Instructional Strategies for Teaching Online Workshop

The instructional design template is a practical exercise which outlines the actual steps faculty need to complete in order to prepare their own resources for web delivery. This makes the learning relevant for faculty and therefore they are motivated to complete the activities. The instructor endeavours to provide the learner with frequent feedback and reinforcement adapted to the individual’s level of proficiency and professional context. For example, the feedback the instructor provides for the instructional design template includes specific cases and strategies relevant to the discipline of the faculty member. In addition the learner receives feedback on their template from a colleague who will provide an alternative perspective based on their teaching experiences. Both types of feedback are provided throughout the various stages template so as to reinforce the iterative nature of the design process. See the example of a completed instructional design template and peer review.


The strategy of using Faculty mentoring is an attempt to increase the interconnectedness between faculty in order to bridge the gap between the early adopters of instructional technology and the 'early mainstream'. Interconnectedness is the degree to which units within the organization are linked by interpersonal networks. "A high level of interaction allows ideas to flow more easily between groups and is positively correlated to organizational innovativeness" (Rogers, 1995). Often faculty have connections that do not extend beyond their department. This limits the reciprocal exchange of teaching methods and content. "The number of nodes and connections between departments determines the complexity and richness of the network" (Reuter, 1997).

Faculty mentoring takes two forms; the facilitation of online discussion where participants in the workshop have an opportunity to ask the mentor specific questions about instructional strategies. In 3 days, our mentor had 75 postings in her discussion forum!!! Another method is to provide presentations that take the form of a face to face session which is also be simultaneously webcast to remote participants using the epresence software developed at the Knowledge Media Design Institute. Remote participants have an opportunity to send in their questions to the presenter via synchronous chat and the sessions are archived for later viewing. This serves as an opportunity for faculty to informally share ideas and techniques they use in their online courses as well as a place to learn new strategies for web-based instruction. The other benefit of using the webcast technology, is that we are able to model this approach so that faculty understand the benefits and drawbacks of this approach.

References

Rogers, E. M. (1995). Diffusion of Innovations. New York, NY: The Free Press.

Rueter, J. G., (1999). Faculty Development for Teaching and Learning with Technology: New Directions for PSU, [online]. Available: http://web.pdx.edu/~rueterj/rlw/facdev.