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

QUESTIONS?braddlee@mercy.edu

npawlyshyn@mercy.edu http://nancybpawlyshyn.wordpress.com

lolson@mercy.edu

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.