Peer-to-Peer Development with Media-Rich Faculty Case Studies Gail Matthews-DeNatale, Ph.D. Associate Director, Academic Technology Elizabeth Santiago, Ed.M. Senior Instructional Designer, Academic Technology 2008 Sloan-C International Conference on Online Learning

Presentation Agenda Simmons & Blended Learning Faculty PD Strategies: Show of Hands The Conundrum About the Case Studies Case Study Tour Pair/Share: Uses and Wish List

About Simmons 100+ years old Private college located in Boston 5,000 students (1/2 grad, 1/2 undergrad) Women’s undergrad college and five co- educational grad schools Small university

Blended Simmons Shared Academic Technology Vision (campus-wide process) Blended learning identified as a priority Awarded a Sloan “Localness” grant to Blend two programs Develop infrastructure and policies in support of blended Articulate model congruent with “high touch” campus culture

Progress Official policies authorized in support of blended Support documents for Curriculum Committees Twice annual faculty institute (based on UW-M) 37 Simmons faculty and staff have participated 20 courses have been blended Project assessment instruments created, in implementation Good so far, but there are challenges Blended Simmons

Strategies: Show of Hands How many of your institutions Hold annual conferences or showcases of exemplary faculty use of technology for teaching? Host “faculty lunches” or other opportunities for peer-to-peer sharing? Offer intensive faculty institutes or multi-week faculty seminars … with faculty as presenters and facilitators?

Strategies: Show of Hands How many of these events … If You Organized Them Were difficult to schedule at a time people could attend? Lacked “critical mass” and key people weren’t there? Overstretched staff and faculty presenter resources? Felt like “one shots” that didn’t add up to much? If You Wanted/Did Go Took place at a time that you couldn’t attend? Would have been better if attended by a peer cohort? Needed to go into more detail to inform your teaching? Could have been more useful if they were documented?

The Conundrum Faculty feel they learn best from one another Faculty prefer self-paced and/or informal (one-on-one mentoring), as opposed to formal formats Time is a precious commodity for most faculty Potential faculty mentors have limited capacity and availability Source: Taylor and McQuiggan (Educause Quarterly, September 2008)

Simmons Model for PD Option 2: Develop w/o ID consultation Option 1: Develop in consultation with ID Instructor w/o prior blended experience Participate in one week intensive institute, plans and receives feedback Plan Institute outcome includes a course redesign plan + ID Experienced faculty contribute to future institutes & workshops Builds a faculty community of support for blended But success depends on presence of faculty presenters Through ethnographic documentation, use f2f to build virtual

Ethnographic Case Studies Include Video Interview Course Tour Sample Course Materials (Modules, Assignments) Recommended Exercises for Blended Course Redesign Glossary of Terms Designed to also be used as learning modules

Ethnographic Case Studies Use Scenarios Face-to-face institutes or blended institutes Fully online professional development (especially for adjuncts) Scheduled asynchronous (faculty available online as discussants) Self-paced independent See Case Study Tour

About the Case Studies Ten faculty cases planned for 08-09, eight are “in the can,” and topics include: The “Faculty-Instructional Designer” relationship Involving students in online journaling Writing online course materials & assignments Personalizing your writing tone Designing blended group assignments Top “10 Tips” for course redesign Authoring discussion prompts and facilitation Involving students in multimedia production From CATs to BLATs Strategies for supporting blended students

Pair/Share: Uses and Wishes If a series of cases like these were available to you, how would you use them at your institution? What features would be most important to you? What could be omitted? What could be added? What additional topics would you like to see in a series like this?

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