Tag: faculty development
Enhancing Effectiveness through Faculty Development Focused on Online Adjunct Faculty: A Comprehensive Investigation
Online teaching requires faculty development and support to effectively meet the needs of students. Universities should widely recognize that having self-assured and competent online adjunct instructors greatly influences professional sustainability, learning outcomes, and student achievement. The objective of this descriptive study was to gain insights and perspectives on confidence and instructional effectiveness of online adjunct faculty as compared to those who taught on campus or in a blended format, after they participated in an online faculty orientation course. Survey data was collected, and correlational analysis was used to identify relationships between adjunct faculty’s perceived confidence and their instructional preparedness in their respective teaching modalities. Results indicate faculty may increase their confidence and instructional effectiveness after participating in an online training course.
Improving SoTL Programs: The Impact of a Student Sector
O’ Meara, Terosky, and Neumann (2011) revealed a need to integrate faculty teaching and learning centers with research development programs to further both individual professors’ goals of creating innovative pedagogical practices and institutional goals for faculty publication and effective decision making regarding funding allocation. This article suggests that universities implement a scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL) or teaching-learning enhancement center (TLEC) student sector within these integrated faculty development programs. This will foster more pedagogical ideas and a more democratic institution by giving students a voice in their education while enriching the knowledge of students, faculty, and administrators.
Expanding the Teaching Commons: Making the Case for a New Perspective on SoTL
As a reflection on O’Meara, Terosky, and Neumann’s (2011) work on scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL) faculty development, this essay describes the benefits of SoTL to individual faculty and university goals. In support and expansion of arguments advanced by O’Meara et al., this work calls for the use of SoTL faculty development to promote the shared teaching commons, active recruitment of new SoTL scholars, institutionalization of SoTL values, and integration of SoTL initiatives in both teaching centers and research-focused development offices.
Faculty Perception on Support to Do Their Job Well
Research has commonly suggested that adequate and appropriate mentoring and faculty perception of support for a work-life balance are important factors in the recruitment, development, and retention of university faculty. To better understand the role of these factors in faculty job performance at teaching universities, faculty from such a university were surveyed about their experiences with these forms of support and the factors that influenced their perception of the ability to do their job well. Results indicate that faculty mentoring was an important predictor for support at the department level. Additionally, perceived work-life balance was a significant factor at the college and university levels.