September 2004 — Web/Net
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Faculty Training for Online Teaching
Another source is "Guidelines for Good Practice," published by the Higher Education Program and Policy Council of the American Federation of Teachers in May 2000. Their recommendations state that close personal interaction must be maintained between faculty and students (AFT 2000).
Both of these compilations of best practices reiterate what Chickering and Gamson write about in "Applying the Seven Principles for Good Practice in Undergraduate Education," in which the authors state that good practice in undergraduate education encourages contact between students and faculty, cooperation among students, and active learning, as well as gives prompt feedback, emphasizes time on task, communicates high expectations, and respects diverse talents and ways of learning (Chickering and Gamson, 1991).
Faculty as Students
Another finding of this research is that only 19 of the faculty responding to the survey had ever taken an online course. In other words, only 56% of the participants in this research, all of whom are teaching online courses, have experienced online education from the student viewpoint. It is very difficult to teach in a medium in which one has never experienced learning. And during focus-group interviews, all participants stressed the need for faculty to experience some portion of their training online. They were unanimous that, in order to teach online, faculty should first experience online education from the student's point of view.
Conclusions
Based on this research study, one can conclude that faculty who teach online courses are experienced classroom teachers who enjoy teaching online. This is confirmed by the fact that 88% of faculty responding to the survey indicated that they intend to continue teaching online.
Most faculty do receive some training to teach online, although they are frustrated by the inadequacy of that training. The majority of training currently provided by two-year colleges consists of workshops designed to familiarize faculty with the technical aspects of CMS, but d'es not consider pedagogy for online courses. Only 20% of the participants in this research study received training in facilitating either active learning or student collaboration online, yet all of the focus-group participants cited difficulty of engaging students online as a major problem. In addition, 60% of those responding to the survey "agreed" or "strongly agreed" that they would have benefited from training in facilitating online interaction among students.
This expressed concern with facilitating interaction, active learning and/or collaboration among students indicates that faculty are aware of best practices for online education, even though many do not fully incorporate them in their online courses. The most likely explanation is that faculty would incorporate best practices more fully in their online courses if they knew how. They have learned, mostly by experience, what works in the traditional face-to-face classroom. If we wait for them to learn by experience in their online classrooms, we are wasting valuable time and resources. Online students deserve better.
Recommendations
Training for faculty to teach online should contain four major components:
1. Technical training2. Pedagogical training
3. Mentoring
4. Online coursework
