Preparing faculty
Communication objectives:
To introduce the new system to faculty and maximize faculty buy-in, it will be critical to cover four main communication objectives:
- Explain the vision for this system and how it can meet teaching, learning, collaboration, and assessment needs
- Convince faculty that these tools will save, not cost, them time and open the door to more innovative forms of learning (CCFIT)
- Explain that the tools were developed specifically to meet the needs of faculty and students (CCFIT)
- Provide a brief overview of the system's functionality (areas of emphasis will draw in large part on the faculty pilot participants' interest in specific features or tools)
- Ensure abundance of hands-on training, both just-in-time and on an ongoing basis.
- Educate faculty about these tools, train them in their effective use (CCFIT)
- Offer appropriate incentives
- Encourage and reward faculty to implement these course management tools. "The best course management tools are useless without the active participation of the faculty." (CCFIT)
Communication tactics:
For those instructors who have no experience using technology in instruction, there is a lot of mystery, suspicion, and discomfort about the whole matter. There is a need to get accurate information about the new system out, to make those who are potentially inclined aware of available support resources, and to create a better understanding of how technology encourages learning.
Among the mechanisms for giving more visibility to the new system are the following:
Road shows promoting the new system.
There are many faculty on campus who will be potentially interested in how this system can help them in their classes and in their research but are unaware of its available and/or the available support. It is critical to get the word out by visiting faculty in their own departments or colleges/schools. The Faculty Mentoring Faculty Program will play a critical role in this approach, as will faculty who participated in the pilot (faculty as champions).
Promoting heroes.
Faculty need credible role models to emulate, other faculty who have done interesting things using the system (or comparable system) in their courses or research, and lived to tell the tale. We have many of these heroes on the UC Davis campus (e.g., Vet Med, School of Medicine, campus pilots). We need to identify those folks and make them more visible to the rest of the campus community. The campus has a distinguished teacher program, and that should be leveraged for this purpose. Other tactics: use of podcasts to record faculty participants' narrative accounts of their experience (My Personal Sakai Experience series); practical tips and advice from the trenches; faculty portfolio of prototypes and resources; etc.
Faculty as champions.
We need to identify and then encourage researchers whose focus is the impact of technology to make campus e-learning their laboratory so we can benefit from their critical perspectives and insights. Along those lines, there are individual faculty in most every discipline whose research interests have a potential parallel in e-learning and who would serve as great promoters of the system within their discipline. It would be a powerful signal to the campus community to strategically recruit faculty with such expertise.
Research, assessment, and data collection.
We need to have a clear understanding of how using the learning management system will impact student learning (e.g., instructors who use technology in the classroom often comment about how they know much more about the quality of student work and where students are having difficulties. It is important to demonstrate that 'visibility effect' of the technology to others, as well as many other ways in which technology positively impacts learning.
Early intervention with new faculty.
New faculty are great targets for promoting the new system and e-learning more generally. Where possible, this should be done within the context of the various new faculty orientation programs. One basic goal is for faculty who decide to adopt the system to realize that the experience will be rich enough as to have a profound effect on their own development, and on student learning.
Collaboration.
Part of the excitement about e-learning is the ability to bring a richness into the virtual classroom that is difficult to attain in the traditional classroom. This richness often cuts across disciplinary lines and collaborations can form that produce powerful learning for the students. We need to find successful examples of recent online collaborative projects and promote those. We also need to clarify and explain the various ways in which the new system can be use in support of, or to initiate, collaborative projects.
Recognition, funding resources, and incentives.
Faculty respond to incentives. If we want faculty to embrace technology in their teaching and start using the new system, there must be obvious rewards. There must be something overt and significant done on the recognition front to attain faculty engagement. The recognition problem must be confronted at the college and department levels, and at the campus level too. A faculty award program at the campus level would be very encouraging, but unless the integration of technology into teaching is given its due at the unit level, the award program will not have the desired effect. The Academic Senate and the Academic Federation should be engaged in addressing this issue. In addition, to encourage adoption of the system, faculty will need to be educated about available grant and support resources, both from a technology support and pedagogical standpoint.
Student word-of-mouth.
Students can play a critical role in championing the new system among faculty. Using students as a promotion conduit is a natural.
News media outlets.
Increasing the violume and frequency of articles about the new system in campus publications (e.g., IT Times, Hypertext, Dateline, Aggie) and in statewide or national outlets (tLTC, EDUCAUSE, etc.) will help raise the profile of our implementation activities as well as awareness among UC Davis faculty. The UC Davis Communication Council will be a key resource in ensuring consistent messaging and frequent communications on this topic.
Demonstrate success on multiple levels with multiple stakeholders.
Diversified training and support.
- Help request form
- Self-learning: FAQ, tutorials, how-to library,
- Orientations and workshops (e.g., overview of the project and new collaboration and learning tools, transitioning from MyUCDavis, getting started with the new system, teaching with the new tools, etc.)