Chapter 5: Exemplary Faculty Development Program

Varvel, V., Lindeman. M., & Stovall, I. (2003). The Illinois online network is making the virtual classroom a reality: Study of an Exemplary Faculty Development Program. JALN 7(2), 81-95. http://www.aln.org/publications/jaln/v7n2/v7n2_varvel.asp


The Illinois Online Network (ION) is a faculty development partnership between all forty-eight community colleges in the state of Illinois and the University of Illinois. The network was established to help faculty to develop and deliver web-based courses that reflect best practices and engage students in higher order cognition. The authors outline the programs and resources that ION provides, the effectiveness of the program as a whole, and the lessons ION has learned about providing a large-scale faculty development program. Each partner is represented by a member on the Steering Committee which oversees the direction and scope of the projects implemented by the network. Liaisons at each of the colleges also help to ensure the quality of program delivery. ION uses a multi-faceted approach to achieve its objectives;

• The Making the Virtual Classroom a Reality (MCVR) series of online courses for faculty, aimed at developing an understanding of online pedagogies and technologies
 A Master Online Teacher certificate program
• On-site campus visits, involving a combination of faculty workshops, private consulting, and meetings with faculty, administrators, and technical personnel
• An annual faculty development institute, involving over 170 faculty from ION member institutions
• A Resource-rich website

Source: Varvel et al (2003)

Participants in the MCVR series are assigned a coach who works closely with faculty to develop or enhance an existing course. The practical exercises require faculty to demonstrate the knowledge they have gained by articulating learning goals, role of the instructor, student exercises, assessment and feedback strategies and selecting appropriate technologies to enable those outcomes. Faculty are also given an opportunity to practice facilitating online discussion. The evaluation surveys indicate that ION activities have had a very positive impact on the satisfaction and confidence of faculty teaching online courses with, "91% of respondents strongly agreeing or agreeing that the course gave them skills and techniques directly applicable to their jobs" (Varvel et al., 2003).

This article was selected because is provides an exemplary model for the implementation of a faculty development program for online teaching. What is particularly valuable is the practical approach they have adopted and the level of collaboration which exists between partnering institutions. Participants in the UofT workshop are also engaged in the practical exercise of course development as they learn about the pedagogy of online teaching. We hope to extend our partnerships to other institutions like the University of Waterloo, Ryerson and Georgian College who have all expressed interest in sharing best practices and resources