A Paradigm Shift in Professional Development: Coordinating Efforts at a Large Research Institution

BACKGROUND

The Problem
The Ohio State University president, Michael V. Drake, set a goal for the university to become a world-class institution in teaching and learning, as it is in research. To answer this call to action, the University Institute for Teaching and Learning (UITL) was established in April 2016 to coordinate efforts happening around the university in four areas: instructional support, inquiry and scholarship, policy development, and communication.

Ohio State is best known as a research institution. Teaching and developing instructional skills based on pedagogy and best practice have not been a priority for faculty until the university president outlined his new vision. Although some colleges and units across the university were making efforts to provide professional development (PD) opportunities to faculty and staff, faculty have remained focused on research. How to expand their focus to include developing quality instructional practice and motivate them to seriously engage in the instructional improvement process was the challenge put forth to university leadership and various units providing PD.

Our Solution
The University Institute for Teaching and Learning was formed to be a central, organizing unit for activities happening around the university related to professional learning.  “The overall purpose of [UITL] is to integrate/enhance ongoing efforts at teaching and learning at Ohio State, and to elevate discussion and the visibility and importance of such work to the institutional level. Thus [UITL] will help to coordinate and lead current and new efforts to improve the learning experience for our students, and help position the university for national leadership in teaching and learning within a research university setting.” Retrieved from https://u.osu.edu/uitl/.

To this end, UITL has begun the process of developing programs for instructors to earn endorsements in key PD areas, such as teaching online, course design, and technology-enhanced teaching (with other endorsement areas to follow). The ultimate vision is that earned endorsements will count toward promotion and tenure. For new/developing faculty, UITL also provides a year-long Faculty FIT program aimed at engaging instructors in coordinated PD experiences and mentorship as they become acclimated to the university during their first year of teaching. Through the Faculty FIT and endorsement programs, UITL hopes to incentivize instructors toward instructional improvement to achieve the university goal of becoming as outstanding in teaching and learning as it is in institutional research.

Benefits of Endorsements
The institute’s endorsement program is in its early stages. While we should have data on initial participation by April 2018, long-term benefits will remain to be seen. That said, we anticipate the following potential impact.

• Added value: As an initiative put forth by President Drake, endorsements will lend visibility and legitimacy to PD activities at Ohio State. They could gain buy-in to PD across the university community and foster a shared understanding of the importance of improved teaching practice. Tying endorsement to promotion and tenure provides a new and tangible external reward (i.e., a clear value) to increase motivation and participation in PD.
• Improved user-friendliness: The institute will provide a centralized avenue for communications and a one-stop shop for professional learning. At a large university, the numerous and scattered PD activities can be difficult to navigate. Creating clear program pathways vetted by a central body, promoted on a single website, and aligned to broader university strategy will simplify PD for faculty and staff.
• Enhanced quality: Centralized organization also creates an opportunity to establish (and raise) standards for PD. Departments must meet minimum criteria established by UITL for a proposed endorsement program to be approved and UITL “branded.” For example, our department is currently re-evaluating our standards for designing and delivering training to align with UITL expectations.
• Increased collaboration: The UITL platform is already driving several units (our Office of Distance Education and eLearning, the University Center for the Advancement of Teaching, and University Libraries) to collaborate on endorsement programs. With much crossover in goals across units, we can now more easily align programming, limit duplication of efforts, and share expertise, resources and best practices with each other.

Challenges to Implementation
We look forward to the advantages UITL endorsements may provide—for individual participants (and thereby their students), for departments, and for the teaching culture of our institution as a whole. However, we are aware of challenges to implementation.

• Scaling innovations across colleges, departments, and campuses: It is common for colleges and departments at large institutions to become siloed, and regional campuses typically have less access to resources and PD (particularly to in-person training) due to distance. Moreover, the needs of these units are variable and sometimes require customized solutions—one endorsement model will not be applicable across the board. Overcoming these obstacles to provide consistent standards, clear communication, and equitable access across diverse disciplines and units will be crucial.
• Determining scope: Numerous PD activities already occur across Ohio State, but endorsements are a new concept. The first step is simply to familiarize instructors with the framework, purpose and value of endorsements. As such, UITL is starting small (with four endorsement tracks at launch) and setting achievable goals in initial requirements, with the acknowledgment that programming can become more robust and rigorous once the university community is engaged.
• Establishing efficient operations: Put simply, funding and staffing UITL operations is a challenge. The work of the institute is currently led by three faculty members with part-time appointments and an executive assistant, with additional contributions from partnering departments. As such establishing operational processes and strategies in a timely fashion has been difficult.
• Promoting authentic engagement and application of learning: One goal of UITL is to promote engaged (rather than passive) participation in PD, as well as application of new learning in practice—in other words, endorsement should lead to meaningful change in a participant’s teaching. However, this is difficult to mandate and measure given the project scope and reluctance to begin with unrealistic or stringent requirements. Currently, minimum expectations for endorsement include documentation of PD attendance and mandatory reflection questions.  

Future Directions
Though UITL is starting small with its endorsement program, the effort will scale up over coming years if the response is good. Further developments to consider may include the following:

• Solidify (and communicate) plans to tie endorsement to promotion and tenure.
• Expand programming.
  • Invite colleges, departments and units to submit proposals for additional endorsement tracks over the next academic year and beyond.
  • Develop alternative pathways within current endorsement programs to allow individuals more customized PD choices.
  • Build “levels” into programs and require “renewal” of awarded endorsements (after a designated time has elapsed) to encourage continual progress and growth.
• Assess impact on applicants’ teaching by requiring artifacts or portfolios alongside reflection questions.
• Promote institutional transformation by providing distinct opportunities for endorsed individuals to become mentors, to present, or to otherwise share knowledge with peers.
• Encourage engagement among endorsement program participants by establishing faculty learning communities or forums (e.g., discussions/blogs on the UITL website).
• Leverage data to target specific audiences that need better support or more customized PD solutions (e.g., adjuncts, less-engaged departments).

SESSION CONTENT

Outcomes
Participants will:

• Identify obstacles to motivating instructors to participate in professional development to improve their teaching practice.
• Discuss innovative solutions for increasing motivation and engagement in developing teaching skills.
• Evaluate the benefits and challenges of establishing a centralized unit for professional development.

Activities
(10 min) We will begin with a brief online polling activity to assess attendee roles, their background with professional learning, and expectations for the session. This will be followed by small-group discussion and collaborative note-taking (i.e., a shared Google doc) of the challenges they experience engaging instructors in PD activities around teaching practice at their own institutions. Small groups will share out some of the problems they have identified with the whole group.

(20 min) We will then start our presentation, setting the scene with the problem at hand: the particular difficulty of motivating instructors to value and develop their teaching practice at a large university where research is the prime motivator. We will share our current solution to this problem (see Background), identify barriers to implementing it, and discuss potential future directions. We will also display and briefly explain a concrete model of one of our current endorsement programs—Teaching Online.

(15 min) We will conclude the session with more small-group discussion and collaborative note-taking so attendees can brainstorm their future directions or identify one change to implement at their institutions. This will be followed by sharing out and open Q&A with presenters.

Materials
We will provide resources to support attendees in implementing similar change at their institutions. These include (but are not limited to): presentation slides, any handouts used, and links to further information (e.g., endorsement program requirements and offerings, endorsement proposal form, application and reflection questions). Most importantly, attendees will leave with continued access to collaborative notes from the session so they can benefit from their peers’ ideas, solutions and future plans.