Abstract:

A Sloan-C Consortium study in 2010 (Allen & Seaman, 2010) found that 22 million students will take courses online within the next five years, illustrating the exponential growth of this form of higher education. Along with this rapid growth come a number of challenges to the successful implementation of online degree programs, including preparing faculty to design and deliver online courses. Online instructors need to be versed in both the pedagogy and technology of online learning, as well as effective instructional techniques in the online environment. The question of how to efficiently and effectively provide this professional development for online faculty is being faced at every institution offering online courses.

Drexel University is a top-ranked private university located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. The University has consistently ranked among the top 10 "up and coming" universities by maintaining a unique commitment to high quality education delivered both on-campus and online. Drexel has over 5,200 online students enrolled in over 100 programs in thirteen colleges and schools. In 2009, the University created the Online Learning Council (OLC), an initiative designed to enhance the practice of teaching online and provide an engaging and dynamic learning experience for online students. Furthermore, in 2012 a group of eight individuals were identified as OLC Fellows, with the purpose of providing opportunities for online course design review and creating cross-unit professional development programs for online faculty.

This presentation will focus on the professional development initiatives of the OLC and the OLC Fellows. The presenters, who are all OLC Fellows, will discuss the experiences of preparing a number of faculty development courses and workshops, including training for first-time online faculty, usability and accessibility in online learning, self-evaluation of online course design, and more. In addition, we will discuss efforts for gaining administrative support among academic units for these initiatives and how this initiative has helped break down silos across the University. We will share recommended best practices that can be used by other institutions as they look to establish or expand their own professional development for online faculty.

Keywords:

Faculty development, online learning.