faculty learning communities: a model for faculty development
DESCRIPTION
Dr. Nancy Pawlyshyn, Dr. Braddlee, and Dr. Laurette Olson co-authored this presentation. On Feb. 16, 2011 Dr. Olson and I presented this to the ELI Educause event in Washington DC.TRANSCRIPT
Faculty Learning Communities:
A Model for Faculty Development
and Technology Integration
Dr. Braddlee, Dean of Libraries, Academic Technology and Online Learning
Nancy Pawlyshyn, Chief Assessment OfficerLaurette Olson, Professor of Health Sciences
MERCY COLLEGE • NEW YORK
Today’s Presenters
Nancy Pawlyshyn Chief Assessment Officer Academic Affairs
Braddlee, Dean of Libraries, Academic Technology and Online Learning
Laurette Olson, Professor of Health Sciences
Matt Lewis,Senior Instructional Designer
Today’s PresentationHow do we create a sustainable culture of
technology-infused teaching and learning?
An institutional model that works toengage faculty with technology integrationbuild an infrastructure to support itfacilitate faculty ownershipdevelop faculty leadership around technology
integrationshift focus from technology to conceptual basis for
successful teaching and learning
Today’s PresentationBackground
Institutional context, state of technology integration
Infrastructure Building and supporting a faculty development model
Leadership Roles, strategies and support
Impact Institution, faculty and students
Sustainability Lessons learned, continued management
Vision for the future
Background
About Mercy College
New York metropolitan area minority-serving institution 10,000 students in five campus locations90+ graduate and undergraduate programs and online70% of classes have fewer than 20 students approximately 220 full-time faculty and 600 visiting,
professional and adjunct facultyOne of the most affordable, private, not-for profit institutions
in the U.S. (tuition is about $16K per year)
Mission to provide motivated students the opportunity to transform their lives through higher education.
Mercy’s PACT (Personalized Achievement Contract) program mentors students to persistence and success.
Prior State of Academic Technology
Pockets of innovation
No college-wide systematic technology plan
Leverage what was working to benefit the whole college
Assessment of student learning becomes a driver
Why ePortfolios?...Began as a conversation during the “Winter
Dialogues”
Discussed as an authentic and useful tool for our student population which needs multiple supports for persistence
Committee behavior focused on previous failures
Members listened and heard the possibility of reconsideration
From there to institution-wide impact
Grown from a conversation in an ad hoc committee to an institution-wide project in under two years
Wide range of use: course developmental work, program assessment , faculty dossier, recent Middle States report
Has effectively become a key part of our assessment program for the entire College
Why had previous ePortfolio efforts failed?
Advanced by a single faculty user
Few perceived benefits to faculty
Believed that students would not engage with this type of technology
Perceived as being difficult—technology too advanced
No formal faculty development program or infrastructure to advance initiatives
Seen as being too costly
Infrastructure
Getting Started: The early steps
Established small group of faculty
Attended summer ePortfolio instituteGrowing national interest in ePortfolios to:
Improve student engagementCollect artifacts that provide evidence of learningConduct assessment of learning
Based on traditional portfolio concept, ePortfolios are collections of artifacts online:Artifacts can include various media (e.g., text, images, video,
audio)Artifacts are uploaded to an electronic workspaceSoftware is used to provide a way for interaction: draft,
feedback, reflection, resubmit, present
Getting Started: The early steps
Learning Portfolios—
Created by the student and reflect a student-centered approach
Include defined learning outcomes
Encourage reflective thinking
Span multiple courses, or entire college experience
Foster integrative learning across varied domains (academic/professional/cross-disciplinary, knowledge/practice)
Getting Started: Choosing a tool
Determined our own needs for a toolBrainstormed our needsDeveloped a matrix Identified our priority: well-supported and user-friendly
interface with integrated assessment tools (rubrics and standards)
In-depth analysis of tools and vendors resulted in pilot of TaskStream in Spring 2009
Started very small with a few classes / small goals and 50 student accounts
Getting Started: The early steps
Set overarching strategic learning goals for the introduction of ePortfolio for students around engagement, assessment and technology
Primary goal: to engage students in reflection, and also...
To use ePortfolio to advance a philosophy of assessment for learning, and an...
awareness of own urgency to bring technology fluency to our students’ ways of learning.
Building a Faculty Learning CommunityRecognized need for an identity
Adopted the model of the faculty learning community
Group included an administrative champion
Key role: enabling the group to believe their work would have an outcome
Nature of work was intentional, inspired, self-directed and collaborative
Based on inquiry and scholarship
What is a Faculty Learning Community?
In Milton Cox’s work, a FLC is defined as:
“a cross-disciplinary faculty and staff group of six to fifteen members who engage in an active, collaborative …curriculum about enhancing teaching and learning with …activities that provide learning, development, the scholarship of teaching, and community building…”
(Cox, 2004)
Theoretical Underpinnings Collaborative learning forms the basis of the
construction of knowledge (Dewey, 1938).
Empowers the learner as an active participant in the construction of knowledge (Bruffee, 1993).
Builds trust in an environment of “…clarity, consensus, and commitment regarding the organization’s basic purposes…” (Vaill, 1984 in Sergiovanni, 1992, p.83).
Creates conditions that lead to innovation (Bielacyzc & Collins, 2006).
Situates faculty as leaders in their role as knowledge creators (Pawlyshyn, 2010).
Reasons for Success
Academic innovations have failed because they have been implemented without an understanding of “how faculty learn and develop, how change occurs in academic culture, and what the most effective strategies are for change” (Angelo, 2002).
“Colleges have greatly underestimated faculty acceptance of accountability and, consequently, have not tapped their creativity in defining and implementing meaningful systems for it ” (Crow, 2004).
Leadership
“The litmus test of all leadership is whether it mobilizes people’s commitment to put their energy into actions designed to improve things” (Fullan, 2001).
Three Key Leadership Roles
Faculty learning community Emerging infrastructure to support innovation
and faculty leadership
Identity as MePort, the Mercy College ePortfolio Project
Newly launched Faculty Center for Teaching & Learning, led by six faculty leaders, provides umbrella. Funded by a Title V grant to support technology integration in teaching & learning.
Administrative champions are strong collaborators
Principles Guiding Implementation
Inclusiveness not exclusiveness – no applicationMembership vs. attendanceConnection to colleagues valued and fosteredStaff and Faculty co-facilitators leading sessions Collaborative research projects Development of curriculum modulesTraining and group gatherings supplement small
cohort meetingsRewards-based: no financial compensation
Key Strategies for SuccessBeing strategic—seeking opportunities,
communicating progress, sharing not proselytizing
Seeking out possible funding sources from grants
Establishing support from senior administration
Creating a workable process—regular meetings, space, supplies, books, lunch
Setting up the pilot with a research design—aligned with the faculty approach to problem solving and scholarship
Starting with small achievable goals
Institutional support
Impact
Institutional Impact: Our EvolutionSummer 2008: 5 faculty and 1 administrator - Explored
Fall 2008: 9 faculty, 3 staff, 1 administrator - Defined
Spring 2009: 11 faculty, 3 staff, 1 administrator - Piloted
Fall 2009: Two learning communities with 33 faculty - Expanded
Fall 2009: The Faculty Center leadership led a Fall faculty seminar day on the theme of “Innovation and Collaboration,” which launched the concept of faculty learning communities to advance faculty-led initiatives - Shared
Institutional Impact: Where We Are Today
The original faculty learning community is now the facilitation team for MePort.
Strategic planning and organization of all logistics.
100 faculty in MePort learning communities
1000 students have begun
ePortfolios by Fall 2010
This number grows daily.
Institutional Impact: Where We Are Today
The Faculty Learning Community is the model of choice
for other technology integration initiatives.
• Digital storytelling
• iClickers
• WIMBA
• Online pedagogy
Impact: Diversity of ePortfolio Applications
Tenure and promotion dossier/professional development planning
Framework for fieldwork and practicum reflection and assessment
Program capstone and general education assessment
Course learning folios
Assessment for prior learning achievement
Student showcase of best work
Impact of the Learning Community
Ongoing qualitative data collection includes faculty reflections that present these themes:
Strengthened faculty confidence to experiment
Established sense of engagement at the College
Enabled independent thought
Underscored importance of community and team
Motivation to participate is not based on financial rewards (Pink, 2010).
Student ImpactInitial survey data shows that 71% of our
students indicate they see better evidence of their learning and get more feedback from their faculty using the ePortfolio tool
Evidence points us in a direction of increasing our outreach and training efforts for students.
Increasing integration between ePortfolio and our Learning Management System
Impact of Faculty Learning Community Model on my
Engagement with TechnologyDr. Laurette Olson, Professor, School of Health Sciences
My teaching challengesTeach undergraduate and graduate courses to
working, adult students who have full time jobs, family responsibilities, live a distance from campus, and rely on old cars or public transportation
Teach nontraditional weekend classes that meet from 9 am to 5:30 pm
Collaborate with adjuncts in teaching; they support my teaching by facilitating small groups and supervising students as the students design and lead groups for children. They live a distance from campus and have full time jobs and families.
Technology can support the resolutions of these
challenges, but locating, exploring and applying
learning technologies are time consuming, overwhelming and
frustrating if an instructor goes at it alone (unless you’re
a “techie”).
FLCs provided me with: Access to learning about technology side by side with other
faculty on my home campus
New ways to look at teaching and learning
Relaxed, supportive, warm environment to learn, practice and apply technological assists for teaching and learning
A cross disciplinary community
Social modeling of self efficacy
New colleagues who were open, willing and available to offer support and tutorials as I applied technologies.
Self direction and self paced learning and application of learning
WIMBA FLC: Virtual Classroom technology
The confidence to say that : Class goes on…. even in a blizzard
Ways that Faculty in my FLC and I are using
WIMBAExtra help sessions
Office hours
Learning communities of students and faculty
Small group supervision and discussions
Bringing in guest speakers who might not otherwise be able to participate
Taskstream Eportfolio FLC helped my students and me go from:
Supporting Meta-reflection
Learning to present myself and how to teach my students how to present themselves through an
eportfolio
Iclickers FLC gave me a way to :
Engage students in focusing on key concepts. Promote critical thinking about class content: the students and me.Collect excellent formative assessment data
Positive experiences with Formal FLCs lead to informal FLCs to address
teaching/learning needs: One example
Google Docs informal FLC: to help faculty problem based learning
facilitators help students share their group work in an organized way.
Initiated by faculty (me) but supported by FCTL through the support of an instructional designer to create initial materials for teaching faculty and students specific ways of using Google Docs.
Indirect benefits of core faculty participating in FLCs: More adjuncts using technology to support their
teaching
Enthusiasm and belief in the benefits of the technologies for teaching and learning engages adjuncts in learning and using technology in classes where they co-teach with core faculty.
Adjuncts seek out learning and supports to apply technologies to enhance teaching and learning in their own classes
Adjuncts experience teaching as more do-able and rewarding with technology tools and supports.
Sustainability
Sustainability: Ongoing Challenges
Challenge:
Changing the culture of the College
Overcoming resistance to change and accepting individual initiative as change agent outside the established hierarchy
Strategies:
Sharing success and garnering broad attention
Infusing the project with scholarship and opportunities for faculty to publish and present
FIPSE Grant collaboration with Melissa Peet at UMichigan and partnering with Boston University, Clemson, DePaul, and Portland State
Sustainability: Ongoing Challenges
Challenge:
Supporting and engaging faculty, including adjuncts
Protecting faculty initiative
Strategies:
Offering enough training and connection opportunities to sustain support
Building opportunities for faculty to share work
Expanding outreach to increase acceptance
Sustainability: Ongoing Challenges
Challenge:
Sustaining funding support in downturns
Strategies:
Always seeking funding from grants and collaborations
Write ePortfolios and other technology initiatives into grant proposals
Institutionalizing faculty learning communities within the Faculty Center and the organizational structure where it resides – budgets, staff, space
Sustainability: Ongoing Challenges
Challenge:
Increasing student engagement
Strategies:
Training workshops for students
Intense development over the summer of 2010
Students help design the workshops and class visits
Expanded multimedia tools for students
Focus our learning community efforts on students
Sustainability: Continued Management
Continued leadership from senior administration
Appointment of Chief Assessment Officer in Academic Affairs and new Dean with oversight of Academic Technology
15-member MePort Facilitation Team serves as a model for implementation of other initiatives
Supporting project through planning and service
More school-based outreach to deans and chairs
Liaisons appointed from schools
Concluding thoughtsA sustainable commitment to technology integration
across the institution requires
Faculty engagement and ownership
Willingness to experiment
Effective tools that are relevant for your institution
Resources from across the institution and with external partners
A pull approach as opposed to push
Leadership across key constituents
[email protected] http://nancybpawlyshyn.wordpress.com
References Angelo, T. (2002) Engaging and supporting faculty in the scholarship of assessment. In T. Banta,
(2002). Building a scholarship of assessment (2nd edition). San Francisco. Jossey-Bass.
Banta, T.W. (2002). Building a scholarship of assessment (2nd edition). San Francisco. Jossey-Bass.
Barrett. H. (2010, May 6). Portfolio life: ePortfolios for faculty professional development and lifelong learning. Presentation at the first annual Mercy College Faculty Development Symposium, Bronx, NY.
Bielaczyc, K. & Collins, A. (2006). Fostering knowledge-creating communities. In A. O’Donnell, C. Hmelo-Silver, & G. Erkens. (2006) Collaborative learning, reasoning and technology. NJ: Erlbaum Associates Publishers.
Bruffee, Kenneth. (1998). Collaborative learning: Higher education, interdependence, and the authority of knowledge. MD: The Johns Hopkins University Press.
Cox, M. (2004). Introduction to faculty learning communities. [Electronic version]. New Directions for Teaching and Learning. No. 97.
Crow, S. (2004, April) Testimony to the National Commission on Accountability in Higher Education. Chicago, IL. Retrieved June 7, 2009 from http://www.sheeo.org/account/comm/testim/NCACS%20testimony.pdf
Dewey, J. (1938, 1997). Experience & education. New York: Touchstone
Fullan, M. (2001). Leadership in a culture of change. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
References Hubball, H., Collins, J. & Pratt, D. (2005, September) Enhancing reflective teaching practices:
Implications for faculty development programs. [Electronic Version]. The Canadian Journal of Higher Education. Vol. 35, No. 3, pp. 57-81. Retrieved April 2009 from http://www.eric.ed.gov:80/ERICWebPortal/custom/portlets/recordDetails/detailmini.jsp_nfpb=true&_&ERICExtSearch_SearchValue_0=EJ771031&ERICExtSearch_SearchType_0=no&accno=EJ771031
Macpherson. A. (2007, Oct.). Faculty learning communities: The heart of the transformative learning organization. Transformative dialogues: Teaching & learning journal. Vol. 1, issue 2. Kwantlen University College. Retrieved June 7, 2009 from http://kwantlen.ca/TD/TD.12/TD.1.2_Macpherson_Learning_Communities.pdf.
O’Meara, K. (2005). The courage to be experimental: How one faculty learning community influenced faculty teaching careers, understanding of how students learn and assessment. [Electronic version]. Journal of Faculty Development, Vol. 20, No. 3 New Forums Press, Stillwater, OK. Retrieved April 2009 from http://newforums.metapress.com/content/c7q78188nl447804/
Pink, D. (2009). Drive: The surprising truth about what motivates us. NY: Riverhead Books.
Senge, P. (1990). Give me a lever long enough…and single-handed I can move the world. In Jossey-Bass (2007). The Jossey-Bass reader on educational leadership (2nd ed.) San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Sergiovanni, T. (1992). Leadership as stewardship. In Jossey-Bass (2007). The Jossey-Bass reader on educational leadership (2nd ed.). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.