Five Ways to Boost Online Faculty Morale This Month

1. Positive Feedback. Send each faculty member a personalized email thanking them for their good work, and pointing out some of their strengths. Copy department chairs on exceptional ones. Remember to always be looking for them doing something right!
2. Enlist their Wisdom. Select a few top faculty and ask them what their top secret tip is for their online teaching success. Then take a digital camera and ask them to record a 20-30 second “spot” talking about this secret. Edit all these clips together into a 5 minute clip, and post to your faculty resource page.
3. Be an Extended Family. Be diligently aware of any personal issues going on in the lives of online faculty, particularly adjunct ones. Use tools such as FaceBook, group blogs, or email lists to virtually recognize birthdays, births of children/grandchildren, and coordinate offers for assistance if times are tough (illness, natural disasters, etc.).
4. Have a Contest. Contests are fun, educational, and build team spirit. Do these weekly or monthly on topics such as program or institution trivia and award small prizes (institutional t-shirts, recyclable grocery bags, small gift cards, etc.)
5. Offer a Mini-Conference. Faculty love to get presentations on their vitas, so develop a two-day mini-conference (online of course) where those who choose can present 30-minute webinars on relevant online teaching topics.

My DLA Forecast for 2009

As we say goodbye to an unforgettable year, here's what I think is in store for 2009, at least in the world of online learning:

• A greater emphasis on the financial benefits of distance learning. Higher ed administrators who were previously lukewarm about DL will work on number crunching to see exactly how online learning lowers the instructional cost per student.



• Organizational structures will continue to evolve with DL departments increasingly aligned with academics rather than IT groups.



• eLearning will make its formal entrance into the mainstream with its appearance on the mission statements of more and more traditional institutions.



• Dramatically increased use of social networking tools (like Facebook) in online learning - for both instruction and support. Facebook will "age" a bit as more and more faculty and over 30 folks hop on for DL purposes and then get a little addicted themselves.



• Less one-on-one support for faculty as resources get further stretched (more courses but little or no new staff). The bad news is we'll see more group training sessions, but the savvy administrators will develop better, easy-to-use (and locate) online tutorials as well as mentoring programs.



• Big emphasis on green. Although gas prices are lower, the Summer of '08 is not forgotten. Online learning provides the obvious answer here. We'll slowly see more telecommuting of DL faculty and staff as well. Lots and lots and lots more online meetings.



• More streamlined approaches to quality, evaluation, and retention. More software entries such as that offered by Starfish Retention Solutions that will help us become accountable in a systematic way.



• Increased development and marketing of online courses and programs to the Hispanic community as well as those who support this population, such as teachers and healthcare providers.

Five Ways to Make Virtual Adjuncts Feel Connected to the University

One common concern regarding the use of adjunct and part-time faculty is that they are not integrated into the life of the university. Here are five simple ways to create a more inclusionary environment:

1. Initial training should include not just expectations about online teaching expectations, but also detailed information about the institution itself.


2. Require participation in at least one traditional faculty activity, such as committee involvement (virtually)


3. Sign them up for all electronic communications (daily bulletins, announcements) sent to on-campus faculty and staff.


4. Foster an administrative DL structure that provides the same level of support and respect afforded to on-campus instructors teaching DL courses. Record, digitize and post on the web all f2f training sessions for on-campus online instructors.


5. Send them a t-shirt with the university mascot when they first sign on.

Online Due Dates: An Argument for Leniency

Should online instructors have fast-and-firm rules about online deadlines? In other words, if a student forgets to turn in their discussion posting or do their quiz by the Thursday midnight deadline, should they get another chance? I think that the answer lies in what is best for the student. For me, that means some flexibility. Now, from experience, I see that many instructors disagree with me. Many students that I have supported or advised as an administrator have had disappointing grades not because they did not learn the material, but because they missed the deadline for turning in an assignment or quiz. Many faculty believe that we are doing students a disservice if we are too flexible - that they need to learn responsibility. However, when we have students with five online classes, it is easy to overook a deadline (I sometimes can't even remember five things I need to pick up at the grocery store). The result for the student is a zero, no exceptions, and this leads the student to not only have a lower GPA but also have great disdain for online learning. Yes, I clearly realize what a pain it is to go back and re-grade late assignments (as an instructor). For this reason, I try to build in several extra credit opportunities to make up for these lapses. In addition, I am often open to letting a student complete a limited number of assignments late, with some reduction in grade. Isn't our real purpose to give them opportunities to learn and succeed?

Kudos to Clear DL Policies

One of my favorite DL colleagues in the whole world, Debi Moon, developed some DL policies at Georgia Perimeter that I think serve as an outstanding beginning for anyone looking to develop or revise their own policies. She clearly put much effort into these, they are concise yet thorough, and wonderfully clear rather than full of legalese (and Debi happens to be a lawyer!). I know that it took some work to get all of these approved by faculty, and I know many of us DL Adminers are jealous of this feat. Among the topics covered in GPC's Policies for Distance Learning are course standards, faculty responsibilities, class sizes, student expectations, and faculty support.

Don't Cross the Ivory Line

As DL adminers, we are privy to the best and worst of online courses. If not careful, we can get lost in our best practices mindset, and start to believe that we are the utmost authority on online course design, online teaching, and everything in between. We start to think that we could save all students from those occasional yucky online courses if every instructor would just develop their course just exactly like we would. The problem? Well, there's just oodles of them. First of all, it's just not our place to cross that ivory line and get into the business of telling faculty how to teach. Train them, lead them, inspire them - yes; but remember that they are the true artists who must be allowed to sometimes quickly, sometimes slowly create their own masterpieces. I'm also one who, in spite of the scalability it may provide, who is not in favor of a cookie-cutter approach to online classes. I treasured the geniune and spontaneous character of f2f courses I took long ago, and think we move into dangerous territory when we attempt to rob online courses of the same. Finally, we begin to lose respect when our egos get in the way and we forget that we are administrators in a support role.

DLA Weekly Word: Technoplegic

I just adore new words, and I think they can come in handy for anyone looking for a new and interesting way to impart DL (or other) wisdom or opinions. This week's work is technoloplegic. Closely related to the more-oft used word technophobic, a technoplegic is a person who seems to be well below average in their ability to use technology, perhaps because of fear or unwillingness (there can be other reasons). Most recently in the news, we've heard stories of John McCain's self professed internet illiteracy, which probably makes him the most likely of the presidential/vice-presidential candidates to be technoloplegic. Note: Whether or not I believe that technoplegia is a hamper to being president is outside the scope of this blog!... And, of course, in our daily work, we deal with would-be outstanding online faculty who never venture out of the comfort of the face-to-face classroom because of their technoloplegia. Hmmm....this is giving me an idea for a workshop....Online Teaching for Technoplegics.

Financial Incentives for Online Instructors?

I have argued for years that online teaching should be motivated by intrinsic rewards, rather than extrinsic ones. There are so many, many documented advantages of teaching online, including the flexibility to conduct class in your underwear in the middle of the night if you so choose. And I've actually known quite a few instructors whose long, monotone lectures in the classroom mercilessly bored their students - but when they entered the online class, they were far more interesting and focused. I often re-tell the old story of the old man who was bothered by the noise of boys playing basketball outside his apartment window. He finally approached offered to pay them 50 cents each for every day they showed up to play. While they were initially thrilled with the notion, after several days their numbers dwindled until none of them showed up. Their play had become work. With this in mind, I do believe that online instructors need resources to enable them to do their jobs well - technical support, instructional design support, and teaching assistants (for large online courses). They also need some sort of release time or stipend for the initial development of any course. But teaching online should not command any significantly different pay structure than face-to-face teaching.

Is Low-Attended Group Training a Waste?

One major problem in preparing instructors to teach online is the scalability of our training programs. While the very nature of training support often requires one-on-one, just-in-time assistance, many areas lend themselves to a group training session. The primary advantage of the group training is that it lends itself to scalability - you can simply reach more people at once. The problem? I hear it all the time (and studied it when doing my dissertation). Often, only a handful of people show up! No matter how engaging the topic, faculty are simply too busy or lack the incentive to set aside time for group training. At one point, we actually decreased our own group training sessions because of the low attendance. And the, in the course of my research, the light turned on. These sessions were not a waste of time. Why? Because these five or six people who attended were going out and informally sharing what they had learned with other faculty! So, when you think you are reaching just a handful, there is a huge ripple effect, and you may actually be reaching 100 or more. Don't toss out the group training.