June 2004 — Features

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When the Cows Come Home: A Proven Path of Professional Development for Faculty Pursuing E-Learning

By Gary W. Kidney, Ed.D.

The faculty would then have to deliver a workshop series that would prepare other faculty to travel the same path. That workshop was the first COW event. Hosted by UH-Clear Lake's Instructional Technology Center in May of 1999, the four-day workshop mixed theory with practical examples, described a cornucopia of ideas that worked in online instruction and many that failed, as well as started the faculty attendees on the path to the hands-on process of designing and developing their own courses.

Following the workshop, the staff from the four universities who were responsible for supporting distance education, faculty development and academic computing formed a collaborative under the direction of Dr. Sandy Frieden, University of Houston System's executive director of distance education and CampusNet. The collaborative took the schedule, materials and participant feedback from the first workshop and began planning an annual event.

The "Moo-llennium COW" was hosted at UH-Downtown in May 2000. Shortened to a three-day workshop - with one day focusing on instructional design, one on technology and tools, and one on policy - the event introduced another cohort of faculty to an e-learning environment. Since then, a freshened version of the workshop has become an annual feature. See below for a current COW topic list.

COW Topic Outline

Day One

  • What d'es a Web course look like?
  • Course tools to make you successful
  • Fostering online collaboration
  • Encouraging group work
  • Measuring skills and abilities
  • Gradebook manipulation and student tracking

Day Two

  • The value of media in a course
  • Media track: Graphics, scanners and digital photography; sound; and video.
  • Copyright issues in the online world
  • Building your course track: Building an HTML-less course; building your course in HTML; and beyond HTML - Flash and other interactivities.

Day Three