Logon or Retire? Getting Senior Faculty On-line
This was a joint presentation between Lucinda Flemming, Business Dept. Chair at Orange Country Community College, NY, and Stephen Winter, Business Faculty AND the most senior faculty member at the institution.
Dr. Winter led much of the discussion since HE is a senior faculty member that decided to move on line. He described himself as someone that loves teaching (clearly obvious from his presentation) and someone that has always enjoyed a challenge. He quickly discovered that "unteaching" some misconceptions was necessary. Myths surrounding on line instruction permeate senior faculty and become walls blocking the path to success.
The keys to recruiting senior (and non-senior) faculty include:
- Administrative Commitment
- Compensate Instructors
- Clearly state the specifics of the training program and the expected outcomes
- Relate training program to instructor & student needs
- 30 Hours Minimum Training
- Patience - allow errors; even encourage them.
- Encouragement - remain positive
- Apply fundamentals of CMSs tools/concepts
- Troubleshooting - supply support and apply personal critical reasoning
- Advice - ongoing from the mentor support system
- Technical Help - Techies available to answer questions and solve problems
- Computer Tips - Support mentors can frequently guide faculty around the pitfalls and shorten the learning curve.
- Provide networking & mentor support
- OCCC built a formal support "tree", or hierarchy, for new on-line faculty.
- Empower on-line faculty to be entrepreneurs
- risk taking, independence, innovation
- Offer periodic meetings and updates for on-line instructors
- Give on-line administrators high profile, sufficient authority, and necessary resources
- Recruiting effort is an ongoing campaign
- Provide critical reference materials
- Provide special recognition - Orange County CC is leaning toward a "prestigious" e-Learning pin.
- Focus on Innovation - "Boldly go where no professor has gone before."
- Promote FUN within the process
A ten point matrix was presented comparing factors between on-line and classroom environments. The matrix clearly depicted fundamental preparatory and pedagogical differences between these two course delivery modalities.
Many senior faculty have seen fads come and go. They have learned to weather the storm and just wait for it to pass. On-line education is clearly here to stay so continuous faculty education is necessary in order to implement change.
Classroom Instruction Improves Because of On-line Experience:
- Chapter overviews, summaries, outlines are all improved with the technology
- Practice exams now readily accessible and previously non-existent
- Clean template for term project
- Definition (flash) cards - Technology made for easy use and access.
- Email opportunities - Increases student/faculty interaction
A tremendous evolution was experienced with the convergence of traditional with on-line instruction.
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