Sustaining Quality in Faculty Training Innovations in eLearning Conference June 9, 2011 Judith Hall Bayliss, Teaching & Learning Lab

Getting Underway 2 What is quality, anyway? Judith’s Deep Thought definition: it is how a customer experiences the results of a service or product…it is risk measured via perception of the value of spending energy on the service or product within its intended ecosystem  Risk exchange between provider & customer/constituent

So What Does DAU Do? 3 Mission: Provide DAU faculty with the training support necessary to successfully execute all elements of DAU’s Performance Learning Model Courses: 100-series: provides instructional knowledge and skills faculty can use to provide and promote effective learning 200-series: provides knowledge and skills needed for learning asset management and curriculum development 300-series: provides knowledge and skills to help faculty with business consulting and research 400-series: technology training for faculty and curriculum developers Formal Training Program: Faculty Performance Development (FPD)

What Have We Faced? 4 3 Years of unrelenting growth: Faculty hires rising every year since 2008  Tripled number of key offerings  Demand management ate my life…but I got to see Balboa Park  And oh yes, we need to add more courses Loss of Founding Father  Trusted advocate and adult learning practitioner retired in 2008  Opportunity to transform in strategic approach and execution practices Which all meant … Renewed Interest from Leadership

What Challenged Us? 5 1.Stakeholders – how does leadership help? 2.Program Operations – standardizing scheduling, budgeting, etc. 3.Communication – getting busy people to pay attention & remember 4.Demand Management & Logistics – being able to plan so positioned to respond when the world changed again 5.Data Management – no centralized, electronic record keeping. Historical data lost to the sands of time. 6.Reporting – meaningful EOC surveys with meaningful analysis 7.Rules of the game – ad hoc processes meant sometimes we were making it up on the spot 8.Policy – FPD is implicated in job requirements and pay band advancement

What Are We Doing? 6 1.Stakeholders – leadership owns our outcome. Faculty = Brand. 2.Budget Seriousness – do the job for the dollar. But: don’t under- represent the requirements & DO communicate the pay-off in terms of mission 3.Communication – just don’t stop. Use every outlet. 4.Rules of the game – formalize the processes & craft or rewrite policy. 5.Share the load: co-opt the willing; hire; beseech volunteers.

So What’s That Got to Do with Sustaining Quality, Judith? 7 1.We don’t have rogue professors… … We have eChampions 2. Put the practitioner in the technology

Put the Practitioner in the Technology Foreground 8 Allow the practitioner to lead the technology conversations: 1.DAU’s eReader Study 2.Virtual World R&D  Meet their use cases  Take their experiences seriously: foundation for formal technology evaluation requirements & changes to organizational behaviors Faculty training can both identify & socialize change

Engage on the Ground..not Just in the Training Event 9 DAU eChampions Program: the touch point for what our instructors are motivated by, interested in, concerned about.  Key feedback loop. We need eyes in the field to keep faculty training relevant and honest.

Build a Lab…They Will Come 10 Summary: TALL Program team provides support for research and exploration in learning practices to better equip DAU personnel and learning environments. What is TALL? A test bed for software, hardware, instructional technology infusion, best practices analysis and implementation, and innovative exploration.  Leading Ideas: Reports, Analysis, & Recommendations  Design & Implementation  Instructional Technology: identification and installation  Classroom of the Future: transfer from lab environment to DAU standard classroom  Mobile and Disconnect Modes of Learning: reaching the learner despite distance, time or Internet constraints  Training : Faculty best practices, technology use and infusion  Curriculum Innovation: Curriculum development procedures and processes, tools, new modes of information sharing and collaborative learning

Staying Underway 11 So Whose Quality Is It? Judith’s Deep Thought Answer: Everybody’s. Less Politely: It’s the ecosystem, stupid. Sustaining quality is about ensuring ecosystem health. Markers: Brand Repeat Business Strategic Credibility Fiscal Responsiveness Volunteers…or, the beetles don’t swim away.