Engaging Faculty in Course Design: Strategies for Developing Online Courses
Abstract: Training and preparing your faculty to teach online requires a new toolkit of teaching/learning strategies. The most common type of training is on the course management software (CMS) , which allows faculty to facilitate access to online lectures, assignments, discussions, quizzes, etc. In most cases, though, the training needs to go beyond the CMS toward a better understanding of instructional technologies and the facilitation of learning in an online environment. The key to a successful online course lies in faculty understanding their strengths and weaknesses in teaching online. The main strategy for faculty development is working directly with faculty and helping coordinate/collaborate with various learning resources across campus. Faculty members are assisted in navigating the critical pedagogical issues involved in teaching online. We help faculty repurpose teaching materials from the face-to-face classroom to the online environment, and provide shared resources, demo courses, and cheat sheets for setting up online courses.