Mid-South Instructional Technology Conference
Teaching, Learning, & Technology
The Challenge Continues
March 30-April 1, 2003
Decentralized Professional Development: Distance Education Technology Workshops for University Faculty
|
By: Michael M. Grant |
Abstract
Faculty development centers often implement instructional support through workshops. As their names imply, these centers have provided a centralized location for professional development. What is not known, however, is in what ways decentralized workshops away from the faculty development center are useful to university faculty. This case study at The University of Memphis explores how one teacher education department customized university instructional support for distance education technologies, specifically WebCT.
Description
While distance education has been in use for over a century (Brownson & Harriman, 2000), the quick acceptance of the World Wide Web (WWW) has offered new possibilities for interactive instruction. Some faculty have been early adopters of distance education, while other faculty have been reluctant to integrate these innovations into their instruction (Olcott & Wright, 1995). Butner, Smith and Murray (1999) reported significant university resources have been allocated in order to support distance education. These resources not only support the courses but also promote faculty professional development and decrease faculty reluctance to integrate distance education technologies. Professional development at universities has included methods to assist faculty in becoming familiar with and in applying distance education technologies.
One of the primary methods technology professional development for university faculty has been implemented is through faculty development centers (Shapiro, 1998). Faculty development centers are housed on-site at institutions and are supported by a single institution. These centers often offer instructional support for university faculty to develop and improve instruction. Often these resources take the form of specialists, such as instructional designers, graphic designers, teaching assistants, library media specialists and audio/video producers (Lee, 2001).
Instructional support from faculty development centers are often implemented through workshops. These workshops target improving specific skills, such as using databases, building a web page syllabus or scanning photos. For distance education, the instructional support may include course redesigns, training in the use and application of distance education technologies, as well as media and technical support (Lee, 2001). As their names imply, these centers have provided a centralized location for professional development. What is not known, however, is in what ways decentralized training away from the faculty development center are useful to university faculty. Does customized professional development for specific departments or colleges aid faculty to integrate distance education technologies into curricula?
The Advanced Learning Center, a faculty development center at the University of Memphis, currently uses a centralized approach to reach the university faculty's need for distance education technology training. Faculty from across the university's colleges and departments have attended successive workshops in order to develop skills and future online courses. While previous instructional support for distance education technologies has lasted an entire semester, this training would be compacted to two, two-hour sessions initially in order to give faculty an opportunity integrate aspects of distance education, such as synchronous and asynchronous communications, into their current curricula without designing an immersive online environment (Harmon & Jones, 1999). The chair for the Instruction and Curriculum Leadership department approached the Advanced Learning Center about a condensed series of two workshops specifically for his department. The focus of these workshops would be to introduce faculty to the web-based learning environment and encourage faculty to integrate distance education technologies into courses that are taught on-campus and not just at a distance. These workshops would be delivered in the College of Education.
The purpose of this research was to explore in what ways does decentralized professional development aid faculty in integrating distance education technologies. In addition, this research documented in what ways university faculty were satisfied or dissatisfied with intra-departmental training. A small case study design was used to interview participants and reviewed workshop evaluations in order to document how intra-departmental professional development on distance education technologies was useful to faculty.