Peer-to-Peer Development with Media-Rich Faculty Case Studies

Gail Matthews-DeNatale, Ph.D.Associate Director, Academic Technology

Elizabeth Santiago, Ed.M.Senior Instructional Designer, Academic Technology

2008 Sloan-C International Conference on Online Learning

Presentation Agenda

• Simmons & Blended Learning

• Faculty PD Strategies: Show of Hands

• The Conundrum

• About the Case Studies

• Case Study Tour

• Pair/Share: Uses and Wish List

About Simmons

• 100+ years old

• Private college located in Boston

• 5,000 students (1/2 grad, 1/2 undergrad)

• Women’s undergrad college and five co-educational grad schools

• Small university

Blended Learning @ Simmons

2006-07

• Shared Academic Technology Vision (campus-wide process)

• Blended learning identified as a priority

2008-10

• Awarded a Sloan “Localness” grant to

• Blend two programs

• Develop infrastructure and policies in support of blended

• Articulate model congruent with “high touch” campus culture

Progress

• Official policies authorized in support of blended

• Support documents for Curriculum Committees

• Twice annual faculty institute (based on UW-M)

• 37 Simmons faculty and staff have participated

• 20 courses have been blended

• Project assessment instruments created, in implementation

Good so far, but there are challenges

Blended Learning @ Simmons

Strategies: Show of Hands

How many of your institutions

• Hold annual conferences or showcases of exemplary faculty use of technology for teaching?

• Host “faculty lunches” or other opportunities for peer-to-peer sharing?

• Offer intensive faculty institutes or multi-week faculty seminars

… with faculty as presenters and facilitators?

Strategies: Show of Hands

How many of these events …

If You Organized Them

• Were difficult to schedule at a time people could attend?

• Lacked “critical mass” and key people weren’t there?

• Overstretched staff and faculty presenter resources?

• Felt like “one shots” that didn’t add up to much?

If You Wanted/Did Go

• Took place at a time that you couldn’t attend?

• Would have been better if attended by a peer cohort?

• Needed to go into more detail to inform your teaching?

• Could have been more useful if they were documented?

The Conundrum

• Faculty feel they learn best from one another • Faculty prefer self-paced and/or informal

(one-on-one mentoring), as opposed to formal formats

• Time is a precious commodity for most faculty• Potential faculty mentors have limited

capacity and availability

Source: Taylor and McQuiggan (Educause Quarterly, September 2008)

Simmons Model for PD

Option 2: Developw/o ID consultation

Option 1: Develop in consultation with ID

Instructor w/o prior blended experience

Participate in one week intensive institute, plans and receives feedback

Plan

Institute outcome includes a course redesign plan

+ ID

Experienced faculty contribute to future

institutes & workshops

• Builds a faculty community of support for blended• But success depends on presence of faculty presenters• Through ethnographic documentation, use f2f to build virtual

Ethnographic Case Studies

Include• Video Interview

• Course Tour

• Sample Course Materials(Modules, Assignments)

• Recommended Exercises for Blended Course Redesign

• Glossary of Terms

Designed to also be used as learning modules

Ethnographic Case Studies

Use Scenarios• Face-to-face institutes or

blended institutes

• Fully online professional development (especially for adjuncts)

• Scheduled asynchronous (faculty available online as discussants)

• Self-paced independent

See Case Study Tour

About the Case Studies

Ten faculty cases planned for 08-09, eight are “in the can,” and topics include:

• The “Faculty-Instructional Designer” relationship

• Involving students in online journaling

• Writing online course materials & assignments

• Personalizing your writing tone

• Designing blended group assignments

• Top “10 Tips” for course redesign

• Authoring discussion prompts and facilitation

• Involving students in multimedia production

• From CATs to BLATs

• Strategies for supporting blended students

Pair/Share: Uses and Wishes

• If a series of cases like these were available to you, how would you use them at your institution?

• What features would be most important to you? What could be omitted? What could be added?

• What additional topics would you like to see in a series like this?

Thank You

To receive notification on the release of the cases, please use the sign-up sheet or email gmdenatale@simmons.edu