DESIGNING FOR THE FUTURE: CREATING E-LEARNING MATERIAL FOR FACULTY DEVELOPMENT (FD) AT OSAKA UNIVERSITY

The principles of 'content design and usability', is a pivotal part to develop e-Learning materials. The focus is to develop educational material that would help our faculty members in the overall process of gaining skills related to course design and instructional strategies in a user friendly e-Learning environment. It is not just about developing technology based e-Learning materials that supports the learning but enhancing the concept of self development as a teacher.
In the case of Osaka University, the Cyber Media Center in collaboration with International Student Center and Center for Higher Education and Research received funds for a 5-year Global Faculty Development (GFD) Project to develop expertise among professors to stay at par with the global trends in education. Along side developing e-Learning contents based on the FD workshop that the participants could use as reference material before and after attending the workshop. The core content of the e-Learning material is based on the 4-day Course Design and Teaching Workshop for faculty development using the learner-centered approach held at Osaka University. The process of developing the workshop-based material is quite challenging as you have to start from a sub zero level as there is no reference or support material related to this field. The process of starting from scratch and reaching a definitive plan is a time consuming process.
This presentation is about introducing technology to the professors to enhance their understanding about the 4-day Course Design and Teaching Workshop and also the process involved in creating the final end product and uploading it in the WebCT, which is the Osaka University open courseware.
It is in the initial stages of test implementation and not necessarily reaching all the faculty members. It is a different kind of learning experience for the faculty as it gives the learner more choice in their learning process. They can freely decide when, where and what to view. We hope to expand it in the coming future and further improve it after receiving valuable feedback from the users. At the initial stages our main concern is, whether the content is interactive and exciting enough to get the professors to use it regularly- and does it add value to their learning process?
To conclude, it is important to understand that technology is a means to support the user to enhance their skills and not just a gimmick. They should be open to accept and practice it.