June 2004 — Features
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When the Cows Come Home: A Proven Path of Professional Development for Faculty Pursuing E-Learning
University faculty who have braved the transition from the traditional classroom to an e-learning instructor role report many changes. Most describe the knowledge gained from the e-learning world as making them better teachers in all delivery venues. Some describe how their educational philosophy changed from being the dispenser of knowledge to becoming learner-centered. Many others, however, swap horror stories of e-mail boxes full of 300 urgent messages from students or servers that went down right in the middle of a midterm.
As higher education continues the rush to embrace technology-delivered learning opportunities, one imperative is to find ways to prepare faculty for what life will be like on the other side of the transformation. Independent of how great a teacher, scholar or researcher an individual may be, he or she needs to have accurate expectations of how roles change, a modicum of technological mastery, and a set of instructional strategies appropriate for the new domain. Some institutions push faculty over the precipice with little help or support, while a few have teams of support staff that guide and coach faculty. However, most have turned to professional development as a way to train faculty in the values and uses of instructional technology.
This article examines the professional development approach followed by the University of Houston System in preparing faculty for the e-learning transformation. The University of Houston System is composed of four unique and distinct universities: the University of Houston, its largest campus; the University of Houston-Clear Lake, a suburban upper-level and graduate campus; the University of Houston-Downtown, an open access university; and the University of Houston-Victoria, an upper-level and graduate campus. The four universities collaborate to operate two system centers that deliver instruction in specific geographic areas of Houston. They also partner in our distance education effort which is known as CampusNet (www.uhsa.uh.edu/campusnet).
Here Come the Cows
Among its numerous functions, CampusNet provides professional development opportunities to faculty who are planning or just beginning their forays into developing and delivering online courses. Each May, a multiday workshop series called the CampusNet Online Workshop, more commonly known as COW, introduces 30 or so faculty members to the prospects and expectations of planning and delivering an online course. Of course, bovine jokes abound that provide a light and fun atmosphere to the serious task of acquainting faculty with technology, instructional design, Web development, graphic arts, multimedia and new instructional techniques.
The History of COW
COW came about as a 1998 initiative among the four University of Houston System provosts. Wanting to explore the venue of Web-based instruction, the provosts commissioned the instructional technology faculty within the schools and colleges of education at the UH and UH-Clear Lake campuses to design, develop and deliver a series of online graduate courses within a year.
