“Ask ADDIE” Tells All: Lessons Learned from Writing a Faculty Development Advice Column

As part of the online community of practice for instructional designers/faculty developers offered through the publicly accessible, open-licensed Teaching Online Preparation Toolkit (TOPkit), the creators launched a monthly Dear Abby or Ann Landers-style “advice column.” Real world faculty development design challenge scenarios have been solicited from colleagues throughout the US at variety of institutions offering online programs and preparing faculty to teach in them. Each column features one of these dilemmas along with “ADDIE’s” response featuring collegial advice with an emphasis on applicability to various institution types and a connection back to the open resources from the TOPkit site.

In this session, after ten months of writing this column, the two authors behind the “ADDIE” facade share what they’ve learned about about faculty development, our online education community, and the writing process.

The presentation will be replete with examples and demonstrations, and an active Twitter backchannel will be encouraged through establishment of a session hashtag (in addition to the conference hashtag) and monitored for response by an associate.The presenters will solicit input and feedback from the participants throughout the session (and afterward) via online polling, question-and-answer, and through the backchannel. The “Ask ADDIE” column is available for review at https://topkit.org/forums/forum/ask-addie/.

OUTLINE

1. Introducing “Ask ADDIE”

   1. Excerpt of an “Ask ADDIE” column

   2. Background context: TOPkit site and community

   3. Need: Anonymous venue for curating real world faculty development design challenges

2. Bringing “Ask ADDIE” to Life

   1. “ADDIE’s” persona

   2. “ADDIE” style guide

   3. Soliciting submissions

   4. Curating/editing

   5. Why anonymous?

3. Lessons Learned

   1. Themes from the first year of columns

   2. Reacting to the themes: What does this say about our field?

   3. Process improvements

   4. Engagement strategies

   5. Other future plans (e.g., the “Ask ADDIE Book”)

4. Invitation to Participate

   1. Questions/Suggestions Discussion

   2. Submitting an “Ask ADDIE” scenario

   3. Join the “Ask ADDIE” dialogue