Open SUNY 'Interested in Teaching Online?': A Large-Scale Free Self-Paced Openly Licensed Online Faculty Readiness Resource

Audience Level:

All

Institutional Level:

Higher Ed

Abstract:

Extended Abstract:

The Interested in Teaching Online? resource is a large-scale online faculty professional development initiative intended to reach the largest most diverse group of potential online faculty in SUNY.

In this session participants will:

Explore the Open SUNY Interested in Online Teaching? resource and the companion Online Faculty Readiness resource, and consider ways it might be adopted/used at their own institution.
Earn the "Community Participation" badge for attending the presentation, which demonstrates interest in learning more about developing online faculty and addressing the challenge of faculty buyin, motivation, and preparedness to teach online.
Earn the “Friend of SUNY” badge by joining and participating in the online community.
Have the opportunity to continue the conversation beyond the end of the workshop with others interested in badges, professional development and online teaching and learning by participating in online discussions in the Interested Group in the Open SUNY Online Teaching online community.

Introduction

The Open SUNY Online Teaching unit has developed a free self-paced openly-licensed resource for those interested in learning more about teaching online. The aim of the Interested in Teaching Online? course is to provide an entry point for anyone interested in online teaching, that lowers barriers, and provides a way to address online faculty readiness, self-assess the necessary fundamental technical skills, dispel misperceptions, and to provide online faculty, staff, and student perspectives on effective online teaching. This unique resource provides a system-wide approach to develop common understanding about what it means to teach online across institutions, departments, and disciplines, and is intended for administrators, deans/department chairs, librarians, technologists, faculty developers, online student support staff, faculty and instructional designers that allows us to reach tens of thousands of prospective online practitioners systematically and consistently on a very large scale. Our original problem/challenge was how to increase the number of faculty in SUNY interested in teaching online.? While 6000 online SUNY faculty have already been successfully trained, and the scale of online learning at SUNY is extensive, to take online education to the next level in SUNY we needed a way to reach the 27,000 faculty not yet engaged in online teaching in SUNY. The Interested in Teaching Online? resource is a large-scale online faculty professional development initiative intended to reach the largest most diverse group of potential online faculty in SUNY. Providing a unique self-paced online resource allows us to consistently and systematically professionally develop and prepare cohorts of potential and interested faculty with a fundamental understanding and set of skills to be successful online on a large scale.

SUNY has enjoyed tremendous success in online faculty development. Our online faculty development model, approaches, online course design innovations, online course quality rubric, resources and tools have been recognized nationally and internationally. Online faculty and student satisfaction are high and online faculty perceptions and attitudes about online teaching and learning are higher than nation-wide averages. However, while 6000 SUNY faculty have been successfully trained over the last 20 years to teach online, SUNY has 33,000+ full time faculty. The pool 27,000+ faculty yet involved in online teaching in SUNY are identified as potential online faculty to take online education to the next level in SUNY. A campaign to develop a large-scale common entry point for anyone interested in learning more about online teaching emerged.

Our challenges:

How do we get faculty interested in teaching online?
How can we help those who may be interested in teaching online determine if online teaching is a good fit for them?
How do we systematically and consistently reach a very large diverse audience with a positive comprehensive overview of teaching online?
What are the core competencies necessary for success in teaching online?
How can we ensure that prospective online faculty have a common set of the requisite technical skills to be successful in an online environment?
How can we promote a common understanding of online education within SUNY and establish common language and definitions with which to talk about online education within the Open SUNY context?
How can we address skepticism, assumptions, and dispel common misconceptions regarding online learning?
How can we introduce an overview of the various online pedagogies and models of online course development, faculty development that exist in Open SUNY?
How can we promote an understanding of the benefits and affordances of the online teaching and learning environment?
How can we support online instructional designers to be most effective in their online faculty professional development activities?
How can we assist those that support online faculty or students to understand what is relevant and unique in online education?

A set of fundamental competencies were identified to give faculty and online instructional designers a baseline for the prerequisite skills, knowledge and attitudes necessary before beginning any online faculty development or online course design activities. The purpose of the initiative was to lower barriers of potentially interested faculty and provide relevant information about online education.

The target audience is anyone in SUNY (and beyond – as an openly licensed resource) who is interested in learning more about online instruction and for those who might be curious to see if teaching online might be for them. Those interested might or might not have some limited experience in online teaching, and would not necessarily be those who are currently scheduled to develop or teach an online course. This would provide an informal entry point for anyone who wants to learn more targeting the fundamental online teaching competencies.

Objectives/Goals:

Provide an online teaching readiness inventory as a self-assessment for the prerequisite technical skills necessary to be successful teaching online.
Promote and build a common understanding of online education within SUNY and to establish common language and definitions within the Open SUNY context.
Address skepticism, assumptions and misconceptions regarding online learning.
Get people interested. Promote an understanding of the benefits and affordances of the online teaching and learning environment.
Provide an overview of the various online pedagogies and models of online course development, faculty development that exist in Open SUNY.
Help those interested determine if online teaching is a good fit for them.

An Overview of the Resource

Interested in teaching online? is essentially a website collection of resources including:

An overview of online education.
A set of self-assessment inventories designed to identify gaps that need to be filled before proceeding with any online faculty development/course design activities.
Definitions of common terms for establishing a common language and understanding about online teaching and learning.
Videos, interviews/testimonials from online faculty and students from multiple campuses across multiple disciplines (to showcase benefits, breadth of disciplines, address assumptions and misconceptions).
- Student Videos: 1. Videos of students to expose faculty to the perspective of online learners (reasons for taking an online course) 2. Video tips for student success - from the students! (online student readiness) 3. Video tips for faculty from students.
- Videos of exemplar faculty discussing the typical questions and concerns faculty have who are new to online teaching or course development.
- Videos with exemplar online faculty discussing their best practices and suggestions for novice faculty.
- Interviews of faculty discussion the design decisions they made in the design of their first online course and lessons learned.
Showcase of exemplar online courses from multiple campuses across multiple disciplines. Opportunities to view exemplar online courses.
Discussion forums to interact with others interested, exemplars and experts to ask questions about online teaching and learning experiences, design decisions, etc.

Interested in Teaching Online? A free openly licensed Open SUNY self-paced online resource designed to:

Help prospective online faculty check their readiness to be successful teaching online.
Help others understand what it takes to be successful online.
Review common terms related to online teaching and learning.
Identify the fundamental competencies needed to teach online.
Explain the value of applied effective online teaching practices.
Provide an overview of benefits and affordances of teaching online.
Help prospective online faculty determine if online teaching is right for them.
Provide an introduction to the online Open SUNY Community of Practice with opportunities to meet others interested in online teaching and learning, network, ask questions, get help, and share interests in online teaching and learning.

It is intended for anyone interested in learning more about online teaching: faculty, administrators, deans/department chairs, librarians, technologists, faculty developers, instructional designers, online student support staff, etc.

There are 2 ways to engage with this self-paced resource. You have the option of following a more structured Mapped Out Journey, or you can explore all the same content by following your own Meandering Way. Both options are self-paced - meaning you complete the activities in the course on your own, at your own pace.

In the Mapped out Journey you are provided with a formal path that guides you step by step in a logical way through the materials, activities and assessments. You begin with some Online Faculty Readiness activities, complete several self-assessments and view several videos for an overview of the basics in online teaching and to check your technical skills. A handy checklist helps you track your progress and completion of the readiness activities. You then follow the path through 3 consecutive modules that will give you a solid overview of the fundamentals in the online teaching landscape, competencies, and effective practices. Each module begins with an overview, and is followed by a series of topics, and an opportunity to check your understanding. You can view and review the materials and take the module quizzes as many times as you like.

The Meandering Way is not structured. Informally, you can browse the course content and pages just like a website – click on any page or link that interests you. You can review the materials and complete the activities at your own pace in any order you like. You can skip around, or skip topics with which you are already familiar. You can skip right to the module quizzes to confirm your understanding of the fundamentals if you like. Like with the Mapped out Journey you can view and review any of the course materials and take the module quizzes as many times as you like.

Both options cover all the same content, information, and have the same resources and opportunities to engage in optional conversations and for assessment to check your understanding along the way.

No matter which option you choose the more formal step by step Mapped Out Journey, or the informal Meandering Way, you can use this handy checklist to track your progress toward completion.

An optional opportunity to connect with others interested in learning more about online teaching and to engage with experts in our online teaching community of practice is provided.

A badge is offered for completing the review of the materials and activities in the resource. Once you have completed your review of the resource, you can collect a badge.

A poster has been produced to provide campuses, distance learning units, faculty development units, online instructional designers with a means to promote awareness of the resource.

Since its launch on October 30, 2017 we have had 6,731 users engage with the resource from 123 locations nationwide, and 11 foreign countries including Finland, Belgium, Chile, Lebanon, Japan, Switzerland, South Africa, Mexico, Malta, Indonesia, and Germany. We have delivered 5 free webinars providing an overview of the resource to promote awareness, and have averaged 45 unique attendees at each session from across the country. 12 badges have been formally issued thus far, and there has been 1,344 clicks/activity on the badge. Badges are only awarded if the participant provides the following evidence of their learning or effort/completion of the following:

The evidence required to collect the badge is:

Becoming an Open SUNY Fellow in the interested or friend of SUNY roles.
Joining the Open SUNY online networking community.
Joining the "Interested in Online-Enabled Education" conversation group.
Providing a brief reflection on what you learned from engaging with the materials and activities in the resource.

In this session, participants will get a guided tour of this ready to adopt resource, options for adoption and implementation will be discussed.

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