Lessons Learned from Offering Customized Faculty Development for a Community of Online Educators
Lia W. Marshall, Matthea Marquart, Kristin Garay, Rebecca Y. Chung; Online Education, School of Social Work
The Online Campus at Columbia’s School of Social Work (CSSW) offers tailored faculty development specifically for online instructors and online educational staff that complements faculty development offered by the School and by the University. This includes two intensive institutes that were launched in 2017, an intensive workshop offered in 2019 and 2020, and an annual faculty development series launched in 2018 that consists of 5 sessions/year.
Participants who complete these offerings earn digital badges for each of them, and some of the training also includes free continuing education units for social workers. Out of 6 digital badges that have been offered so far, three Online Campus community members have earned all 6 badges, nine have earned 5, thirteen have earned 4, and twenty nine have earned 3; this means that 54 Online Campus members have voluntarily completed a minimum of 39 hours and up to 74 hours of professional development specifically around online education.
In this poster, we share our faculty development programming for online educators, and lessons learned from our 5+ years of offering optional faculty development that continues to engage instructors over time. Takeaways include the use of digital badges, the potential to offer continuing education credits, how a sense of community has been created over the years that engages new and existing members, how community members have been included as panelists and presenters to share their expertise & experiences and develop their leadership and comfort in presenting, how the faculty development includes and develops potential future instructors serving as TAs and technical support, and how the Online Campus faculty development complements other faculty development programming offered by the School, University (including the CTL), and external professional organizations.