IF YOU BUILD IT WILL THEY COME? AN INNOVATIVE APPROACH TO SHIFT THE CULTURE OF A UNIVERSITY

From the Office of the Provost, a Council, open to academic and administrative representatives from across the University community, was established with the purpose of enhancing the quality of the academic experience for faculty and students. This council was dubbed the Online Learning Council. The Online Learning Council’s charge is to develop, demonstrate and share strategies that will increase the quality in the design, delivery and outcomes of online, hybrid, and enhanced face-to-face classes at Drexel University. To augment this initiative, the Provost’s office named eight individuals from across the University to act as ambassadors and champions of the Online Learning Council disseminating the work of the Council to the Drexel-wide community, serving as catalysts for quality and innovation in education. This paper will provide an overview of this innovative approach that has shifted the culture within the Drexel Community. To date, the Online Fellows have completed numerous projects including 1) A Course Design Peer Review Program, 2) A Self-Paced Orientation to Online Teaching, 3) Campus-wide Faculty Development Days, and 4) A repository of guidelines, tips and checklists for faculty. The Course Design Peer Review Program is a voluntary program where a faculty/course developer can request a review of their course design. This program offers a confidential and collegial review of the course and takes about 4-6 weeks to complete. During the post review phase, a meeting is scheduled to deliver the review results to the faculty/course developer. If requested, support for making modifications or improvements to the course is available to the faculty/course developer. A second project, the Self-Paced Orientation to Online Teaching, was developed to provide an online asynchronous introduction to teaching online and provides faculty who are new to online teaching valuable experiences as an online learner themselves while in this course. Organization of Faculty Development Days with presentations by the Online Fellows on topics such as academic integrity, assessment and evaluation in an online environment, writing effective and measurable learning objectives, and faculty self-assessment provides an opportunity to showcase best practices and provide networking opportunities, have been well attended and very well received. The Repository of Guidelines, Tips and Checklists serve as a valuable resource for faculty and have provided a mechanism to provide consistency throughout the university for all online and hybrid courses. Additional, information is also available through a newly established website.