Archives for August 2017

Designing Personalized Online Teaching Professional Development through Self-Assessment

August 27, 2017 By Jason Rhode Leave a Comment

TechTrendsMany institutions use a one-size-fits-all approach to faculty development for online teaching, which does not meet the needs of faculty who often have different levels of experience, skill, and self-efficacy in online teaching and learning. To address these issues, the Northern Illinois University Faculty Development and Instructional Design Center designed and implemented an online teaching readiness self-assessment. The instrument was developed based on key attributes and skills needed for proficiency in online teaching, in three areas: online teaching experience and attitudes, learning management system proficiency, and access to technology. The self-assessment was distributed through a web-based survey tool to faculty who were identified to develop new online courses. Individual results were used to create personalized frameworks of professional development offerings (workshops, institutes, videos, and consultations) and just-in-time resources to support faculty in their development process.

Citation

Rhode, J., Richter, S., & Miller, T. (2017). Designing personalized online teaching professional development through self-assessment. TechTrends, 61(5), 444-451. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11528-017-0211-3

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Essentials for Preparing to Teach an Existing Online Course on Short Notice

August 27, 2017 By Jason Rhode Leave a Comment

Presentation Title Slide

In this presentation at the 2017 Distance Teaching & Learning Conference at UW-Madison, we explored questions to consider when preparing faculty to teach a developed online course at the last minute. Through our presentation, paper, and resources we shared a diagnostic framework for identifying the key elements of online teaching readiness, including technology proficiency, to fast-track preparedness to successfully facilitate an online course.

Citation

Rhode, J., & Miller, T. (2017, July). Essentials for preparing to teach an existing online course on short-notice. Paper published in the proceedings of the 33rd Annual Distance Teaching & Learning Conference, Madison, WI.

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Building a Sustainable Quality Matters Community of Practice Through Social Network Analysis

August 7, 2017 By Jason Rhode Leave a Comment

ajdeThe growth of distance education has necessitated strong evidence of quality for institutions of higher education, and numerous standards and principles of quality have been developed, such as Quality Matters™ (Quality Matters). These systems are often considered only at the course level to guide design and improve student outcomes, but they can also help to pull the institution together and galvanize advancement in online development. Adopting online quality standards can be a complex process that requires changes to institutional culture. This article describes how the use of the Community of Practice (CoP) framework engaged a campus-wide network of individuals in adoption of the Quality Matters training, rubric, and review process to advance distance education support and online course development. Using Social Network Analysis, researchers were able to identify the strengths and weakness of the CoP during the early adoption phase of Quality Matters to quantitatively measure the connections among members of the community. View article »

Citation

Cowan, J., Richter, S., Miller, T., Rhode, J., Click, A., & Underwood, J. (2017). Building a sustainable Quality MattersTM community of practice through social network analysis. The American Journal of Distance Education, 31(3), 160-172. https://doi.org/10.1080/08923647.2017.1316154

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