Going Viral: Constructively Aligning the Use of Digital Video to Effectively Support Faculty Development

EXTENDED ABSTRACT—This proposal, which is a synthesis of the relevant research literature, focuses on the capabilities of digital video to support, facilitate and enhance faculty development. Based on the literature review, faculty development (i.e., academic or educational development) requires the continued adoption of cohesive, theoretical frameworks to guide research and practice; incorporation of relevant tools from analogous fields, such as teacher professional development; systematic program evaluations; and detailed descriptions of practice to further practice and creative development. A cohesive, five-heuristic framework is subsequently outlined to inform the design and evaluation of the use of digital video, so as to address the barriers to advancing faculty development, as identified through the literature review. Alternative impact evaluation approaches are also described, while the limitations of using digital video for faculty development are highlighted. This proposal is therefore conceived as one way to meaningfully leverage the educational affordances of digital video to address some identified gaps in faculty development.

 

Keywords—Digital video, faculty/educational development, evaluation, scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL)

 

BLENDED SESSION GOALS

The primary focus of this proposal/presentation is blended learning – the use of digital video to address gaps in educational/faculty development, including related face-to-face, traditional classroom and online learning activities. The session goals are to:

1. Illuminate gaps in educational/faculty development
2. Illustrate the synergy and transference of tools between analogous fields to enhance faculty development
3. Introduce a heuristics framework for integrating digital video into faculty development
4. Highlight alternative faculty development impact evaluation approaches, and
5. Recommend best practices for integrating digital video into faculty development programming.

 

TARGET AUDIENCE

Administrators, Design Thinkers, Faculty, Instructional Support, Students, Training Professionals, and Technologists.

 

SUPPORTING MATERIALS

The abstract and presentation (in PDF) will be available on the conference web site (Presentation Repository).

 

AUTHOR BIO

Samuel Olugbenga King has taught and conducted research in schools and universities, as well as in formal and informal learning contexts. His research, teaching, and professional experience includes extensive work experience in the higher education, school and non-profit sectors in Nigeria, South Africa, United Kingdom, and the USA. His research and teaching interests include Faculty/Academic Development, STEM Education, Informal Learning, Educational Technology, and the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL).

 

I.                   INTRODUCTION

What do Sesame Street, Teletubbies, and the Khan Academy have in common? The one common component they share is the intentional and creative use of video to enthrall, motivate and educate millions of people around the globe, from North America to Africa and Asia. Based on the premise of a broad definition of creative scholarship on the use of digital media in faculty development (i.e., educational or academic development), including the incorporation of ideas and frameworks from other fields to bridge research and practice [1], [2], this proposal will focus on the research question: How may the use of digital video be leveraged to creatively but systematically support faculty/educational development?

 

To answer the question, the study presents and builds on insights from the review of educational development literature, so as to identity the unique ways that the use of digital video [12-15] can address the identified gaps in the literature. The next section would therefore focus on a review of the educational development literature.

 

II.                BACKGROUND AND METHODS: MAPPING THE FIELD OF EDUCATIONAL/FACULTY DEVELOPMENT

At least six systematic literature reviews of educational development, including three empirical reviews [3]-[5] and three conceptual reviews [6]-[8] have been conducted. The recommendations from the reviews indicate that the following are integral to continued development in the field, i.e., gaps in educational development scholarship and practice that need to be addressed:

• The continued adoption of conceptual, but cohesive theoretical frameworks to guide research and practice in the field to address earlier deficiencies in “theoretical grounding” [6, p. 93]; see also [9, p. 146];
• The adoption of tools, frameworks and practices from more mature and analogous fields, e.g., Teacher Professional Development [6, p. 112];
• The need to incorporate standard or alternative (including creative) evaluations of educational development practices and programs [10, p. 94];
• The provision of thick or detailed descriptions of educational development practices to ensure replicability and further development [6, p. 113); and
• Identification of synergies between broad cultural trends or technology innovations, and educational development practices [7].

III.             RESULTS

Subsequently, the rest of this proposal will be structured into five sections, with each section focusing on how the use of digital video addresses a related identified gap in educational development. The five sections are:

1. An overview of the global and cultural trends on the use of digital video;
2. Does video work? A review of the impact of the use of video on educational outcomes;
3. Five-Heuristic Framework: Theoretical framing for the use of digital video in educational development;
4. Alternative evaluations of the impact of the use of digital videos for educational development; and
5. Research evidence-based recommendations for best practices for educational digital videos.

 

The goal of adopting this approach, the possible contributions of digital video to educational development from multiple perspectives, as advocated by [1], is that it can prompt educational developers to “identify the strategies, theoretical perspectives, and consultation practices best suited for the challenged at hand” [8, p. 9]; see also [11]; namely, conceptualizing the role and use of digital video in supporting educational or faculty development. Also, this creative “perspective offers an opportunity to introduce new ideas, models, and practices that can influence the development and progress” [8, p. 9] of educational development activities on both micro and macro levels. Moreover, the examples of the use of digital video to support faculty development that are provided in this proposal include thick descriptions of evidence-based practices, so as to facilitate replication.

 

REFERENCES  

1. Marquis, E. (2015). On being ‘special’: An Introduction to the Issue. The Canadian Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, 6(2).
2. Springborg, M. (2013). Teaching and Learning: Visualizing our work. Thought & Action, 141-150.
3. Levinson-Rose, J., & Menges, R. J. (1981). Improving college teaching: A critical review of research. Review of Educational Research, 51, 403–434.
4. Steinert, Y., Mann, K., Centeno, A., Dolmans, D., Spencer, J., Gelula, M., & Prideaux, D. (2006). A systematic review of faculty development initiatives designed to improve teaching effectiveness in medical education. Medical Teacher, 28, 497–526.
5. Stes, A., Min-Leliveld, M., Gijbels, D., & van Petegem, P. (2010). The impact of instructional development in higher education: The state-of-the-art of the research. Educational Research Review, 5, 25–49.
6. Amundsen, C., & Wilson, M. (2012). Are we asking the right questions? A conceptual review of the educational development literature in higher education. Review of Educational Research, 82(10), 90-126.
7. Gibbs, G. (2013). Reflections on the changing nature of educational development. International Journal of Academic Development, 18(1), 4-14.
8. Ouellett, Matthew, L. (2010). Overview of faculty development: History and choices. In Kay J. Gillespie, & Douglas L. Robertson (Eds.), A guide to faculty development (2nd ed., pp. 3-20). San-Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
9. Kennedy, M. M. (2007). Defining a literature. Educational Researcher, 36, 139–147.
10. Blomberg, G., Renkl, A., Sherin, M.G., Borko, H., & Seidel, T. (2013). Journal for Educational Research Online, 5(1), 90-114.
11. Chism, N.V.N. (2006). POD Connections: Faculty development theories. NEFDC Exchange, 17(1), 8.
12. Mayer, R.E. (Ed.). (2014b). The Cambridge handbook of multimedia learning (2nd ed.). New York: Cambridge University Press.
13. Guo, P.J., Kim, J., & Rubin, R. (2014, March). How video production affects student engagement: An empirical study of MOOC videos. Paper presented at the meeting of the ACM Conference on Learning at Scale, Atlanta, GA.
14. Curwood, J.S. (2014). English teachers’ cultural models about technology: A microethnographic perspective on professional development. Journal of Literacy Research, 46(1), 9–38.
15. P21 (2009). Framework for 21st century learning. Washington, DC: Partnership for 21st Century Skills (P21).