Towards a Multiverse of Faculty Development in Higher Education: A Community of Practice Approach

Introduction 

This education session aims to introduce a blended/hybrid approach to faculty development at a public higher education institution based on the key elements of Communities of Practice (CoPs) (Wenger, 1998; Wenger et al., 2002). During the session, the presenters will introduce our approaches to faculty development, describe our best practices for facilitating blended CoPs, and discuss the implications of transforming the future of faculty development. 

Significance of the Study 

According to Wenger et al. (2002), a CoP is a combination of three fundamental elements: a domain of knowledge, a community of people who care about the domain, and the shared practice they are developing to be effective within their domain. When all the three elements function well together, it makes a CoP an ideal knowledge structure that assumes responsibility for developing and sharing knowledge (Wenger et al., 2002).  

To increase capacity and professionalize teaching, scholars in medical education have suggested that faculty development interventions have the ability and potential to build CoPs and help facilitate a sense of community in academic settings (Steinert, 2010; Steinert et al., 2016). Through sharing stories and practices from a public institution, this session would help faculty and staff in higher education explore a unique approach to faculty development and apply their key takeaways in their own institutions. 

Key Takeaways 

By the end of this session, the participants will be able to: 

• Recognize the benefits of framing faculty development through a community of practice approach 

• Describe best practices for designing and facilitating faculty development programs in the context of higher education 

A Blended Approach to Faculty Development 

This section will provide an overview of multiple faculty development programs, including three blended/hybrid Communities of Practice (CoPs) and other training initiatives designed and facilitated by our instructional design team. 

AHSE 

The mission of the Academy of Health Science Educators (AHSE) is to foster a culture of educational excellence that values diversity. The AHSE CoP meets once a week and allows both in-person and virtual participation. All faculty and staff across the campus are welcome to join any sessions and access the recording and additional materials on Canvas. 

In the past academic year, our team has reframed AHSE based on the three fundamental elements of CoPs: 1) Domain: define a key theme for each semester to create a common ground; 2) Practice: encourage the speakers and participants to share personal stories and best practices; 3) Community: utilize a hybrid model of delivery to facilitate a sense of community both in-person and virtually.  

Taking the academic year of 2021-2022 as an example, we identify Universal Design for Learning (UDL) as the theme for Fall 2021 and Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DE&I) as the theme for Spring 2022. Once the key themes were determined, our team reached out to potential guest speakers and started planning for each session. In addition, we redesigned the evaluation survey based on Kirkpatrick's four-level evaluation model and particularly focused on the “reaction” and “learning” levels (Kirkpatrick & Kirkpatrick, 2016). During the session, we will also share the results from the redesigned evaluation survey and discuss the implications for future revisions.  

AME 

The Academy of Medical Educators (AME) comprises the faculty of the Texas College of Osteopathic Medicine and affiliated faculty and staff from across our campus. The AME CoP meets for 2 hours each Wednesday morning and is dedicated to identifying strategies for enhancing osteopathic medical education. Faculty are compensated for their attendance and participation by the university. The steering committee for the academy conducts an annual needs assessment by polling the members to identify relevant topics, emergent needs, potential speakers, and vet suggestions from the group as a whole.  

Recent sessions have focused on needs related to integrating social determinants of health into clinical practice training for students, conducting effective clinical reasoning small group training with medical students, incorporating DE&I initiatives in the classroom, culture-based models of instructional design, and many others. The Academy is the best venue for faculty development that crosses the boundaries between classroom education and clinical practice. Eligible participants earn accredited continuing education credits for their attendance. 

Classroom sessions are recorded for our medical students, and attendance is optional for many sessions, so special attention has been given in recent years to strategies for effective hyflex and blended learning. This has included sessions on interactive “directed study assignments” within the learning management system, effective online teaching and design, and reconfiguring classroom sessions to include heightened interaction to enhance outcomes for in-person student attendees. 

Canvas Clinic 

Canvas Clinic (CC) aims to introduce faculty and staff to basic and intermediate uses of Canvas features. Canvas Clinic is a 16-session workshop dedicated to experiencing the key features of Canvas. Sessions begin in September and continue through April. Each session is dedicated to one feature led by an instructional designer or technologist and follows an “I-do, We-do, You-do" approach. 

The CC CoP is delivered in person, and each session is recorded and posted to Canvas. The course shell in Canvas includes 16 modules representing 16 sessions. Each module overview page outlines the learning objectives, guides and tutorials, and additional resources, typically posted four days before the in-person session. Practice assignments are also added where applicable for further practice on session topics. The recording is placed on each session page with timestamps for reference and absent participants.  

Continuing education credits are offered for most of the sessions. Also, participants who attend 70% or more of the sessions receive a Certificate of Excellence and recognition within their department. Enrollment in the Clinic is continuous throughout the academic year. Faculty and staff that need additional resources are enrolled in the course during and after the conclusion of CC. There is no obligation to attend the sessions if enrolled in the course.  

Other Initiatives 

Other than the three blended CoPs described above, our team also offers a variety of asynchronous courses and one-on-one support sessions to improve flexibility and accommodate diverse needs. 

We would like to highlight the first one, Preparing To Teach Online (PTTO). This is a self-paced, online training course in Canvas, which is required for all the faculty before designing and teaching their first online course. This online course was redesigned in Feb 2021 based on the Quality Matters Higher Education Rubric to help faculty get familiar with the expectations and QM. required for all the faculty before they design and teach their first online course. This online course was re-designed in Feb 2021 based on the Quality Matters Higher Education Rubric to help faculty get familiar with the expectations and QM.  

Another program we started piloting in Fall 2021 is named Coffee and Course Design, which allowed faculty to stop by during the designated days and work with an instructional designer in a one-on-one setting. Two faculty members who were new to the institution found it useful and now work closely with our department on course design.on course design. 

The Next Steps 

As a result of interviewing academic department chairs and associate deans this past year, we learned that the most valuable faculty development sessions are longer working sessions with cohorts of faculty from our various programs. There was a strong feeling that time was a scarce resource, and even when faculty development sessions included valuable ideas, there was not always time available to implement those ideas. As a health science center, many of our faculty have their time split between clinical practice and time dedicated to developing and delivering their courses.  

To address these constraints, our Educational Development team will be offering a series of half-day workshops with clusters of faculty members to implement changes in their courses over the next year. By carving out this dedicated time for implementation, faculty development can result in a deliverable for faculty that solves problems (for example, around digital accessibility). In these sessions, faculty will sit with each other and with instructional designers to identify areas of opportunity within their courses and make changes as part of an emergent community of practice for learning in the health sciences. 

Plan for Interactivity 

To improve the participant-presenter interaction, we plan to adopt an interactive presentation tool (e.g., NearPod, Mentimeter, Slido, etc.), allowing us to integrate polls and activities throughout the presentation. We plan to use quick polls at the beginning of the presentation to help us get to know the audience and incorporate other activities to help reinforce the key takeaways. Additional handouts and infographics will also be provided to participants to facilitate the Q&A section and allow the audience to delve deeper into the topic. 

References 

Kirkpatrick, J. D., & Kirkpatrick, W. K. (2016). Kirkpatrick's four levels of training evaluation. Association for Talent Development. 

Steinert, Y. (2010). Faculty development: from workshops to communities of practice. Medical teacher, 32(5), 425-428. 

Steinert, Y., Mann, K., Anderson, B., Barnett, B. M., Centeno, A., Naismith, L., ... & Dolmans, D. (2016). A systematic review of faculty development initiatives designed to enhance teaching effectiveness: A 10-year update: BEME Guide No. 40. Medical teacher, 38(8), 769-786. 

Wenger, E. (1998). Communities of Practices: Learning, Meaning, and Identity. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. 

Wenger, E., McDermott, R., Snyder, W. M. (2002). Cultivating Communities of Practice: A guide to managing knowledge. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Press.