Designing Competency-Based Self-Paced Online Workshops for Introducing Faculty to Online

Teaching Technologies

Jason Rhode, PhD @jrhode

October 29, 2014 | OLC Annual Conference, Orlando, FL #ALN14

Polling Question

What competencies should faculty demonstrate before teaching their first online course?

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Description

During this session, learn about Northern Illinois University's innovative faculty development initiative to offer introductory online technology training via self-paced online workshops as a component of comprehensive online faculty certification. An overview of the process identifying technology competencies for online teaching will be shared as well as the design, development, and implementation phases of the project, highlighting lessons learned and tips for other institutions interested in pursuing a similar self-paced model for scaling their faculty development efforts.

Challenge

• Instructors recruited who aren’t in physical proximity to campus or have full-time job and can’t attend training

• Newly hired instructors needing access to training before contract begins

• Instructors hired on short notice• Increasingly instructors have previous

experience and simply need to demonstrate proficiency

About NIU

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Northern Illinois University

About NIU

» Main campus in DeKalb, IL located 65 miles West of Chicago

» Total enrollment: 20,611 (Fall ‘14)

» 1,135 instructional faculty

» Student to faculty ratio: 18:1

» 39 academic departments; 57 undergraduate majors; 80 graduate programs

» 95% of undergrads and 79% of grad students are from Illinois

» 719 international students from 122 countries

Current Status of Online Teaching at NIU

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Online Courses Offered

• NIU currently offers less than 100-150 course sections online per semester

• In fall 2014, 122 online courses offered from 6 colleges

Blackboard Usage at NIU

• 96% of students• 92% of instructional

Faculty/Staff/TAs• 63% of course sections• 4.24 course

sections/student on Blackboard

As of Fall 2014:

Previous Support Offered by Faculty Development and

Instructional Design Center

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Online Teaching 101

• 6-week online learning experience for NIU faculty offered during summer past 3 years

• 2 f2f sessions, remainder all online, 1 module completed each week

face-to-face wrap-up session

Teaching EngagingOnline Courses

• Interactive 1-day workshop presented by Center staff providing systematic overview of pedagogical and pragmatic considerations in creating a quality online teaching and learning experience

Challenges

• Faculty find it difficult to attend training programs of extended duration during the semester

• Many units, such as Nursing and Technology, have considerable student demand for online courses but rely on adjuncts who often can’t attend on campus or online programs with fixed schedules

Online Workshops & Archives

Over 110 archived online workshops offered by the Center to date available on topics related to online teaching and technology integration

“Preparing to Teach Online”

• Self-paced training modules on online teaching

• First of 3-step approach to potential online teaching certification process for NIU faculty

Self-Paced Online Learning

Experience

One-on-One Consultations

Face-to-Face Workshops

Online Program Development and Support

New Organizational StructureExecutive Vice President

and ProvostVice President of Outreach,

Engagement, & Regional Dev.

Assistant Vice President for Outreach Adult and Non-credit

Programming Vice Provost for Faculty Affairs

Director, Faculty Development and Instructional Design Center Director, eLearning Services

Support for Online Teaching

Customized online teaching support services offered to prepare program faculty to teach online:

Introduction to Online Teaching

Consultations on Online Teaching

Technology Skill

Development Workshops &

Resources

Readiness Self-Assessment

Individualized online teaching professional development plan

Access to Technology

Technology Proficiency

Previous Online

Teaching Experience

Online Teaching Concierge

• Individualized plan of suggested live and recorded online workshops, tutorials, and related resources

• “Online Teaching Concierge” who you can contact for guidance and assistance getting started teaching online

Competency-Based Self-Paced

Blackboard Workshop

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Why Self-Paced?

• Accommodates full spectrum of previous experiences

• Training prospective instructors before hired• Scalable, flexible, mobile• Growing preferences for just-in-time resources

and training• Leverage existing on-demand support

resources

Teaching with Blackboard

niu.edu/blackboard

Just-In-Time Support

Stats shown for 2013-2014 academic year

Illinois

USA

World

Repeated Use

11% of traffic visited site > 50 times

18% of traffic visited site > 25 times

Linking Institutions

5014.9% of pageviews

from other .edu

Tutorial Views

5,400views on YouTube

Device Traffic

Desktop, 85.51%

Phone, 10.19%

Tablet, 3.30%

Vision for Self-Paced Model

• Publicly available for any user, not requiring login

• Just-in-time access to information, no enrollment needed

• Shared via Creative Commons• Mobile-optimized• Option for users to demonstrate competencies

to receive “credit” for attending, awarded badge

Benefits to Self-Paced Model

• Those who can’t attend in-person or commit to specific timeframe can gain introductory information

• Faculty who want to get started quickly can accelerate their learning

• Accommodates those with differing teaching and technology expertise so that they can begin with the self-paced training and then receive follow-up assistance for course-specific needs

Competencies

facdev.niu.edu/bbcompetencies

Workshop Outline

facdev.niu.edu/bb1outline

Production Task Tracker

Demo (Prototype in Development)

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Self-Paced Workshops

Redesigning our website at niu.edu/facdev to include self-paced workshops – set to launch any day!

Introduction to Blackboard

Sample Tutorial Page

Closer Look

Mobile Responsive Design

YouTube Playlist on Web

facdev.niu.edu/bb1vids

YouTube Playlist on Mobile

facdev.niu.edu/bb1vids

Videos Captioned & Mobile

Videos Easily Repurposed

niu.edu/blackboard/tutorials

Quick Guides Incorporated

niu.edu/blackboard/guides

Launching Soon!

niu.edu/facdev

Questions?

Jason Rhode, Ph.D.Director, Faculty Developmentand Instructional Design CenterNorthern Illinois Universityjrhode@niu.edu @jrhode

Slides available at:

jasonrhode.com/aln14