Faculty Instructional Support

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Faculty Instructional Support

• Moving beyond putting courses online to
  curriculum redesign

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The numbers tell a story, but what story?
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Drill down into college and department numbers

• Adoption rates are uneven
• Which departments are higher adopters?
• What factors might contribute?

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College of Engineering
2000 (F) Fall
2001 (W) Winter
2001 (S) Spring
2001 (J) Summer
Civil/ Environmental
2001 (F) Fall
2002 (W) Winter
2002 (S) Spring
2002 (J) Summer
Materials Science
2002 (F) Fall
Electrical /Computer
Mechanical
Chemical
0
5
10
15
20
25
Number of Courses Using WebCT
5
College of Arts and Sciences Arts and Humanities
French
2000 (F) Fall
2001 (W) Winter
Art
2001 (S) Spring
2001 (J) Summer
Music
2001 (F) Fall
2002 (W) Winter
Art History
2002 (S) Spring
Arts/Science
2002 (J) Summer
2002 (F) Fall
Italian
Languages
Philosophy
English
Spanish

0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
Number of Courses Using WebCT
6
Arts Science Natural Sciences and Mathematics
Linguistics
2000 (F) Fall
Science/Culture
2001 (W) Winter
2001 (S) Spring
Statistics
2001 (J) Summer
Computer/Info.
2001 (F) Fall
2002 (W) Winter
Science
2002 (S) Spring
2002 (J) Summer
Chem/Biochem
2002 (F) Fall
Psychology
Geography
Geology
Mathematics
Biology
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
Number of Courses Using WebCT
7
What accounts for different adoption rates? 3
different scenarios

• Department chair mandates adoption
• (Chemical Engineering)
• Languages
• Spanish requires WebCT for grading Spanish Intro.
• Languages has 2 IT professionals skilled in
  pedagogy
• Biology has a number of faculty interested in
  curricular change through problem based learning

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Which strategy results in Course Redesign? An
observation

• In Biology, the faculty involved in introductory
  Biology have a long interest in PBL and submitted
  PEW grant proposals. Significant time considering
  course redesign.
• In the absence of an institution wide assessment,
  we observe that more course redesign takes place
  among these faculty

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UD participates in consortium study

• Main goal determine whether or not web use
  changes the way faculty members teach
• 9 institutions participated
• 56 online responses
• 38 in-depth interviews

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Specific Research Goals

• Purpose To learn from faculty with experience
  using the Web for instruction
• How does its use change what happens in the
  classroom?
• What is the impact of any changes?
• What is the Webs potential for enhancing
  instruction?
• What support services are needed to facilitate
  reaching that potential?

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Faculty Participants

• Identified by LTC Representatives
• Experienced Web Users having taught a
  Web-enhanced course for no less than four (4)
  semesters
• Using rich Web instruction
• content (text, graphics, audio or video)
• interaction (activities, quizzes, etc.) and
• communication (e-mail, discussion, and/or group
  work)
• Reflective able to articulate thoughtful,
  reflective insights into teaching and learning in
  their classrooms
• Variety in disciplines

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Study Summary

• Faculty are reporting less change than we
  anticipated
• Changes reported have potential for significant
  impact on student learning
• Increased interaction among students and between
  students and instructors
• Higher expectations and higher level instruction
• Better organized courses
• Better prepared faculty and students

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Do adoption rates mean course redesign? An
Observation

• Faculty who are not exposed to pedagogy use a
  CMS
• For "efficiencies" such as easy access to course
  materials online.
• They do not substantially change the way they
  teach.
• Faculty who understand pedagogy are more apt to
• use CMS to make better use of space and time
• These faculty change their teaching style

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Environment that encourages both Pedagogy and
Technology Adoption

• Partnerships
• Faculty Development
• Institutional Support
• Support Team
• Technical staff (media specialists)
• Instructional designers
• Robust Technological Infrastructure

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Partnerships

• Institute for Transforming Undergraduate
  Education (ITUE)
• General Education Initiative
• Written and Oral Communications Task Force
  (WOC/TF)

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ITUE Fellow describes use ofWebCT Communication
Tools
Faculty member skilled in both PBL and WebCT
Led class through a problem on justice for the
terrorists Used online groups in class to
address the problem
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Faculty Development

• PRESENT, a one stop teaching, learning and
  technology center for faculty
• Collaborative faculty institutes
• Showcases

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Faculty friendly, teaching, learning, and
technology center
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Showcase Faculty Work
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Institutional Support

• Grant proposals for Course Redesign
• Funding by Provost
• Solicitation by Deans
• Matching funds by department

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Elements of grant proposal
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Support

• Half of IT support staff have masters degrees in
  education
• Wide range of skillsprogramming, digital media
  specialist, graphics, Course Management Systems
  expertise.
• Instructional designer
• Form support teams for projects with Librarians
  and Center for Teaching Effectiveness staff

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Course Redesign Projects

• Biology
• Education
• Consumer Studies
• Plant and Soil Science
• Psychology
• ITUE small projects

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ITUE Small Projects

• Small grants of staff and student time
• Awarded to ITUE fellows
• 2 examples
• Harry Shipman and E-labs for Physics
• John Deiner and Online Newspaper for Political
  Science

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E-labs in Physics
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Online Newsletter for Politics of Developing
Nations

• Student learn by doing
• Study contemporary economic, political and social
  issues in Third World
• Take on collaborative roles and produce a
  newsletter
• Research on the web and publish on the web

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Assess

• Advocate for institution-wide assessment effort
  (such as University of Central Florida).
• Participate in consortium study.
• Publicize results

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Rich environment provides opportunities to
improve learning and for technological adoption

• Bob Neeves example of plasticized body parts.
• Learned PBL from IT staff.
• Taught two wayslecture and PBL and found that
  PBL was more effective!

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Lessons Learned

• Numbers do not tell the whole story
• To change the curriculum, need to change how
  faculty perceive teaching and learning
• Infuse the campus culture with a variety of ways
  for faculty to learn about pedagogy and to
  reinforce that learning
• Faculty readiness is one of the major factors to
  consider (Pew grant lessons learned
  http//center.rpi.edu/PewGrant/Rd1intro.html. )