The question of faculty development for DE is a vital one. As we are reading and reporting on the literature in this area this week, I can't help but remember back before I started teaching online and I could not even IMAGINE how it was done!
I was working at a university where I taught grant writing and a friend in the English department told me that they had an opening for an adjunct instructor for an online freshman comp class. This was 7 years ago and there were many fewer people around who had online experience and very few people who were willing to do it. I was at the time willing to take on any extra gig (single mom needed the money!). So I went to talk to one of the profs in the department. He told me some about the course but truly I could not even grasp how it would work. This was obvious to the prof so naturally I was not hired for that job!
Flash forward a couple years. Single mom still looking for extra gigs applies to a for-profit online university. I still could not imagine how it would all work, but then they put me through an excellent six week training program. It was extremely comprehensive and took me through it in (at times excruciating) detail.
Flash forward some more. I've been teaching online for 3.5 years and of course have been a purely online learner at PSU for two of those years. I have gained experience, perspective, and have received excellent feedback from the faculty development team at the university. As I posted in the discussion forum, my courses are monitored (without my knowledge) at least once a year, after which I receive a detailed report.
So for me, faculty development has been an ongoing experience--not just one workshop or even a 6 week course.
What about others and your experience? What has your development been like?
I have often thought of going into DE teaching because of being able to work from anywhere. I'm impressed with your positive experience. Is it possible to turn DE teaching into a full-time gig? Or is "full-time" just stringing together a huge number of courses? Would you have to work for several schools in order to approach full-time compensation? -JD
ReplyDeleteJD, Thanks for your response. I think it is possible to be a full time DE instructor, but I think that would have to be through a traditional/non-profit university, where you'd be committed to teaching a certain number of sections of courses each semester/quarter/time period. I say this because the for-profits all use the business model of hiring people on a per-course basis.
ReplyDeleteA person could indeed string together a huge number of courses (I did this in the early 90s in F2F adjunct teaching--one year I taught 8 sections of different courses for 3 different schools in one semester--had no car and traveled everywhere by bus/subway--was known as the queen of public transportation at the time!). Talk about stress!
The problem is that being hired on a per course basis means that you never know when/if you'll be offered sections. So after that incredibly stressful experience years ago, I have sought to make the teaching an extra type of work (I love it so much!), and have learned not to rely on it.
Dierdre,
ReplyDeleteI have been following the forum thread, but finally sat down to write my comments. My experience has been - study, develop, study more, somewhat similar to your continuous professional growth. I don't like when training is approached as one-off event. You mentioned the excellent 6-week course as being very helpful, but this was the beginning of your online reskilling, right?
This reminded me of my 6-months intensive English class I took before my first visit to the States - just enough to make me confident and get me in trouble.
20 years later, I am still refining my English skills. So the training has to have a beginning, but cannot stop, can it?
A