FACULTY DEVELOPMENT: TRAINING ONLINE INSTRUCTORS

Linda Reichenbach
McLennan Community College, Waco, TX, USA

Imagine being a cowboy at the turn of the 19th century and seeing an airplane go by for the first time...how that must have felt. Could it be similar to teaching online for the first time?

McLennan Community College (MCC) in Waco, Texas is a 6000-student campus where online education has radically increased in the past three years. While the popularity of online instruction is probably the greatest reason for this growth, MCC's commitment to training its faculty to become effective online instructors has a direct result in the success of online courses.

Welcome to all! My name is Linda Reichenbach and I am the Instructional Design Specialist at MCC. I coordinate professional development to enhance the strengths and practices of our faculty and staff in both technology and soft-skills. I also help our faculty elevate active learning in and out of the classroom by providing them with innovative teaching tactics.

Abstract

This presentation outlines the steps I have taken to train the MCC faculty to become effective online instructors. Every semester, I facilitate a course entitled "Effective Online Instruction" (EOI); it is the required distance learning seminar for all instructors new to distance education at MCC. This class is designed to help faculty place a course online, or design the online portion of a hybrid class (where at least 1/3 of course is taught outside of the classroom). The primary focus of EOI is the pedagogical aspect of online instruction. Participants learn effective online teaching techniques, obtain suggestions for better online retention, how to advise the online student, and how to provide better student support in online courses. Using Blackboard as a platform, participants also learn to manipulate the software from a student and an instructor's perspective. Faculty members have a completed online/hybrid course by end of seminar (within 13 weeks).

Major advantages for faculty participants taking part in this seminar:

1. They are a student taking the course thus obtain a better sense of what learners experience.
2. They have a complete online course in one semester.

History

When I began my journey as instructional designer, part of my duties was to train instructors in the use of Blackboard, a course management system which enables the user to place documents online for students' access. The software also provides an assessment builder, a gradebook, a chat-room and a discussion board. Blackboard became so popular that approximately 1/3 of our faculty expressed interest in teaching online using this platform. The few faculty members who taught online at MCC prior to our purchase of Blackboard were using self-made webpages; most have now converted!

In my professional opinion, just because faculty can use Blackboard, it does not mean they will be effective online instructors. From all the research I perform on the subject, as well as my own experience teaching online, it is evident that one cannot just upload documents and have a class ready to teach--correspondence courses are dinosaurs and we should not clone them to create an online medium! One of the buzz word of online instruction is "community"- making students in our distance-learning programs feel as involved with their class as their face-to-face (F2F) counterparts- so I strive to be sure our faculty participants buy into the same concept...

The first Effective Online Instruction course was offered Spring 2001, and this seminar runs every semester including summer (©2001-2002EOI- Linda Reichenbach). It has been tweaked and tweened and receives glowing evaluations. EOI is definitely one of our most successful professional development seminars.

How-to Train Faculty to be Effective Online Instructors

So now let's get to the purpose of this presentation: How do you train faculty to be effective online instructors? While I do not claim to be the "know-all end-all," these past two years of research and training have considerably helped my expertise. I also follow my "graduated" faculty very closely to monitor the effectiveness of their training as they teach online or hybrid courses.

Before we begin, I would like for you to be guests in my EOI class. Follow the steps below to access it, and I will see you back here when you are done (just close the Blackboard browser when finished).

Accessing Blackboard

• After you click on the link to the EOI course below, a login screen will appear.
• Your username is tcc (case sensitive) and password is 2003. This will take you to the announcement page.
• Scroll through the announcements then feel free to peruse the course by selecting areas via the buttons to the left of your screen.
• To access folders or lessons, you will click on their titles to open the documents.
• After you are finished looking over the course, either minimize or close the Blackboard browser and come back to this page. See you shortly!

Click here to access the Blackboard portal to McLennan Community College's Effective Online Instruction. If course page doesn't load properly, click on your refresh button (or the F5 key).

Logistics of Training Faculty

Welcome back, I hope you enjoyed the cruise! I'm sure you'll have plenty of questions which I plan to address in our live chat session but first let me give you some of the logistics behind my training.

Online or Hybrid?

My first and foremost decision was choosing between teaching my seminar fully online or offering it as a hybrid course. The latter seemed to be the best decision as I would be dealing with faculty who have a variety of experience both technologically and pedagogically. The sharing of ideas F2F (face-to-face) is unbeatable. This exchange can be done very effectively online but at our campus, everyone is so busy with both academic and administrative chores that spending time together as instructors is invaluable.

Objectives

In 13 weeks, my objectives for the EOI participants are to

Develop and publish an online course.
Create online activities that meet all learning styles.
Train in the "how-to's" of teaching online using Blackboard as a platform.
Learn effective online teaching techniques via lectures, discussions, and readings.
Obtain suggestions for better online retention through virtual chat rooms, discussion boards, and lectures.
Know how to advise the online student by producing effective evaluation and assessment techniques.
Provide better student support in online courses from learning online retention techniques.
Discover and apply new technology and practical techniques to the field of online teaching.

What to Cover

The next decision was content-oriented. What should be covered in this course, what is dealt with in class, and what should go in the online portion of the course? As a sideline, let me mention that McLennan Community College offers step-credits to faculty--a way to increase their salary and encourage professional development. Each step equals 16 contact hours; EOI is a graduate-level course worth 3 steps, therefore 48 contact hours must be made. These are accomplished as 16 hours of F2F contact and 32 hours online.

Blackboard simplified my organization of the contents: The first class meeting has to cover the logistics of the course, present a theme-based approach (more on that topic later), and offer some basic training in the use of the software from a student and an instructor's perspective.

Besides document loading, Blackboard's major components are synchronous and asynchronous communication as well as testing and assessments- 2 class days right there.

I am also a huge advocate of meeting various learning styles and having instruction be learner-centered; online instructors are really challenged to understand and meet the needs of the numerous learners who sign up for their classes--another class day!

Finally, one of my biggest pet peeves when I participate in any training session is to be told what to do but not how-to do it. So the culmination of my F2F training for EOI is how-to transform regular course materials into a active, dynamic, and productive online classes.

After these 5 classes, the "faculty-student" is now ready to work online, learning more aspects of online pedagogy and applying these concepts to the development of their own course.

The course outline looks like this, 16 hours F2F and 32 hours online:

Day 1 F2F from 1-5 p.m.: Course logistics
Day 2 F2F from 2-5: Communication
Day 3 F2F from 2-5: Empowering the learning of all your students
Day 4 F2F from 2-5: Assessment and statistics issues
Day 5 F2F from 2-5: Criteria for good online design
(All F2F classes are held on Fridays)
Rest of semester online: Discovering, collaborating, and creating the final frontier

Course Contents

Let me now briefly describe the content of these five class-days and the online portion of the course.

Day 1- Course logistics:

EOI's theme is entitled TRANSFORMATION. On the first day, while faculty members introduce themselves and their purpose for taking the course, I always try to enhance these introductions by getting the audience to make a connection to the course via their personal life. I paint the following picture: "Imagine being a cowboy at the turn of the 19th century and seeing an airplane go by for the first time...how that must have felt. What survival tools and coping skills must this cowboy have had to survive such an incredible transformation, from the saddle of his horse... to hanging on by the seat of ...the plane! Do you ever wonder if the cowboy asked WHY?"

I then ask the instructors to think back to a time when they experienced a major change or transformation in their personal or professional life. I tell them to think in terms of that experience and ask themselves WHY they transformed? What critical elements were needed to make that transformation?

After allowing for a brief reflection, I get them to talk with a couple of colleagues in the class. I have them identify the different elements they needed to make their transformation and to jot down the ones they have in common.

After a few minutes of "getting to know each other even more," I solicit volunteers to provide their answers which I type on the overhead. Once our list is created, I ask them where they think I am going with this, thus enabling some to make the connection between TRANSFORMING their F2F course to an online medium and the transformation they incurred in their lives. I then inquire if they expect any of the 'survival criteria' to be the same and tell them that we will pull this list back out at our last F2F. This activity usually "hooks" everyone...

We then proceed to the course, navigate Blackboard from the student's perspective, discuss their assignments, and go over basics of using the software from the instructor's side (I adapt this part based on the level of knowledge of my audience, which, by the way, is limited to 12 participants).

Day 2- Communication:

The focus of class time is to discuss both asynchronous and synchronous communication tools. EOI's participants have had a chance to do some reading on asynchronous communication and apply some theories over a discussion board where they dialogued ideas for using discussion boards in their online course.

It is also vital that the faculty have hands-on time for the manipulation of Blackboard's chat tool, so in class they experiment both as a student and an instructor. First, I have 2 virtual guests for part of the afternoon, one an MCC online veteran who has agreed to represent the "worst" part of live chats, better known as the badly-facilitated-all-goes-wild-chat! My second guest is the author of the article on asynchronous discussions my participants had to read, and she represents the well-organized-this is-how-a-chat-should-be-example! The participants usually prepare some questions for her ahead of time to which she promptly replies; in class we then continue our discussion of asynchronous communication (discussion boards) in a synchronous mode (live chat).

The class ends with some play-time among the participants who test out with each other the features of Blackboard's virtual classroom.

Day 3- Empowering the learning of all your students:

It will have been two weeks since EOI participants met. During that time, they practiced the skills they acquired on chat and discussion boards through a learning styles' group assignment (see EOI course). When we reconvene for our third class, we discuss learning styles and how to best meet them in an online medium. Participants work in small groups of similar subject-interest and create an entire online lesson in which they apply some basic concepts of a learning style application entitled 4MAT. They then present their ideas to rest of class for further exchanges of ideas.

Day 4- Assessment and Statistics Issues:

A complete hands-on day where participants create and take each other's assessments using Blackboard's tools. Discussion on how to best test online students is conducted. Options to multiple-choice exams are explored.

Last F2F- Criteria for Good Online Design:

EOI's participants have another week off, and this time they must do some heavy research as to the constitution of a dynamic, learner-centered online course. Several articles are provided in the course materials and the theory of constructivism is evaluated. In class, faculty members put together short presentations where they A) define active online learning, and B) create a checklist outlining the criteria required to design an effective and active online course for MCC students.

We also go back to the transformation "hook" of the first class day to see if our list of 'survival criteria' needs any adjustments!

The Online Aspect- The Final Frontier...or is it only the beginning?

For the rest of the semester, EOI participants are busy finishing the final requirements of my online course, the final product consisting in the creation and development of their own internet or hybrid class. Most faculty who are enrolled in EOI plan to begin teaching with this medium the following semester. What better motivation!

As part of quality control, I luckily am not the only person to assess the effectiveness of the courses being produced. The class is broken into groups of colleagues who constantly monitor each other's progress and provide one another with constructive feedback. At the end of the semester, participants complete a checklist based on a modified version of the University of Texas System's TeleCampus guidelines (it usually includes the majority of the criteria the participants came up with in class!) which they submit to me; I then make a recommendation to MCC's Vice President of Instruction who gives final approval for instruction.

Reflections

Sounds exhausting? Well it is, especially with all the extra administrative burdens faculty have to undertake (committees, overloads, etc.). Furthermore, we are such a small campus that they have to develop their entire course on their own. As the only instructional designer, I can only provide them with the proper tools to become effective online instructors. My department also has only one graphic designer and one multimedia specialist who assist faculty with their needs. But the majority of the responsibilities are definitely on the instructor's shoulders...and that's only the development phase!!!

But since the inception of EOI, I have not heard any horror stories. My "graduate" participants seem to be having a blast teaching online or hybrid classes, and their student-evaluations have so far been very positive. Just the other day, an instructor who took the course this summer called from his office and said: "Linda, you'll never believe this. I am online live with a group of students who are "arguing" contractual law before my very eyes. This is so cool, thank you so much!"

Well that sums it up for me...

Faculty Development: Training Online Instructors

ADDENDUM 1: Evaluation Excerpts

"A great deal of research went into the handouts and on-line course documents and I do appreciate the firm foundation that was provided in EOI. "

"The best thing was receiving instruction in class, having written backup, and then actually putting all that to use in the assignments and preparation of our class. "

"The interaction among peers and the ability to actually experience the various kinds of communications available online. "

"We have come away with knowledge and skills and many resources. "

"I feel positively about the course all the way around. You did a very nice job helping us "transform" into hybrid/online instructors. We know that we do not "know it all," but we certainly have an excellent start and excellent resources to press on. We were treated like professionals, and it is great to already be in the loop with other online instructors. The course lay out and the materials provided were both great."

"The fact that I was a student, in an online course, helped me see some of the problems that students often face when taking an online course. I also gained a new perspective in terms of realizing that online courses can offer alternative learning opportunities to students who are often shy and will not express their opinions or questions in a traditional classroom."

"The best part of EOI was spending the time in this course to develop our own on-line course. Too often professional development courses are abstract and only discuss what could be done. This course actually helped us DO it. "

TCC 2003 Online Conference
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