Using Virtual Mentoring

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Using Virtual Mentoring Online Resources for
Adjunct Training and Support

• Philip Pecorino
• Professor, CUNY Online Baccalaureate
  Queensborough Community College
• Ellen Smiley
• Academic Director, CUNY Online Baccalaureate
  Associate Professor,
• The City College
• Wendy Williams,
• Instructor, CUNY Online Baccalaureate
• Tina Meyerhoff,
• Instructor, CUNY Online Baccalaureate

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Opportunities Challenges

• Adjuncts have extraordinarily important roles in
  the delivery of undergraduate courses at CUNY
• Their adequate training and supervision are major
  challenges
• Adjuncts teaching at more than one institution
  with busy schedules make organizing face-to-face
  training difficult.

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Introduction to the CUNY Online Baccalaureate

• Began enrolling students in Fall 2006
• Program for college leavers
• One interdisciplinary major second added January
  2008
• 700 students
• Demographic profile similar to that at other CUNY
  schools, except students are older (50 30-44
  yrs. old)

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Introduction to the CUNY Online Baccalaureate

• No fulltime faculty 100 adjunct teaching staff
• Instructors are drawn from across the NYC area as
  well as from out-of-town locations
• At least 5-10 new instructors added each semester
• Many new instructors have limited online teaching
  experience

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Basic Goals of Faculty Development

• Produce a community of learners and teachers in
  which continual improvement is a shared value. 
• Create a community ethos incorporating a
  dedication to furthering pedagogy and assisting
  colleagues in the perfection of our craft. 
• Faculty who understand that we can teach and
  learn from one another. 
• All members of the community participate in the
  sharing of knowledge and in the success of their
  colleagues and students. 

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Challenges of Training Supervision

• Ensuring instructors highly skilled in teaching
  in the online environment
• Creating a sense of community commitment among
  instructors who rarely if ever see one another

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CUE Innovation Grant 2009
Building Better Courses Training Mentoring
Adjunct Instructors Online
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Florida Community College at Jacksonville Model

• Orientation training program
• Structure of faculty mentors for new instructors,
  including
• Virtual Mentors
• Lead Mentors
• Faculty Coordinator

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Elements of the Faculty Development Program
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Elements of the Faculty Development Program
INTRODUCTION  to teach, to teach well, and to
teach even better -the resolve of professional
educators
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Elements of the Faculty Development Program
Program Goal Basic Characteristics for an
Effective Faculty Development Program 1) TRAINING
Sessions and Workshops on pedagogy and on the
Hardware and Software  2) ANNOUNCEMENTS and
COMMUNICATIONS  3) WEBSITE in CUNY Academic
Commons for Faculty Development  4)
NEWSLETTER at least once/semester  5) TEACHING
HANDBOOK-distributed and located online  6)
INFORMATION on ALTERNATIVES to BB (as backup) in
the event of loss of access to BB  7) FACULTY
DEVELOPMENT DAYS- at least once/semester  8) 
MENTOR PROGRAM 9) ASSESSMENT
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Elements of the Faculty Development Program
Program Goal The goal of the Faculty
Development effort is to produce a community of
learners and teachers in which the continual
improvement of the effectiveness of instruction
is a shared value.  The effort is to produce a
community ethos incorporating a dedication to
furthering pedagogy and assisting colleagues in
the perfection of our craft. As instructors come
to see what they do with their students as
involving both the teaching and the learning so
too faculty in these programs should understand
that we can teach and learn from one another. 
The Faculty Development Program is offered to
facilitate that teaching and learning.  All
members of the community are encouraged and
expected to participate in the sharing of
knowledge and in the success of their colleagues
and students. 
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Elements of the Faculty Development Program
Basic Characteristics for an Effective Faculty
Development Program  To insure an effective
faculty development program that supports the
development of effective online instruction
there are several important elements that must be
present.  The program needs to insure that all
faculty will eventually produce courses that meet
the standards of the program and then continue
to revise them in an effort to improve on the
efficacy of instruction.  In other words and the
basic point is that there needs to be a
continuous quality improvement process.   The
program should make use of national standards of
best practice, the research literature, and
instructional design principles.     Student
learning should be the central focus of the
faculty development program and all
instruction. The expectations for faculty and for
students are set clearly and set above the merely
satisfactory.  Continual improvement is the
standard and not perfection. The faculty
development program and its elements are to be
faculty driven and subject to the review of
faculty participants in an effort to continually
improve upon the program as do faculty improve
upon their instruction.  The faculty development
program employs observations and collegial
assessments that are intended to assist the
continual improvement of instruction and so they
are not designed to be judgmental.   Assessments
of the instructional designs and course content
and course management are not to be based on the
personal preferences of mentors but on the
evidence found in the course and the standards
of the program.  Mentors and observers working
with faculty understand that the standards and
criteria for observations are to be used in a
manner that is not prescriptive understanding
that there are many ways for a standard to be
met. 
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1. Training Sessions Workshops

• Sessions and Workshops on pedagogy and on the
  Hardware and Software 
• Several times throughout the year face to face
  workshops may be offered as well as one on one
  meetings of faculty with the
• support staff to receive instruction or to
  practice with the hardware and software available
  to faculty in the program.
• These meetings are supplemental to the
  information that will be available to faculty be
  means of website resources, most
• likely located in the CUNY Academic Commons. 
• Pedagogy, Instructional Design and Class
  Management will be distinguished from sessions
  and resources that deal with the
• hardware and software. 
• There will be a mandatory participation in a
  full-day orientation and training program that
  will
• (1) give prospective instructors a working
  familiarity with the standards for online
  pedagogy that are expected in all courses and
• (2) provide hands-on, computer-based experience
  with the course management system (Blackboard) as
  well as specialized software tools available to
  all instructors, our e-portfolio system, and
  assessment tools.  A library of online podcasts
  is under development, with modules focused on
  each of the skills covered in training.
• These are not designed to substitute for
  face-to-face training, that serves an important
  community-building function, but to function as
  reminders of key elements. 

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2. Announcements Communications

• Be means of distribution lists and postings in
  the CUNY Academic Commons all faculty will be
  kept current on developments and resources. 
  Issues of pedagogy and mechanics can be raised
  and the community can respond with best practices
  and possible solutions.

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3. Website in CUNY Academic Commons

• The new CUNY resource will be utilized to archive
  and make accessible the resources developed by
  the faculty of the CUNY Online BA/BS Programs.
• It is possible that there will be separate areas
  for the Consortial Faculty and another for all
  faculty.  Some areas will be open to the public
  and others
• open only to members of the group. Once faculty
  are entered into the Commons they may participate
  in and contribute to the other resources and
  group discussions found there.
• Initial Draft of the site to be developed and
  relocated
• http//www.qcc.cuny.edu/SocialSciences/ppecorino/C
  UNY-OLBA-BS-Fac-Dev-Program.html

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4. Newsletter

• Distributed by email to all faculty and archived
  at the Academic Commons
• Focus is on development. 
• Possible features include
• QA,
• Did you know,
• Latest developments,
• hardware and software availability notices 

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5. Teaching Handbook

• As written materials related to the program and
  to effective teaching practices are produced they
• will be gathered and arranged into a handbook
  that will be disseminated to all faculty ,
• particularly to new faculty,  and located on the
  website. 

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6. Course Development Days

• The current practice of a faculty development day
  each semester
• continue. 
• New features will include
• the written expectation that new faculty are
  expected to attend
• mentors will identify what they think are best
  practices whose
• practitioners will be invited to present them
  
• scheduling at least 3 weeks before the start of
  the Fall and Spring
• semesters
• reports on what the post semester course
  assessments have disclosed as needing attention
  as commendable or remediable
• reports on the student post semester assessments
• reports from the academic directors and faculty
  development
• coordinator
• student panel

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7. Virtual Mentor Program

• In Fall of 2009 there were Virtual Mentors
  appointed, each having one to three new faculty
  to mentor. 
• In time Consortial Faculty will serve as Lead
  Mentors who will oversee several Virtual Mentors
  who will assist from one to five new adjuncts.
• There are stipends for this work. There is a
  Lead Mentor for the first cohort of four Virtual
  Mentors.
• There will be a coordinator of the Lead Mentors. 
• By 2011 all faculty will serve or be served by
  the mentoring.  Adjuncts with fewer than four
  semesters of teaching online will be mentored.
• Faculty with more than three semesters may be
  called upon to be Virtual Mentors. 
• From the ranks of the Consortial Faculty who
  have been Virtual Mentors will come the Lead
  Mentors.  
• There will be the one coordinator of faculty
  development who will oversee the Lead Mentors. 
• ALL FACULTY ARE INVOLVED
• Consortial Faculty provide the Lead Mentors
• Experienced Faculty (more  than three semesters
  online) may serve as Virtual Mentors
• New Faculty (less than four semesters online)
  will be mentored

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7. Virtual Mentor Program

•  Lead Mentors
• These are members of the Online Baccalaureate
  Consortial Faculty for each concentration, most
  of whom have served in teaching and
  administrative roles in the program for 18 months
  or more, will coordinate the work of the Virtual
  Mentors 
• Responsibilities 
• 1) Work with Faculty Development Coordinator in
  support of faculty development
• 2) Organize and chair meetings of their assigned
  Virtual Mentors, either in person or using
  online conferencing capabilities (such as
  Go-To-Meeting) and oversee the activities of
  their Virtual Mentors
• 3) Organize all components of the mandated
  course/teaching observations
• 4) Assist with the planning of Faculty
  Development Day
• 5) Participate in the Faculty Development
  Resource Site in the CUNY Academic Commons
• 6) Make recommendations to the Academic Directors
  and Associate Deans with regard to
• relative success of training and teaching and
  needed modifications in processes, including
  assessment
• 7) Orient and train new Virtual Mentors,
  developing their capacity to interact with new
  adjuncts in a positive and supportive way, in
  part by modeling this style
• 8) Collaborate with assessment staff in the
  collection and analysis of data about the virtual
  mentoring program. 

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7. Virtual Mentor Program

• Virtual Mentors
• These are experienced, successful instructors in
  the Online program, who receive specialized
  training and
• a stipend for actively mentoring up to five new
  online adjuncts each semester.   
• Responsibilities
• 1) Develop positive professional relationships
  with new adjuncts and provide assistance,
  suggestions,
• ideas and regular feedback on course web site
  structure and teaching practices
• 2)  Meet those whom they mentor at Initial
  Orientation and Training Day
• 3) Be available as a resource and as support for
  those that they mentor
• 4) Serve as a liaison between each adjunct and
  the program administration
• 5) Work with adjuncts as they build their sites
  and teach their first or second semester
• 6) Conduct early informal observation (in first
  three weeks) to assist faculty member
• 7) Conduct required course/teaching observations
  once each term
• 8) Conduct post semester follow up assessment
  including review of
• faculty member's self assessment
• student assessment of the course for the faculty
  member as invited by the faculty member
• formal student assessment of the course submitted
  for the program

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7. Virtual Mentor Program

•  New Faculty 
• Responsibilities 
• 1)       Participate in Orientation and Training
• 2)       Work with Mentor in the
  development/revision  of the class site
• 3)       Work with Mentor throughout the first
  semester(s) on class design and management
• 4)       Work with Mentor on course assessment
• 5)       Cooperate with Formal Observation
• 6)       Conduct an assessment of your course-
  self assessment and student assessment
• 7)      Make revisions in instructional design
  and course management techniques as result of
  assessments

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7. Virtual Mentor Program

•  ASSESSMENT 
• For improving the quality of instruction,
  especially in general education courses 
• 1) Improve the ratings of specific dimensions of
  teaching and course design, assessed using the
  rating scale
• developed during the 2008-09 academic year and
  used in course observations
• Data Collection  Analysis of formal written
  teaching observation reports for all instructors 
• 2) Achieve more positive student ratings of their
  courses, measured by the evaluation survey
  distributed each term
• Data Collection Ratings of students on twenty
  different measures of their course and program
  experience (each
• term) comparison of ratings from baseline period
  and after implementation of proposed activities 
• 3) Achieve positive reports by adjunct
  instructors and their mentors concerning the
  guided teaching experience
• Data Collection All new adjuncts, along with
  Virtual and Lead Mentors will complete written
  questionnaires that
• include both open-ended and rating questions all
  mentors will maintain logs of their interactions
  with new
• adjuncts 
• 4) Increase positive self-reports by adjunct
  instructors concerning their online teaching
  experience and
• their sense of attachment and commitment to the
  online program.

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The Mentor Experience

• Wendy Williams, Instructor, Online Baccalaureate
• Virtual Mentor 

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Flurry of emails to set up an online chat
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Using Wimba Pronto for Virtual Mentoring
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• Two instructors in virtual mentor chat on Pronto

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• Only two at a time on screen in four-way mentor
  chat on Pronto

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• Sharing goes both ways in virtual mentor
  relationship

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The Experience of Being Mentored

• Tina Meyerhoff,
• New Instructor,
• Online Baccalaureate

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Contact Information Philip Pecorino, Professor,
Online Baccalaureate (SPS) Queensborough
Community College ppecorino_at_qcc.cuny.edu Ellen
Smiley, Academic Director, Online Baccalaureate
Associate Professor, City Collegeesmiley_at_ccny.cun
y.edu Wendy Williams, Instructor, Online
Baccalaureate swilliams3_at_gc.cuny.edu Tina
Meyerhoff, Instructor, Online Baccalaureate
tinameyerhoff_at_gmail.com
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to teach, to teach well, and to teach even
better
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to teach, to teach well, and to teach even
better
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to teach, to teach well, and to teach even
better