The purpose of this article is to highlight a tiered and iterative approach to faculty support within e-Learning. Common professional development practices in higher education- particularly among community colleges with high percentages of adjunct instructors- fail to incorporate professional empowerment. This may cause division between faculty and leadership.
The E-Faculty coaching program described in this text is framed by tenets of collaboration rather than evaluation. Coaches possess extensive education and work experience in three primary areas: online teaching, instructional design, and coaching. They do not currently teach for the institution, although they may adjunct for other institutions. The discipline they are credentialed to teach is not related to the discipline they provide coaching in. Notably, the members of the E-Faculty coaching team do not supervise faculty; this allows the program to remain collaborative.
This model, now in its sixth year, produces constant quantitative and qualitative data to drive decisions and improvement at the online campus. Community Colleges across the United States are expected to demonstrate increasing measures of student success related to enrollment, grades, retention, engagement, persistence, work readiness, etc. It is generally accepted that faculty impact and affect those metrics. Empowering faculty in a non-threatening environment promotes faculty success which in turn promotes student success.
Two notable and research-based shifts- professional development to professional empowerment and evaluation to collaboration- are reflected in the E-Faculty Coaching model. Each student, class, term, semester, and faculty member matters. Restructuring resources and support is key to success for all stakeholders in the online community college environment. An innovative learning modality deserves an innovative assessment program.
Keywords: E-Learning, Quality Assurance, Faculty Support, Coaching, Collaboration, Continuous Improvement
References:
[1] American Association of Community Colleges (2023). Web. AACC (nche.edu)
[2] Academic Senate for California Community Colleges (2023). Web. Home | ASCCC
[3] Gregory, R. & Martindale, T. (2016). Faculty development for online instruction in higher education. Proceedings of Selected Research and Development Papers of the Annual Convention of the Association of Educational Communications and Technology. Web. 16_08.pdf (aect.org)
[5] Kelton, K. & Morales, C. (2022). Coaching for Connection: A playbook for successful implementation of E Faculty Coaching. Presentation at Online Learning Consortium (OLC) Spring Conference, Dallas, April 2022.
[6] Kirkpatrick, K. (2023). E-Faculty Coaching Standard Operating Procedures. Presentation at Connect Campus , Tarrant County College, Fort Worth, March 2023.
[9] Morales, C.R. (2017). Managing Quality in Online Education: A Peer Development Approach to Course Design. In Proceedings 33rd Annual Conference on Distance Teaching & Learning Conference. Paper presented at the 33rd DT&L Conference. Madison, Wisconsin.
[10] Morales, C.R., Tapia, G. (2018). La implementación de un programa de mentoría para la facultad en línea: El “Faculty Coach”. In Proceedings 5th Congreso Internacional de Innovación Educativa (CIIE). 1954-1960. Monterrey, México. Available at:
https://goo.gl/Koq7nD
[12] Tarrant County College (2023). CCSSE Dashboard: Institutional Research Data. Web. CCSSE and SENSE - Tarrant County College (tccd.edu)
[13] Zimmerman, W., Altman, B., Simunich, B., Shattuck, K., & Burch, B. (2020). Evaluating Online Course Quality: A Study on Implementation of Course Quality Standards. Special Conference Issue: AERA Online Teaching and Learning SIG (24:4).
https://doi.org/10.24059/olj.v24i4.2325
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