounge thatallows adjunct instructors to accesstraining and resources any time ofthe day, whether they are on or offcampus.

Providing resources for theoryand practiceAn adjunct faculty member is intro-

duced to BTCs Virtual Faculty Loungein a mandatory orientation during theinstructor’s first term. At that time,

the instructor is introduced to theBlackboard system that serves as theshell for the Lounge and is grantedaccess to it through a personalaccount.The Lounge contains a variety of

materials that the adjunct instructorwill need, ranging from the highlypractical to the more theoretical. Forexample, Bennett notes that manyforms the institution uses may bedifficult for the instructor to accessduring off-hours, when the instructoris able to visit campus. Therefore, thecommittee that made recommenda-tions for the Lounge’s contentinsisted that practical resources suchas forms be made available fordownload.Additionally, the Lounge is filled

with resources to help adjuncts learnmore about pedagogical techniques.“Two-year college faculty are oftencontent experts, not educationexperts,” Bennett says of these part-time faculty. As such, adjuncts canbolster their classroom and teachingskills by working through the infor-mation found in the Lounge.BTC provides support and guidance

for adjuncts as they continue theireducation, as well. Adjunct facultyare typically observed in theirclassroom by the department chair ora member of the college’s administra-tion, who assesses the instructor inareas including class organization,presentation, student/faculty relation-ship, professional competence,content, interaction, and activelearning. These visitors might makenote of some areas the adjunct in-structor could strengthen, such as en-couraging class discussion orunderstanding learning styles. Or, theadjunct may identify an area that heor she would like to improve.“Someone can suggest, or an adjunctcan self-select,” says Bennett of thisteaching-related training.

Best Practices for Training and Retaining Online Adjunct Faculty • www.FacultyFocus.com

The Virtual Faculty Lounge:Providing Online FacultyDevelopment for AdjunctInstructors

By Jennifer Patterson Lorenzetti

PAGE 8�

Helping adjunct faculty address

these training needs will help

ensure that students receive a

better education and that

valuable, part-time faculty

members are inspired to

continue to bring their

expertise to the college.

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8 Best Practices for Training and Retaining Online Adjunct Faculty • www.FacultyFocus.com

This assessment leads to the con-struction of an individualizedlearning plan. The learning planincludes recommendations in fourmajor areas:• classroom organization andprocesses (including time man-agement, classroom manage-ment, syllabus development,course preparation, classprocesses, andcomputer/software use);

• content presentation (includinglecture/presentation techniques,communication skills — verbal,nonverbal, and written — profes-sionalism, and subjectknowledge);

• fostering learning (includingbrain-based learning, activelearning, constructive feedbackand evaluation, developingstudents’ lifelong learning skills,and fostering responsibility); and

• learning environment (includingcooperative learning, learningcommunities, learning andteaching styles, developing andcommunicating high expecta-tions, and supporting diversity).Each area can include a specificrecommendation for additionaltraining that the instructor canpursue with the help of theVirtual Faculty Lounge.

At the end of the additionaltraining, the instructor is assessedagain, with the expectation that he orshe has integrated the new informa-tion into the classroom approach.“We hope they expand and grow aseducators,” Bennett says. One waythat this growth can be objectivelymeasured is by eligibility forpromotion. Adjunct faculty at BTCmove from the ranks of instructoradjunct, assistant professor adjunct,and associate professor adjunct, up to

professor adjunct, based on a varietyof criteria. While part of a facultymember’s eligibility for promotionhinges on formal education anddegrees earned, total experience inthe field, as well as number of termsas an instructor, the faculty membermay also complete certain modulesfrom the Virtual Faculty Lounge aspart of demonstrating readiness forthe next level.

A third type of information housedin the lounge is a result of other pro-fessional development opportunitiesthat the adjunct instructors may nothave been able to attend. Forexample, Bennett tells of a presenta-tion by the Ohio state attorneygeneral held during a professional de-velopment session for full-timefaculty that addressed federal privacyregulations. BTC secured permissionto post the PowerPoint presentationto the Virtual Faculty Lounge, wherefaculty members could access it attheir convenience.

Securing a physical spaceAlthough the Virtual Faculty

Lounge is, by definition, located incyberspace, while delivering onlineand on-demand learning to adjunctfaculty, BTC felt that it was alsoimportant to link the lounge to aphysical space. This follows the rec-ommendation from the committee offormer adjuncts, turned full-timefaculty, who made suggestions forthe program. “It [couldn’t] be justvirtual; it had to have a physicalpiece,” Bennett says.For the physical piece, BTC selected

the Learning ResourcesCenter/Library. The library proves tobe the ideal place to serve as an on-campus base for the Virtual FacultyLounge. One benefit is the extendedhours held by the library, whichmeans that adjunct instructors canvisit at a wide range of times to log

on to the Virtual Faculty Lounge.Other materials and tools the instruc-tor may wish to utilize are alsoavailable through the library, andlibrary staff serve as support to helpinstructors use the resources, such asintegrating PowerPoint presentationsinto their lectures. This lends ahuman component, as well asphysical resources in support of thevirtual tool, The Lounge.

Recommendations for workingwith other institutionsWhen it comes to supporting

adjunct faculty, Bennett sees noreason why individual institutionsshould go it alone. “There is noreason you can’t partner with otherinstitutions,” she says. She notes thatBTC is beginning some early cross-in-stitutional dialog about ways to adaptthe Virtual Faculty Lounge for usewith other institutions. One proposalinvolves collaborating with other in-stitutions to offer a multi-institution,adjunct-orientation course; anotherproposal suggests opening a VirtualFaculty Lounge that would servemore than one institution, using theOhio Learning Network’s(http://www.oln.org/) open-sourcepilot project. Both ideas are in theearliest stages of gauging interest, butalready it is easy to see how such aresource could include informationand training of use to adjunct instruc-tors at a variety of colleges across thestate or across the country. �

FROM PAGE 7

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9Best Practices for Training and Retaining Online Adjunct Faculty • www.FacultyFocus.com

Becoming a new faculty memberis seldom an easy transition.Whether the instructor is

simply transitioning to a new univer-sity or stepping into a classroom forthe very first time, there arequestions large and small that ariseevery day about policies, procedures,techniques, and technologies. Forthe online instructor, this sense ofdisorientation is only made moredifficult by the faculty member's off-site location and the necessary tech-nology that can seem as much acommunication barrier as a commu-nication tool.This is a major concern, not only

for the new faculty member but forthe university. The institution hasinvested significant time andresources in the recruitment andhiring process, and it will continue tomake investments in training andretention. To lose a faculty memberdue to a difficult transition would bea waste of time, effort, and thefaculty member's potential.Florida Community College at

Jacksonville is well aware of thesechallenges. The college offers avariety of distance learning programsdelivered through online, blended,CD-based, and telecourse platforms,serving approximately 25,000 enroll-

ments online in the 2004-05 academicyear. Each semester, FCCJ offerssome 450 sections of online courses,taught by 100 full time faculty and200 adjuncts.

Although approximately two-thirdsof the virtual adjuncts reside in thestate of Florida, many are not local toJacksonville and therefore cannoteasily visit campus to resolveproblems or get to know other facultyand staff. To help smooth the road forthese "virtual adjuncts," FCCJ hasdeveloped a mentoring programdesigned to ease transitions andimprove faculty retention.

A Safe Place for QuestionsSteven Huntley is a professor based

in FCCJ's Kent Campus and the leadmentor for the Virtual MentoringProgram. He explains that thementoring program is designed toencourage questions and avertproblems for adjunct faculty in theirfirst semester teaching for FCCJ.The mentoring program employs

ten mentors scattered around thecountry, each one a seasoned FCCJfaculty member representing aspecific academic discipline. As thecollege hires new faculty, they areassigned a mentor from theirdiscipline.The mentor makes initial contact

with his or her assigned mentee, es-tablishing time frames for contactthroughout the semester. The pairexchange contact information and seta schedule for checking in with oneanother, with at least two contactsrequired each semester. However,Huntley finds that the adjunctstypically desire contact much moreoften.Huntley believes that this result is

due mainly to a general comfort levelwith the mentor that may not existfor the typical new faculty member inan academic department. The typicalnew faculty member with a questionusually believes that the questionmust be posed to a new boss, adaunting prospect that causes manyquestions to go unanswered. This isespecially true of the softwarequestions that often plague a virtualinstructor adjusting to a new system.“The mentees have a place to go.

They have a safe place to confidein…they are more likely to askquestions,” says Huntley. It is thissafe, non-threatening relationshipthat is at the heart of virtual facultyretention for FCCJ.

Getting By With a Little Helpfrom One's Friends: MentoringProgram Boosts FacultyRetention

By Jennifer Patterson Lorenzetti

PAGE 10�

The typical new faculty

member with a question

usually believes that the

question must be posed to a

new boss, a daunting prospect

that causes many questions to

go unanswered.

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10 Best Practices for Training and Retaining Online Adjunct Faculty • www.FacultyFocus.com

An additional responsibility for thementor is to help head off problemsthat often arise for new facultymembers, proposing solutions beforethe problem becomes too large. Forexample, online courses are usuallyconstructed with events that are time-based, such as an exam that must becompleted by a certain time or abulletin board that will be accessiblefor a certain number of days for arequired contribution. Even with thebest of intentions, links fail, instruc-tions are unclear, and students findthemselves frustrated attempting tofulfill the requirements of the course.Experienced faculty like Huntley

know to check in on time-sensitivetasks, ensuring that links are activeand checking email to see if studentsare having problems. By checking inearly, faculty can fix problems beforethey become course-wide difficulties.A new faculty member, however, maynot think to do this. “New facultymay not be in tune. They may notknow to check in when their studentsare logging in,” says Huntley. Bystepping in early in the term, thementor can help the new facultyavoid problems and have a successfulresult.But what of questions of independ-

ence of the new faculty member, andthe traditional power of the faculty toteach as they see fit? “It’s not somuch a challenge to academicfreedom, but to see how things areworking,” says Huntley. For thisreason, the mentors do not try toprescribe teaching methods. “Wedon’t advocate mentors get involved[in pedagogy],” says Huntley.Instead, the mentor may at mostchoose to ask a well-placed, probingquestion about the intention andexpected outcomes of a particularapproach. The intention, however, isnot to limit academic freedom but to

offer help when it can be mosteffective. “The earlier the mentor isinvolved the more receptive [theadjunct]. We want to help them,”says Huntley.

An Effective and EfficientApproachA mentor’s life can range from idle

to busy, depending on the demandsof hiring for a given semester. In onerecent semester, some 40 new facultymembers were hired, meaning thateach of the 10 mentors averaged four

mentees per person. However,simple averages may not tell thestory, since mentees are assigned bythe mentor’s academic discipline.Therefore, even in a relatively activesemester, some mentors may nothave mentees, while some may havea full dance card. For the coming Fallsemester, with enrollments flat orslightly declining, FCCJ may hire onlyhalf that number of new faculty.Each mentor with an active mentee

load receives a flat fee each semesterfor serving as mentor, along with anadditional amount for each newmentee. The amounts are modest,each ranging in the low hundreds ofdollars. This fee is for an unspecified

amount of work, as FCCJ does notmandate the number of hours thementor spends with each mentee,only that regular communication takeplace.The relationship does not end

when the semester does. Althoughno further formal contact betweenmentor and mentee is suggested ormandated, the new faculty membermay look first to his or her oldmentor when a question arises. Andall faculty in the mentor’s discipline,including the new ones, receiveregular communications from thementor about what is going on inthat area.In sum, Huntley calls the Virtual

Mentor Program “an effective,efficient way to train new faculty.”Assigning faculty mentors to newfaculty, with a nominal compensationamount, is much more cost effectivethan hiring a full time staff memberto handle the same duties. And,more importantly, new faculty atFCCJ begin their work with a non-threatening relationship with an ac-cessible mentor who sets the tone fora career that is hopefully long andsuccessful. �

An additional responsibility for

the mentor is to help head off

problems that often arise for

new faculty members,

proposing solutions before the

problem becomes too large.

FROM PAGE 9

Page 11: Faculty Focus Report 657

11

What is the best way to trainand support a beginningonline faculty member? At

some colleges, the only option is onsite training held on the campus overa day, a weekend, or a period of daysduring the summer. These on-siteworkshops, while potentially veryeffective, commit the faculty membersto time, travel, and often inflexiblescheduling. However, BerkeleyCollege, with campuses in New Yorkand New Jersey, has designed anonline faculty workshop and set oftraining and support tools that ensuresthat online faculty are never far awayfrom the assistance they need.This is not to say that Berkeley

College has neglected its on-sitetraining and supporting online infor-mation components. Before designingthe online faculty workshop, thecollege already offered an onlineteaching tutorial; on-site beginning,advanced, and instructional designworkshops and open labs at allcampus locations; WebEx conferenc-ing; online peer mentoring by disci-pline, an online faculty recoursecenter, and a variety of personnel tosupport faculty training. The center ofall of this activity is Mary JaneClerkin, coordinator of online facultysupport.Clerkin explains that Berkeley has

always made use of adjunct professorsto teach some of its online courses,but many of its online instructors areactually on site and teaching campus-based courses as well. Scheduling is aconcern for these faculty members,

who range from busy new professorsto even busier department chairs whomay not be able to carve several hoursor days out of their schedule for face-to-face training. However, all of themare used to finding information online.• Tip: Remember that although notall online faculty will be physicallylocated off-campus, that doesn’tmean they will have a great deal ofavailable time for face-to-facetraining. Online training can be agood solution to varied and busyschedules.

Clerkin notes that the college pilotedan online workshop two quarters ago,with just seven faculty members asparticipants. This initial group likedthe training, so the college made atwo-week workshop for beginningonline instructors available. The teamis now working on offering courses foradvanced faculty and for instructionaldesign.Although the beginning instructor’s

workshop is billed as a two weekendeavor, the actual amount of timethat completion will require dependson the individual faculty member’stechnical expertise. The course isreplete with resources, including thetextbook that complements the course.The text offers an excellent companionwebsite and a link for beginningonline teachers.• Tip: Berkeley College usesTeaching Online: A Practical Guide,by Susan Ko and Steve Rosen, as atext and companion web site.

One set of links available to thecourse participants is a listing ofresources addressing current thinkingabout pedagogy. Links in this sectioninclude ones to Quality Matters,Merlot, and the Sloan-C Consortium.The online faculty workshop also

includes several videos to personalizethe information and allow campusexperts to talk about their own experi-ences. “We have lots of videos of ex-perienced online professors who sharetheir best practices,” says Clerkin.Other videos are from the director ofthe library, the director of the helpdesk, the director of the academicsupport center, the instructionaldesigner, students, and Clerkin herself.• Tip: Videos can be a good way topersonalize online training and toallow the participants to get to knowthe resource personnel they will needto be successful.

The online workshop also includesan online faculty resource center,which features tools and resourcesthat faculty likely will need. Thisincludes a faculty handbook, achecklist for a successful coursecreated by the dean, and a section onacademic integrity.The online faculty resource center is

conceived as “a place where facultycan share,” says Clerkin. For example,all faculty meetings are held onlinethrough a section of the resourcecenter dedicated to discussions. Thissection also includes discipline-specificdiscussions for faculty in certainsubject areas, and an option for voicediscussions. There is even room forfaculty-initiated interaction projects;for example, one faculty member hasasked to run an online book club, sothat discussion area is now foundonline.• Tip: Allow faculty the chance topersonalize online space in order tokeep them coming back. An onlinebook club or other non-work interac-

Best Practices for Training and Retaining Online Adjunct Faculty • www.FacultyFocus.com

Tips for Designing an OnlineFaculty Workshop

By Jennifer Patterson Lorenzetti

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When Jennifer McLean,director of instructionaltechnology and distance

learning for the Pennsylvania Collegeof Technology, looked through theexisting literature on distanceeducation, she found many studiesand articles addressing the needs ofstudents and how to retain them.Unfortunately, she found fewmentions of studies of the faculty ex-perience, and here she saw a gap thatimpacted her work as a distance

learning administrator. “More andmore faculty are working totallyremotely,” she says. “Is that anisolating experience? What does thatmean for faculty retention? What dothey need and how can we supportthem?”McLean undertook a study using a

Delphi panel of distance educators,asking them about their causes ofstress and satisfaction with their jobsand allowing them to discuss theiropinions online in a sort of conversa-

tion. The findings are important forany distance learning administrator tounderstand and address to createhappier faculty.

Stressor: Student InteractionMcLean’s first finding was that

distance learning faculty “didn’t expe-rience more stress than other facultymembers, but from different sources.”Much of this stress came from workingwith students who are not prepared to

tion may make them feel more athome online.

The site also includes a number offorms that the faculty members willneed as they do their work, such asprogress reports. “All they have to dois click to take any one of thoseforms,” says Clerkin. Additionally, thesite lists the various upcoming confer-ences that faculty may be interested inattending, a feature that is additionallynice because of the generous amountof grants Berkeley College makesavailable to its faculty for attendanceat these events.• Tip: Put all of the forms and infor-mation your faculty will need onlinein easily downloaded formats, sothat they can be accessed at allhours from any computer.

The site is filled with models and

best practices. One section includessample courses in a variety of disci-plines, which allows participants toview a successful course and learnwhat aspects they might adopt fortheir own. There are also many setsof directions and instructions for usingcommon tools, like Blackboard.Finally, the online faculty workshop

requires the participants to demon-strate competence with practical appli-cations. Each participant is asked tocomplete certain tasks, like posting acomment, to show their readiness toteach online. At the end of coursecompletion, they are sent certificatesof completion to show that they suc-cessfully navigated the course.• Tip: Just as you would have testsand assignments for students in anonline course, consider having as-sessment activities for participantsin an online training workshop, sothat they may demonstrate masteryof the materials.

Clerkin and Berkeley College intendto keep upgrading the online facultyworkshop so that all faculty continueto have the tools they need to beeffective in the online classroom. “It isimportant that faculty have access toall new materials,” Clerkin says. Forexample, Blackboard, which theschool uses as its course managementsystem, has new portfolio features thatthe faculty need to understand inorder to make use of them.Clerkin and the college intend to

keep developing workshops to helpfaculty stay current in their field. Anadvanced workshop and one on in-structional design are expected to beavailable by the beginning of the year.�

Best Practices for Training and Retaining Online Adjunct Faculty • www.FacultyFocus.com

Eight Facts to Know About What Bothers YourDistance Education Faculty, and What KeepsThem Coming Back

By Christopher Hill

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study online, and then attempting toremediate these students in an asyn-chronous environment. Faculty citestress originating from “the reality thatmuch of the remediation they areproviding should have been providedearlier in the student’s academiccareer,” McLean writes in a paper forthe Distance Learning Administrationconference, “Forgotten Faculty: Stressand Job Satisfaction among DistanceEducators.”

Stressor: The Rolling PresenceDistance learning administrators

often emphasize students’ desire tohave rapid responses to their emailmessages and chat room postings, butthis can be very stressful for thefaculty member. “Students assume youare sitting at your computer 24/7,”says McLean. This perception isknown as the “rolling presence,” andit causes faculty a great deal of anxietywhen they do decide to log off for anevening or a weekend. McLean tells ofone faculty member who checked heremail while at her daughter’swedding, so concerned was she that astudent’s question would go unan-swered. If our society as a wholesuffers from the “always on” phenom-enon that makes professionals totetheir Blackberries along on beachvacations, the pressure is even moreintense for the faculty who work withstudents who expect them to beavailable at any time.

Stressor: PerfectionismFurther complicating the pressure to

respond immediately is the fact thatfaculty as a group tend to be “fairlyperfectionistic,” McLean says. Thisself-imposed stress can lead them toberate themselves for not living up tothe 24/7 expectations of theirstudents, and the pressure to beavailable all day, late into the night,and over the weekend can be verywearing for a faculty member and hisor her family.

Non-Stressor: University PressuresAlthough distance learning faculty

experience a good deal of stress frominteractions with their students, someof the typical stresses faced by tradi-tional faculty members are often not aconsideration. For example, distancelearning faculty are often not held tothe traditional triad of expectations ofteaching, research, and service, and sothey do not experience the stress thatresults from juggling these demands.Additionally, they do not feel bound

by expectations for social interactionor even for earning a good evaluation.Many of the faculty in McLean’s studyreport that they rarely see a perform-ance evaluation and really do not careto. They are also extremely unlikely tolook to the university for social inter-action, so don’t expect these faculty,even the locally-based ones, to hangout in the department lounge oreagerly anticipate the holiday party.“They don’t perceive themselves aspart of the university as a whole, andthey don’t feel left out,” McLean says.In fact, this population seems todelight in being “out of sight, out ofmind,” or “flying under the radar,”two phrases that came up repeatedlyin the study. “They don’t feel alone;they like it that way,” says McLean.This fierce independence can have

some serious implications for distancelearning administrators and depart-ment deans who may try to reach outto their distance faculty, only to find alukewarm response. However, certainother university populations are seenas tremendously important by thedistance faculty. When asked abouttheir interaction with colleagues,McLean reports that her study popula-tions did not “talk about their disci-pline or their deans; they talk abouttech support. That is their link to theuniversity.”

Satisfaction Point:IndependenceThe faculty who elect to teach

online are often a very independent

group that views themselves primarilyas teachers. “The faculty who aredrawn to distance education are evenmore independent” than the tradi-tional faculty member, says McLean.“They self-select into this, so they maybe better teachers,” she notes.Even though they recognize the

stresses that can come from relativeisolation and pressure to meet unreal-istic student demands, they aregenerally happy with the life they haveelected. “They perceive the trade-offas well worth it,” McLean says, notingthat faculty describe their jobs as “sat-isfying and challenging.”

Uncertainty: Knowledge ofColleaguesA point of low satisfaction among

faculty members was knowledge oftheir colleagues. For example, a pair ofquestions asked the participants torate the degree to which their col-leagues were boring or lazy, and theparticipants admitted they did notknow these people well enough torespond.This lack of personal connection

extends up the hierarchy. “Onepanelist didn’t even know who [his]supervisor was,” says McLean, whonotes that distance faculty oftensimply receive a teaching assignmentfrom the department secretary. Thislack of interaction can create mistakenimpressions, such as when campusbased colleagues assume distancefaculty are on something akin to apermanent vacation.

Uncertainty: Equitability of PayFinally, faculty in McLean’s study

had a difficult time assessing thefairness of their pay. Although manyof the participants were quite experi-enced faculty members at the end ofsuccessful careers, which muddiedperceptions about the availability ofpromotion opportunities, there was afeeling that the ratio of pay toworkload may not accurately reflect

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John Whitmer and his @One(pronounced at-one) group hadto teach 60,000 faculty how to

operate online. That’s the totalnumber of faculty and staff in thewhole California Community College(CCC) System — all 110 schools and72 district offices.The @One Project is a technology

training and support program for thefaculty and staff of the CCC system.Their charge is to make it easier forCCC faculty and staff to learn how touse technology to enhance studentlearning. @ONE’s programs providetraining, online resources andsupport for free — or at a very lowcost — thanks to funding from theCalifornia Community CollegeChancellor's Office.

Scaling Up TrainingBefore the @One project, the

California Community College Systemhad tried to address its training needswith four peripatetic trainers goingfrom one school to the next. The ideabehind the @One Project was to usedistance education and distributedlearning technologies in order to

reach a much larger audience — theentire system. “Your reach is verylimited if you’re going to stay on theground,” says Whitmer. “In a state asbig as California you’re not going toget too far.”@One has a core staff that does all

the administrative work: logistics andcoordination, planning and pedagogy,marketing, outreach, registration, andevaluation. But all the technologyand production work is outsourced.@One’s preferred outsourcingsuppliers are other chancellor’s officeprojects, where @One can largely getwhat they need for free. The mostimportant of these services is accessto CCC Confer, the CaliforniaCommunity College version ofHorizon Wimba, the e-conferencingsolution. CCC Confer allows users toset up a web portal that presenterand participants both log on to. Thepresenter can show PowerPoint slidesor even their own desktop (so partici-pants can see any other applicationrunning on the presenter’s computerin real time). There’s also a chatwindow, a white board, a polling tooland other interactive functionality.

The video is accompanied by a phonebridge so that the presenter and theparticipants can call in to an 866number and converse. “That’s one ofthe biggest tools for us and that’show we’re reaching several thousandpeople per term,” says Whitmer.@One offers a variety of different

types of training. One of their basicformats is the desktop seminar —short 45 minute presentations with15 minutes of Q&A. The desktopseminars cover everything from thevery basics — how to make PDF files— t advanced desktop applicationslike Excel, PhotoShop, PowerPoint,and Flash.Lately, many of the seminars have

moved beyond strictly technologicalskills, into pedagogical issues,featuring training in online instruc-tion, effective evaluation skills anddetecting plagiarism.Whitmer concedes that 45 minutes

is not a lot of time to do all thistraining. Responding to this fact,@One has developed the mostpopular of these desktop seminars

the amount of effort distance learningrequires.

Lesson: Know ThyselfOne obvious benefit of McLean’s

study is the opportunity for facultyconsidering distance learning tomeasure their own preferences againstknown stressors. For example, faculty

should assess their own level of socialengagement needs to determine howwell they will deal with the independ-ence or isolation. They should alsorealize that it is difficult to remediatestudents in the distance environment,and “it is very easy to get pulled underthe wheels of rolling presence,”McLean says. She recommends facultyset boundaries, as “the burn out factoris the greatest threat to productivity.”

The information should also bequite useful for distance learning ad-ministrators who hope to understandthe stressors and uncertainties amongtheir faculty and help them managethem. McLean recommends communi-cation and support to help thesedistance faculty feel a part of the uni-versity as a whole. Just don’t expectthem to show up at the next depart-ment meeting. �

Best Practices for Training and Retaining Online Adjunct Faculty • www.FacultyFocus.com

Training 60,000 Faculty to Go Online

By Christopher Hill

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into series, allowing the subject to beexplored more deeply.The next level of @One instruction

support is asynchronous onlineclasses, from three to six weeks long.Whitmer describes them as standardonline classes, with course contentonline, each module with a discus-sion forum, often with multimediaelements.It’s in designing their online

courses that @One staffers really callon their outsourced support. “Wehave people all over the state whoare instructional designers,” Whitmersays – “Very talented people whomwe work with on a contract basis.”Though @One doesn’t have

trainers or instructional designers onstaff, they do have a set of productionstandards. “We have a design guidethat we use,” says Whitmer. “Wehave a look and feel. We have atemplate. We have other standardpolicies and features for our classes.We have it all standardized, but wedon’t use a designer.”

Using System ResourcesThe resources of the CCC system

also provide Whitmer and his groupwith subject matter experts to teachthe online courses. They have severalways of locating potential instructors.They can advertise on a system-widelistserv; the @One staff also knowsmany people who have worked in theCCC system capable of teaching acourse. And sometimes they recruittalented students — CCC faculty orstaff — from the classes. SaysWhitmer, “Drawing on the resourcesand the talent and the knowledgethat’s already in our system has beenone of the biggest factors in ourability to do this on a budget, andprovide really a very rich and robustcontent.”

@One teaches general topics tofaculty and staff — Online teaching,

multimedia, technology-enhanced in-struction. But @One has anotheraudience as well — the “techies” asWhitmer calls them — and theypresent a different challenge. Thetechnologists in the CCC system areonly taught face to face, not viadistance learning. “Techies can’t getaway,” explains Whitmer. “We couldnot do the techie training onlinebecause if they’re in front of acomputer they’re working, and theonly way they can get training is toactually get them out of the office.We’d been very successful in gettingto everybody else but the techies, andwe would talk to them and theywould say ‘Nice class, the technologylooks good but I can’t participate.Because my choice is to learnsomething new or fix a server.’ Andwe never won that battle. So weprovide them all face-to-facetraining.”

Reaching thousandsOver the course of the last four

years @One training has reachedalmost 12000 people. Last year alone@One reached 8022 people. Thatnumber breaks down this way: 1019through face to face training; 1259through online courses; desk topseminars 3262; video on demand953; the other 1500-plus group ismade up of people who choose self-paced materials. Self-paced materialsare similar the online classes —sometimes it’s the same content —but repurposed so that learners gothrough at their own rate. There areno activities and no discussion.

Evaluation@One does point-of-service evalua-

tion at the conclusion of all of theirevents – a formative ongoing evalua-tion process with a core set ofquestions that are asked with everyservice so that they can do compar-isons across services. “What we’vefound,” says Whitmer, “is that themore personalized service, the more

connection, the more individualizedattention someone gets, the higherthey rate the service.” He adds thatthis is not just in response toobviously related questions like howgood the facilitator was, but also toseemingly unrelated questions like“How well did the content meet yourneeds?” “That gets a much higherrating if we have more one-on-oneactivity,” Whitmer says. In @One’sevaluation data people are happierand more satisfied, and get a betterlearning experience, if they have a fa-cilitator helping them through.In the immediate future, @One is

planning a conference — the OnlineTeaching Conference – for thesummer of 2007 It will be a standardtwo-day conference format, with aprojected attendance of about 300.But, in line with @One’s mission,they have their eyes on the 60,000strong CCC audience. So they’vedecided to stream the whole confer-ence while they hold it face-to-face“We call it a hybrid event,” saysWhitmer. “We’re going to be web-casting the keynote speakers that’llgo straight out to the Internet. Also,for some of the breakout sessionswe’ll be using CCC Confer andoffering those as interactive sessions.The people in the audience will bethere but we’ll also have a virtualaudience that can hear the presenterin real time, that can ask questionsand interact. There will be no chargefor virtual attendees. We’ll open it upto the whole educational system.”And so the @One Project continuesits mission. �

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Most distance education ad-ministrators know thatthere’s going to be a certain

amount of hand-holding involvedwhen they’re trying to get facultymembers to produce their first onlinecourses. On the other hand, at theCenter for Teaching and Learning atIndiana University-Purdue UniversityIndianapolis (IUPUI), they get 12novice professors to produce 12 newcourses in 90 days – and like it. TerriTarr, Director of Instructional Designand Development and RhettMcDaniel, Director of InstructionalTechnology, explained to DistanceEducation Report how IUPUI’s “JumpStart” program works.IUPUI had decided they wanted an

online degree option to offercommuter and non-traditionalstudents. But they had a problemwith faculty. Says Tarr, “The facultywas saying, yes, we’d like to developthe courses but we don’t have theexpertise, we don’t want to spend thetime learning how to develop them,we really want to focus on teaching,and so on.” “They just got lost,” saysMcDaniel of the professors. “Theydidn’t know where to start, theydidn’t know how to start. They didn’tknow what a course looked likeonline.”It was in response to this that Tarr

and McDaniel began to develop theJump Start program. The idea wastwo-fold. One) Have the facultymembers work collaboratively andtwo) surround them with a team that

would give them all the support theyneeded. The Jump Start teamincludes an instructional technologyconsultant, an instructional designconsultant, production support, alibrarian to help them connect toonline resources, and a copyrightmanagement office.

The instructional technology con-sultant from IUPUI’s Center forTeaching and Learning helps the pro-fessors explore some of the possibletechnology options. The instructionaldesign consultant helps the facultymember determine objectives for thecourse, and decide how to organizethe content. The designer helps themthink through issues like creating in-teractive exercises, or establishing asocial presence online. They can helpthem decide what sort of assessmentthey’re going to use to gauge the

course’s effectiveness.Digital Media Services (DMS),

IUPUI’s in-house production facility,is another key part of the team. Theyare the people who will assemble andproduce the finished course. Once thecourse has been designed, the facultymember, the instructional designer,and the IT consultant get togetherand create a plan the DMS will beable to use to create the course.

The Jump Start processThe heart of the Jump Start Process

is an intensive four-day week wherethe faculty members work on devel-oping a prototype model for theircourse.Day 1: Tuesday Eight to 12 facultymembers gather, first for a series ofworkshops on the basics of onlinecourse design. They then meet withtheir support team. They’ll seeexamples of previous Jump Startcourses . People from Digital MediaServices (DMS) come in and “sort ofput the parameters around what’spossible,” as McDaniel says. Togetherwith the professors, the DMS peopledevelop a work plan, sitting downwith a calendar to plan their work forthe next 90 days.

Day 2: Wednesday The next day, thefaculty members become familiarwith online course developmentguidelines, and begin to develop theirsyllabus. Multicultural teachingstrategies are discussed. The profes-sors are introduced to the keyconcepts in intellectual property, andthey work with librarians to learnabout connecting to online resources.They finish defining their goals andobjectives for their courses. They’reintroduced to different web interfaceoptions, and start thinking aboutwhat kinds of interactivity areavailable to them.

Best Practices for Training and Retaining Online Adjunct Faculty • www.FacultyFocus.com

Jump Starting Faculty intoOnline Course Development

By Christopher Hill

PAGE 17�

The Jump Start team includes

an instructional technology

consultant, an instructional

design consultant, production

support, a librarian to help

them connect to online

resources, and a copyright

management office.

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17

Day 3: Thursday The group identi-fies best practices for online teaching.At this point the professors begin tolook at their course as a whole. Theydecide how it will be structured -- byunit, chapters, weeks, subject area,topic, etc. They pick out a representa-tive section to focus on. As the daysproceed, the professors are havingless and less facilitated time and arespending more and more working in-dependently on their own courses.

Day 4: Friday By Friday the profes-sors are deep into designing theirprototype. They start developing aplan for assessing course effective-ness. They’ll finalize a work plan forthe next 90 days to complete theircourse. They turn in their designdocument to DMS, who will have aprototype built. Faculty membersshare their course design and viewother faculty projects.

Once all the prototypes are created,the faculty members come back inthe summer for a prototypeshowcase, where they present theirprototype modules to each other anddescribe their projects. Over thesummer they continue to work withtheir team. The team is led by one ofthe instructional designers who isdesignated as project manager. Theprofessor develops course contentand reviews it via e-mail with theproject manager. By the beginning offall term, the course is ready to go.

The impact of a Jump StartThe main aim of Jump Start week

is to have the professors actuallydevelop fully a section of theircourse. This does a number of things.It makes the professors feel less over-whelmed at the outset, giving themthe sense that they’ve gotten a

handle on the process. It also gets thefaculty thinking concretely about thecourse – what content they will needto write, where they will need tobuild in interactivity, graphics theywill need, and so on. “Once they seethat first module and they have adesign for it, and DSM creates it sothey can see it, it’s a lot easier forthem to visualize the rest of thecourse,” says Tarr.

One factor that helps the JumpStart process work is money – profes-sors receive a $5000 stipend forcreating their courses. But mostfaculty actually enjoy the process aswell. “Jump Start week is really,really intense and if it were not funpeople would not be interested incoming,” says McDaniel. Hisassertion that Jump Start week is funis borne out by the growing numberof applications they get. “More thanwe can handle,” says Tarr.Tarr says that what makes this

intense week work is that the profes-sors are taken out of their routines –they’re away from their offices andaway from their phones, away frompeople who drop in for a chat, awayfrom their computers. “They aregiven the luxury of having time set

aside to work on that project,” saysTarr.The program has been so success-

ful that Tarr and McDaniel can nowenvision a time when it won’t beneeded. “When it was first createdthere was a strong need to helpfaculty create online courses -- theywere really lost,” she says. Now, shethinks the need may be becomingless pressing, although she thinksthat the model they have created ofproduction support for faculty willcontinue to be valid.One of the directions McDaniel and

Tarr want to go with Jump Start is toput more and more of it online. Ontheir last Jump Start cycle they con-sciously put more material online andhad the professors do some prepara-tory work online as well. They planto do more of this that the facultymembers will experience more of thestudent viewpoint online.Jump Start has had an institution-

wide impact. The courses created outof the process have now spread outinto many of the schools and depart-ments of IUPUI, and Jump Startcourses have been used as models byother departments. “[Jump Start] hashad a ripple impact on the institu-tion,” Tarr says. “In that way I thinkit’s done a wonderful job.” �

Best Practices for Training and Retaining Online Adjunct Faculty • www.FacultyFocus.com

FROM PAGE 16

Once all the prototypes are

created, the faculty members

come back in the summer for

a prototype showcase, where

they present their prototype

modules to each other and

describe their projects.

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Managing faculty is one of thebig challenges in onlineeducation. It is especially

difficult when a program uses adjunctprofessors to teach many of itsclasses. Norwich University inNorthfield, Vt., has developed asystem of training and monitoringonline faculty for its online master’sdegree programs that allows it to takeadvantage of using adjunct facultywhile minimizing the problems asso-ciated with off-campus teachers.Norwich’s faculty management

program investigates potential in-structors during recruitment, providesclear expectations and extensivetraining before they teach, and closemonitoring during the course.“We make sure we screen our

faculty to make sure they aren’t over-loading by taking on a teachingposition at Norwich,” says JohnOrlando, associate program directorfor Norwich’s masters of InformationAssurance (MSIA) program. “Weemphasize that you will put in 15 to20 hours per week online. You’dbetter have that time available.”

Off-campus caveatMost of the online courses in the

masters program are taught byadjunct faculty, who are, in largepart, working professionals inaddition to their teaching duties “Wedo require them to have teaching ex-perience,” Orlando says, “but wewant them to have practical experi-ence in the field. A majority have a

full time job somewhere else. Mostare vice presidents or managers.”The advantages to using adjunct

faculty in online learning programsare many. Off-campus teachers, oftenfrom the business world, are morecomfortable with the independent

style of work demanded by onlinecourses. The university can also takeadvantage of choosing teachers froma wide variety of backgrounds, expe-rience, and qualifications. Orlandosays this is particularly pertinent tothe MSIA degree program -- informa-tion security being a new field, wherethere are few academic experts to befound. Finally, adjunct faculty can beremoved from their positions moreeasily than tenured professors.However, off-campus status can

pose problems. First among them is

that the teachers may feel more likeindependent contractors than part ofthe university. They don’t necessarilyfeel they represent the institution,even though they do, of course, totheir students. If they are detachedfrom the school or if they becomeunhappy with something going on intheir course, they are more likelythan full-time faculty to complain totheir students.“When we’ve run into problems in

the past, it’s when faculty got busy orwere traveling. They didn’t realizethat when there’s a lot more thingsimpinging on their time, it draws youaway from your class,” says Orlando.“We make sure they understand thetime commitment. Faculty is the firstconnection to students. If they arenot actively involved, we will losestudents.”Norwich’s online faculty manage-

ment program allows the school andstudents to enjoy the benefits ofusing off-campus faculty while mini-mizing the problems they present.

RecruitmentOrlando and his staff use a three-

part process to recruit faculty: resumereviews, phone interviews, andreference checks. That’s in additionto content knowledge and teachingexperience. Most preferred issomeone with online teaching experi-ence. Newcomers to online teachingtend to take a couple of classes toadjust, including making the lifestyleadjustments necessary to be availableto their students when required.Candidates are fully briefed on

what they’re expected to do. Theyalso are asked about their businesstravel schedule, in case there is aconflict with the school’s schedule.

TrainingTraining and support is essential for

Best Practices for Training and Retaining Online Adjunct Faculty • www.FacultyFocus.com

A System for ManagingOnline Faculty

By Kathleen Vail

PAGE 19�

Norwich’s faculty

management program

investigates potential

instructors during recruitment,

provides clear expectations

and extensive training before

they teach, and close

monitoring during the course.

Page 19: Faculty Focus Report 657

19

online adjuncts. Online tutorials arehelpful, and should be accompaniedby clear instructions on whereteachers can go for technicalquestions.New hires also learn about the

quirks of online communication. Forfirst-time faculty, that can be ahurdle, says Orlando. “There arecertain things that are very different.You have to be very conscious of howyou interact with students. A lot offace-to-face communication is nonverbal. That doesn’t come out in e-mail. They can be misinterpreted. Wehave to watch our faculty in terms oftheir interaction.” E-mails can soundharsher than intended, because theyare not accompanies by non-verbalcues, he says.In addition to online instruction,

Orlando and his staff have extendedphone sessions with the new faculty,filling them in on the history andculture of the university.A way to overcome the “consultant

mentality” among adjunct faculty,according to Orlando, is to create acommunity of support among onlineteachers. The faculty can use alistserv to post problems and discusssolutions. Norwich has a “virtualcampus” for faculty, with lists ofcampus events and information aboutthe online programs. Seriousproblems can be staved off bycreating a sense of belonging amongadjunct faculty. Orlando says goodwill can be spread by methods assimple as sending faculty a universitywind-breaker or sweatshirt.Grading is another aspect of

training. On-campus faculty membersdiffer in their grading, of course, butthey are a known quantity. First-timeadjunct faculty may not know how tograde or may not know the expecta-tions or standards of the university.An addition factor is that adultstudents tend to want more detailed

information about grading. Toaddress these concerns, Norwichgives new faculty grading rubrics andexamples of various levels of course-work. Some might see this as micro-managing, but Orlando says that thefaculty members almost universallyappreciate it.

Monitoring and accountabilityFaculty members have clearly

outlined expectations. Instructorsmust answer student questionswithin 24 hours, and return gradedwork within three days of submis-sion.

They are closely monitored. “Wehave to make sure our faculty knows,if they have taught before, that theywill be monitored much more thanthey are used to,” says Orlando. “In aface-to-face classroom, they are on anisland. But in an online class, every-thing they do is saved. E-mails,grades, notes are saved. They have toget used to this. It can be a changefor some teachers who wantcomplete autonomy. But we can’tallow that. We have to make surestandards are upheld.”Norwich uses a lead instructor

system to monitor faculty. Lead in-structors, chosen for their experienceand proven teaching ability, arementors to the other facultymembers. They solicit the instructorsin their group for their opinions andideas. The lead instructors arerequired to provide the programdirector with weekly reports ofsuggested improvements.“The lead instructor model is the

best way to go,” says Orlando. “In asmall operation, you would have theprogram director monitor faculty. Butas you get bigger, you must spreadout the layers of responsibility. Wehave 1,000 students; the class sizesare capped at 15, and our average is13. You get about 80 or 90 faculty.And we have plans to grow beyondthat. If we didn’t have efficientsystems, it would reach the breakingpoint.”Students also prove to be good

monitors of quality. A lot of what wehear is from students,” says Orlando“If there’s a problem, students notifyus directly. Adult students are goodabout demanding value from theireducation.”Managing online faculty and

adjunct faculty can be a challenge,Orlando says, but Norwich’s carefullystructured recruiting, training, andmonitoring program is well worth theeffort. �

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FROM PAGE 18

A way to overcome the

“consultant mentality” among

adjunct faculty, according to

Orlando, is to create a

community of support among

online teachers. The faculty

can use a listserv to post

problems and discuss

solutions.

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20

One condition of distanceeducation is that at many insti-tutions the instructors are not

on campus. These telecommuters, orteleworkers as they are referred to atCanada’s online Athabasca University,are convenient but can pose adminis-trative dilemmas. The lack of contactwith colleagues and with the institu-tion can lead to isolation, and driftingout of the main currents of technologi-cal and pedagogical innovation.Distance faculty may not be aware ofthe degree of presence they need tohave in a course, and may effectivelyjust “sit them out,” not contributingappropriate levels of input to thecourse. Isolated teachers can also findthat they have missed opportunitiesfor professional advancement, notbeing surrounded by colleagues andassociates who can train them in thepedagogical application of new tech-nologies. The missed professional de-velopment opportunities mayeventually frustrate them, interferewith their career development, andcause them to leave the institution.Canada’s Athabasca University

functions with the aid of over 80 “tele-workers”— professors who teach fromtheir homes. Dr. Heather Kanuka,holder of the Canada Research Chairat Athabasca, conducted a survey oftheir distance faculty (eighty-fivepercent of whom reported a homeoffice as their primary work environ-ment) to get some suggestions forways to respond to these problems.The purpose of this study was to

gather data for direction on how toprovide regular training and continu-ous learning to telecommuters.Kanuka and her associates were ableto identify practices to create regularlearning, community-building and pro-fessional development opportunities.Her research has shown that many ofthese issues can be ameliorated bycontact between colleagues, with themost effective contact being activitiesthat involve regular training and con-tinuous support.Distance education programs, and

expecially an entirely distanceeducation institution like Athabascamust be committed to staying on thetechnological edge. But the isolationof the professors keeps them slippingoff. “So many of the faculty weren’treally growing in the way that theyshould have been, especially for anonline university. This was a problemthat could have the potential to behuge,” says Kanuka. “When you’reworking in your home, you’re nottalking to people down the hall, you’renot as likely to go to our Fridayseminars on new things in technology.It’s an issue that I think all universitiesneed to step up and have a look at.”“Obviously the same thing is

happening at many traditional oncampus schools with distance edprograms,” Kanuka says. “Morefaculty are teaching online coursesand working from home in isolationand not keeping up and not going toany of these activities.”

Understanding the distancefaculty experienceDistance education is all about

removing barriers for students, espe-cially the barrier of isolation fromteachers and colleagues. But facultyface barriers and isolation, too,Kanuka says. Fifty percent ofAthabasca faculty are teleworkers, andthese form a large and vocal con-stituency for more professionaldevelopment.Most of the people Athabasca hires

come from traditional universities. Asthe school increased its faculty, itdidn’t spend a lot of time bringingthem up to pedagogical speed. Thereare orientations but most of themaren’t sustained and most of themdon’t require any credentials orevidence that the faculty member hasactually learned anything; and they’reusually voluntary. “Also, in distanceeducation most faculty don’t have theexperience to draw on, to think wow Ihad a really great distance ed instruc-tor so that’s how I’ll start,” Kanukasays. Most faculty just try to applywhat they know in traditionaleducation. What is indicated is goodsolid orientation for each facultymember.

No solutions?“I used to work in the faculty devel-

opment teaching and learning centerin the prior on-campus university Iwas at,” says Kanuka. “And many ofthe activities that were very successfulthere were totally flopping here. Wecouldn’t round up people and eventhough we have tons of technologyhere at AU, everything you canimagine, we’re just not gettinganybody. Even if a group of ten hadshown up we would have beendelighted but we weren’t even gettingthat.” They tried conference calls tointroduce them to Elluminate. “It’s

Best Practices for Training and Retaining Online Adjunct Faculty • www.FacultyFocus.com

How to Train and MaintainYour Distant Faculty

By Christopher Hill

PAGE 21�

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21

probably better now but we had con-nection problems and so the voicequality wasn’t very good and thatturned off the faculty.”

The idea that workedKanuka and her associates proposed

the idea of a major September orienta-tion where Athabasca would pay forall teleworkers to come intoAthabasca. Athabasca would pay fortransportation, hotel rooms, food, anddrink. And to the survey group’ssurprise, most of the faculty came. Atthat time there were about 80 to 82faculty members and about 60 came“which was simply amazing for us,”Kanuka says. While they were there,the faculty attended two days of pro-fessional development concurrentsessions.While they were all there, Kanuka’s

group asked them why they came. Theanswer was simple--it was paid for. Itwas a two-day outing and they reallywanted to get together. “One thingthat was really striking is that ashuman beings we’re pretty social andyou can forget about the importance ofsocializing,” says Kanuka. The otherimportant factor involved was a devel-oping sense of connection to the insti-tution. “Your faculty are your mostexpensive and valuable resource andthere’s no institutional loyalty whenyou‘re that disconnected,” saysKanuka. One ironic drawback toAthabsca’s teleworker policy, whichthey used to attract faculty, was thatthere’s a higher turnover because ofdecreased institutional identification.“They really wanted a sense of belong-ingness. Which was something weseemed to have lost in our teleworkerpolicy.”Kanuka’s survey made it clear that

the faculty wanted face to face activi-ties. The professional developmentweekend made it clear they wouldn’t

do it unless the institution paid for it.It cost Athabsca $11,000 to throw theirweekend meeting last year. This yearthey are anticipating an outlay of$15,000. The Athabasca administra-tion came to the conclusion thatspending this kind of money on theirfaculty was worth it. If they weregoing to offer teleworker options to getfaculty on board, then they shouldprobably spend some money to keepthem there, went the reasoning.

First the socializing, then thetechnologyAnother challenge was getting the

faculty on board with new technology.“We needed to tell them not just aboutthe ‘what’ but the ‘why’,” Kanukasays. The faculty had to be convincedthat it was not just technology fortechnology’s sake, but that there was apedagogical grounding for the use ofthe new technology. The surveyindicated that faculty weren’t very in-terested in new technology but if itincreased their effectiveness as in-structors they would make the effort toattend training sessions. The lessonseems to be that to keep faculty up todate you have to focus on thepedagogy, and why the technologysupports more effective pedagogy. Butto do so in face-to-face environments.

Faculty requests for helpWhat do the faculty themselves feel

they need help with? According toKanuka’s survey:• The majority of faculty said that

they needed to know how to deal withdifficult students in an asynchronousenvironment.• They needed help with how to use

diverse instructional methods online.That includes everything from asyn-chronous to synchronous, paced andself-paced.• Motivational strategies: Athabasca

has the typical issues with onlineattrition. Faculty are very concerned

with this and don’t really know howto keep and motivate their students inways that are truly effective.• Help with the learning manage-

ment system (Moodle).

What to try nextThe faculty felt that these two days

of sessions told them things theydidn’t know about, that they wereprovided with useful information. Butthey also had a chance to socializewith each other. And a lot of talk wasshared among them--“This is what Ihad to deal with and this is how Isolved it,” as Kanuka says. “I think inour next one we’ll have more of thatinformal socializing because that’svaluable as well.” Athabasca mightalso try using synchronous technologywith invited experts.One option Athabasca can’t choose

is mandatory training. The canons ofacademic freedom as well as thefaculty union wouldn’t permit it. SaysKanuka, “They have the right with ourteleworker policy to work entirely athome but we know this is not neces-sarily good for them or for the institu-tion. This is a problem and we’veidentified it as a need to sustain earlytraining.”Right now Athabasca’s best choice is

optional training. This was favored by93 percent of the faculty on thesurvey. But training costs money, andthe administration has to agree tospend it. “We’re not a private for-profit institution but we are built on acost recovery model so finance is anissue,” Kanuka says. “I look at it like,would you buy a car and not maintainit? That’s kind of what we do with ourfaculty, we hire them and we don’tmaintain them. A car gets run downand things happen. I think the mainte-nance is well worth the investment.”�

Best Practices for Training and Retaining Online Adjunct Faculty • www.FacultyFocus.com

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The American university is nolonger confined to a singularcampus location, presenting

new challenges for providing accessi-ble professional enhancementresources to faculty. As universitiesexpand their reach via satellite andonline campuses, drawing in newstudent populations, faculty becomemore dispersed and also more diversein their professional developmentinterests and needs. With physicalaccess to faculty limited or absent alltogether, faculty enhancement profes-sionals must conceive of creative andnon-traditional outreach methods.This article reports on one university’ssuccess creating a faculty enhance-ment series to reach faculty dispersedacross 42 campus locations.Park University, founded in 1875 as

an independent, liberal arts, four-yearco-educational institution, is oneexample of the expanding Americanuniversity. Park University began ex-perimenting with various modes ofdistance education in the mid 1960s.In the late 1990s, after successfully es-tablishing several satellite “CampusCenters” across the country, theUniversity offered its first course facili-tated entirely online. Both modes ofdistance education achieved greatsuccess: Park University now has 42Campus Centers in 21 states in

addition to an online program thatsupports 7 undergraduate and 4graduate degree programs, with over10,000 enrollments in each of five,eight-week terms. Like many institu-tions across the country, ParkUniversity retains is “home” campusin Missouri, where all administrativeoffices reside, include the Center forExcellence in Teaching and Learning(CETL).

Challenged by FacultyIn keeping with the University’s goal

of functioning as “one university” andthe Center for Excellence in Teachingand Learning’s mission to providefaculty enhancement resources to allfaculty, the Center’s administrators—three faculty members on the homecampus, each working on partialrelease time—faced a dauntingchallenge. This challenge was not onlygeographical, however, but cultural aswell. Removed from the context of theflagship campus, distance facultymembers are not immersed in thehistory and liberal arts cultureembodied by the physical location,often making it more difficult to com-municate and model expectations foracademic content and rigor. Moreover,those faculty members who are solelyonline faculty are not in daily physicalproximity to colleagues with whom

they can share resources and experi-ences, removing them from thevaluable daily life of an academic de-partment.To address this dilemma, the Center

for Excellence in Teaching andLearning at Park University created anew faculty development vehicle,Development on Demand© specificallydesigned for the professional develop-ment of faculty at a distance.Development on Demand© providessatellite campus administrators and in-dividual faculty members with highquality presentations and resources,either via CD or provided online, onvarious teaching and learning topics.These topics are chosen based on theresults of an annual faculty interestassessment.

Development on DemandThe primary use of Development on

Demand© is in a workshop setting fa-cilitated by the satellite campusacademic administrator. Recognizingthat these academic administratorshave limited time and resources to fa-cilitate faculty developmentworkshops, the centerpiece of eachDevelopment on Demand© is a multi-part, audio-narrated presentation,created with AuthorPoint®. In adetailed guide, the facilitator isprovided with group activities and dis-cussion questions to use as seguesbetween each part of the presentation.These opportunities for participant in-volvement are designed to tap theexpertise and experience of facultyand to provide them opportunities togenerate and share new classroom ap-plications. As these faculty do nothave ready access to the types ofinformal exchanges typical in tradi-tional academic department settings,the Development on Demand© discus-sions are designed to accomplish thisdialogue. Printable .pdf files of

Best Practices for Training and Retaining Online Adjunct Faculty • www.FacultyFocus.com

Development on Demand:Professional EnhancementResources for a Geographically-Diverse Faculty

By Emily Donnelli, B. Jean Mandernach, and Amber Dailey

PAGE 23�

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relevant scholarly readings, as well aspresentation handouts, are alsoincluded on the disk to allow the facil-itator to leave materials with the par-ticipants. A certificate of completionrecognizes faculty participation in theworkshop and can be presented intheir annual retention and promotionportfolios.A participant and facilitator evalua-

tion form round out the resourcesprovided as part of Development onDemand©. Comprised of Likert-scaleand open-ended qualitative questions,these evaluations serve as a primarymechanism for the Center to judge theprogram’s effectiveness. Results fromthe first Development on Demand©cited comprehensiveness of resourcesand ease of use as the primarystrengths of the program. The presen-

tation’s combination of theory andpractical application appealed to theparticipants, and the facilitators toutedthe convenience of the AuthorPoint®-generated presentation, whichrequired no technology training orspecial software to launch.Considering the current popularity ofhigh-tech approaches to faculty devel-opment—webinars, satellite conferenc-ing, etc.—the assessment ofDevelopment on Demand© indicatedits effectiveness as a low-cost alterna-tive to reaching geographically-dispersed faculty.As more and more institutions

segregate distance programs from theirtraditional, daytime counterparts,faculty become more and moredispersed, both physically and cultur-ally. Faculty development programsdesigned to reach all faculty, whiledifficult and sometimes costly to

implement, are essential mechanismsfor unifying faculty and ensuringquality across instructional modalities.The Park University Development onDemand© initiative serves as oneexample of how an institution canprovide critical professional enhance-ment resources to a geographically-diverse faculty for relatively little costbeyond CD copying and mailing (orthe posting of resources online). TheDevelopment on Demand© approachensures that all faculty at an institu-tion, regardless of their location, canbenefit from the same content andquality of resources. When faculty canunite through shared professional de-velopment materials and experiences,the gap is lessened among them, bothgeographically and culturally, resultingin a greater sense of shared institu-tional identity. �

The growth and success of onlinecourses over the last severalyears and recent faculty interest

in offering hybrid courses at PimaCommunity College (PCC) havestretched campus training resources tocapacity and caused the institution tolook for additional ways to meetdemand. As a result, a new PCC cer-tificate program has been designed totrain and prepare faculty as well asoffer professional development oppor-tunities for faculty growth.

PCC, a multi-campus communitycollege district, offers more than two-hundred fully online course sectionsper term and creates new onlinecourses and programs each year witha team of instructional designers andcampus faculty working in the Centerfor Learning Technologies (CLT) at theCommunity Campus. The addition ofonline sections each year drives theneed for progressively more trainedfaculty to teach them. In addition,over fifty new hybrid courses are in

development by faculty across thedistrict with many more hybridcourses and sections being plannedfor. This has increased the demand fortraining in hybrid course developmentand delivery from these and other in-terested faculty.

Demand for trainingSeveral CLT instructional design staff

helped to train and support a core

Best Practices for Training and Retaining Online Adjunct Faculty • www.FacultyFocus.com

Designing a Certificate Program for PreparingFaculty for Online Teaching and Hybrid CourseDevelopment

By P. Michael Carter, M.Ed

PAGE 24�

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group of faculty preparing to developand teach their own web-hybridcourses based on a model coursedesign. However, recent demand foradditional trainings and plannedgrowth for hybrid offerings havecreated a strain on training resources.One full-time faculty trainer managesa combination of face-to-face andonline training to prepare faculty foronline teaching and online coursementoring and the staff instructionaldesigners are engaged in building newonline courses and programs. To helpmeet these increased demands fortraining and to offer professional de-velopment incentives for faculty, a cer-tificate program was developed inOnline Development and Delivery.An examination of expected faculty

learning outcomes from the college’sonline, hybrid, and online mentortraining activities and benchmarkingactivity of 16 external institutionsoffering similar training or programswas conducted. These institutions rep-resented five community colleges, tenuniversities, and one organizationserving multiple universities within astate system.Core competencies for faculty and

essential program elements were iden-tified and incorporated into the devel-opment of the certificate. Theinstitutions were examined for thefollowing elements:• funding type (public or private)• classification (2 year communitycollege or 4 year university orother)

• program name• if the program was optional or notfor faculty from that institution totake it in order to teach onlineand/or hybrid classes

• number of hours of training (if ap-plicable)

• number or credits or CEUsawarding for completing theprogram

• the cost to the participant or, con-versely, if a stipend is awarded forprogram completion

• whether the program was internal(only) or marketed/open to thepublic

• if training on an LMS (learningmanagement system such asWebCT, Blackboard, other) waspart of the program

• if the participant was placed in anonline (or hybrid) course as astudent as part of the program

• how the program was conducted:face-to-face, online, or both(hybrid)

• if participants were either givenprinted training materials and/ortexts or had to purchase themeither from the institution oronline

• comments, where applicable,including the web site describingthe program and its elements.

• core faculty competenciesCore faculty competencies for coursedevelopment were identified fromPCC and benchmarked institutionsand included:

• Identify characters of adultlearners and their learning styles

and preferences and apply thisknowledge to the development ofonline materials and activities.

• Apply basic principles of curricu-lum design to course content andactivities intended for the onlineenvironment.

• Construct online course materialsand activities from an instruc-tional design model.

• Develop online activities thatinclude learner-centered instruc-tion and active learning.

• Develop content for online presen-tation that meets web design andaccessibility standards.

• Using office productivity softwareand an html authoring tool, createinstructional content for web pres-entation through a LMS.

• Perform file management and or-ganization procedures required toplace materials online in a LMS.

• Discuss how to meet copyright re-quirement for the online learningenvironment.

• Create learning content andlearning and assessment activitiesusing LMS tools.

• Describe quality measure used inthe preparation and revision ofcourse materials and activities forthe online environment.

Core competencies for online coursedelivery were identified from PCC andbenchmarked institutions andincluded:• Discuss and demonstrate appropri-ate instructor characteristics andskills for the online environment.

• Demonstrate the provision ofsupport and facilitation of learningfor students accessing onlinematerials and activities.

• Recommend and demonstrate ap-propriate instructor activities forsetting up the online learning en-vironment.

Best Practices for Training and Retaining Online Adjunct Faculty • www.FacultyFocus.com

PAGE 25�

One full-time faculty trainer

manages a combination of

face-to-face and online

training to prepare faculty for

online teaching and online

course mentoring and the

staff instructional designers

are engaged in building new

online courses and programs.

FROM PAGE 23

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25

• Discuss and demonstrate bestpractices used in conductingcommunication, learning, and as-sessment activities online withadult learners.

• Describe and demonstrate how tomeet accessibility requests andneeds in the online environment.

• Use PC and online tools to checkstudent work for academic dis-honesty including cheating andplagiarism.

• Discuss and employ online toolsused to assess student perform-ance and satisfaction as well ascourse quality and success.

• Perform practice online courserevisions and updates based anew term offering and changes incourse and instructor informa-tion.

Core competencies for using thecollege’s learning managementsystem included:• Demonstrate LMS navigationaland system information tools forstudent and faculty use.

• Demonstrate the effective useand management of LMS com-munication tools.

• Select and use appropriate toolsfor student assignments and pre-sentations.

• Demonstrate competence withLMS tools used to create andmanage student assessments andto provide student feedback.

• Apply LMS tools for file manage-ment and organization.

• Demonstrate proficiency withLMS course management tools toeffectively manage a coursebefore, during, and at the end ofthe term.

• Utilize virtual library resourceswithin the LMS.

• Select and/or modify instruc-tional content and web pages forLMS delivery.

• Effectively utilize LMS tools toplace and deliver course contentand activities.

Based on these criteria, a certificateprogram was constructed with thefollowing components. Each coursebears credit and consists of lectureand lab. The curriculum is set regard-less on the mode of delivery i.e. fully-online, hybrid, or traditional:

1. Required courses (plus oneelective):Development of Online CourseMaterials and Activities

Online Delivery of Course Materialsand Activities

Learning Management SystemTools

2. Elective Courses:Multimedia in the OnlineEnvironment

Technology Survival Skills for theOnline Environment (counts asone-half of elective)

Online Course Mentoring (countsas one-half of elective)

In summary, PCC’s need toincrease its training capacity and theneed for additional professionalgrowth opportunities and incentivesdrove the development of a new cer-tificate program in OnlineDevelopment and Delivery. Existinginternal training structures and infor-mation from obtained from externalbenchmarking provided the basis forthe construction of the newcurriculum.

P. Michael Carter, M.Ed.,Educational Support Faculty andWebCT Faculty Trainer, Center forLearning Technology, PimaCommunity College. �

Best Practices for Training and Retaining Online Adjunct Faculty • www.FacultyFocus.com

FROM PAGE 24

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