Going Multi-modal & Inter-institutional: Innovations in Professional Development for Distance Education

Audience Level: 
All
Session Time Slot(s): 
Institutional Level: 
Higher Ed
Abstract: 

New Mexico Highlands University, with 5 campus locations, delivers training for online course development and instruction using a multi-modal and inter-institutional approach. The presentation will demonstrate the model, query attendees on how they approach professional development to multiple audiences, and provide evidence of effectiveness from the faculty perspective. 

Extended Abstract: 

New Mexico Highlands University (NMHU) includes a main campus and 4 center locations across the state of New Mexico. The Center for Teaching Excellence at NMHU and Title V grant programs “UNIDOS” and “CONECTADO” provide professional development for online teaching and learning to all campus locations. In addition, through the UNIDOS initiative, NMHU partners with Adam State University and the University of New Mexico Taos to provide an innovative inter-institutional faculty support and training program to all three institutions. Multi-modal trainings are offered via onsite workshops, live zoom sessions and asynchronously through our LMS. Development opportunities include discussion forums, webinars, workshops, video recordings and a digital newsletter that assist faculty in course development, as well as covering pedagogical and andragogical aspects of the online educational environment and experience.

The presenters will describe the multi-modal, inter-institutional model for providing professional development for online teaching offered at NMHU. During the session, the presenters will engage the attendees through polling software and discussion to share their methods for training delivery, challenges, and innovations. In addition to sharing modals of delivery, we will introduce the faculty perspective of this training, and will provide data on the impact of training on the use of the LMS, the development of new online courses, and the faculty evaluation of services. The presenters will discuss with attendees various methods for assessing professional development effectiveness.  

The outcomes of this presentation will be for attendees to hear models for delivering training to multiple campuses and for attendees to share existing or potential models of inter-institutional collaborations for delivering professional development. The presented model is one that can be replicated at other institutions. A PDF of the presentation will be provided to attendees and conference proceedings, and posted on the OLC conference website.

Conference Session: 
Concurrent Session 6
Conference Track: 
Professional Development and Support
Session Type: 
Education Session
Intended Audience: 
Administrators
Faculty
Training Professionals
All Attendees