Abstract:

Drexel University is a private, not for profit, university in Philadelphia, PA, USA with a student enrollment of approximately 27,000 undergraduate and graduate students across 13 colleges and schools. For several years the University has been committed to improving online education by changing the organizational culture to embraces a process of continuous quality improvement. Drexel University has launched several initiatives to improve online education including the Drexel Student Learning Priorities (DSLP), the Academic Evaluation Feedback and Intervention System (AEFIS), adopting the Quality Matters (QM) standards for online course design, and creation of the Drexel University Faculty Fellows. Through the Office of the Provost, data is collected university-wide and analyzed to measure student learning and to identify areas for improvement. Faculty members have increasingly recognized the value of improved online education; however, a gap analysis initiated in 2015-2016 highlighted opportunities for quality improvement in areas of pedagogy, engagement, course design, assessment and accessibility. It also demonstrated the differential pace of cultural change and attention to quality improvement among various colleges. The faculty members of some colleges have readily adopted a commitment to assessment and quality improvement. In other colleges the rate of adoption is somewhat slower. The role of the Faculty Fellows, appointed initially through the Provost’s office and now through Drexel University Online, is support efforts to collect this data, to provide outreach to faculty, and to disseminate information that promotes quality improvement through professional development.

This paper will highlight faculty development initiatives delivered by the Faculty Fellows to improve online teaching across the University. Three new initiatives will be featured:
(1) Two online asynchronous courses created to address pedagogy and engagement for faculty teaching online;
(2) Workshops introducing the Quality Matters Rubric offered quarterly to address best practices in course design; and,
(3) A series of 40 workshop offered weekly focusing on assessment, accessibility and technical skills.

Additionally, we will describe the challenges and successes encountered as these initiatives were being designed, implemented, and evaluated and outline areas for further development.

Keywords:

Faculty development, online teaching, quality improvement.