Bridging the Chasm: Cooperative Development of Faculty Development Resources

Citation

Bagwell, C. (2000), "Bridging the Chasm: Cooperative Development of Faculty Development Resources", Library Hi Tech News, Vol. 17 No. 1. https://doi.org/10.1108/lhtn.2000.23917aac.005

Bridging the Chasm: Cooperative Development of Faculty Development Resources

Christine Bagwell

In Idaho, four neighboring universities recognized the need to increase the participation rate of faculty who use technology in teaching: Boise State University (BSU), University of Idaho (UI), Idaho State University (ISU), and Lewis-Clark State College (LCSC). Those institutions recognized the need to "bridge the chasm" between early technology adopters and the rest of the faculty. In 1995 these institutions' mutual desire led to the creation of the Idaho Consortium of Educational Technology (ICET). Their initial strategy was to provide access to appropriate hardware and software with instructional design consultation and practice opportunities with adequate technical support. In addition, they aspired to provide a mechanism to connect early adopter mentors with mainstream faculty. Three of the lead ICET partners presented at EDUCAUSE '99, including Randy Gaines (ISU), Harvey Hughett (UI), and Ben Hambelton (BSU), and it attracted tremendous interest.

Early on, ICET recognized the need for improved classroom infrastructure, training facilities, better-trained staff, and more responsive consultation and technical support. The project requirements posed concern, in terms of campus support capabilities. One of the first steps was to apply and obtain a grant to support the needed additions and changes to the infrastructure. The ICET team credits their success in obtaining grant funding to each of the four campuses' Provosts, who agreed to be named as Primary Investigators on the project (Brian Pitcher, John Lawson, Daryl Jones, and Rita Morris).

In addition to their collaboration in obtaining funding, ICET decided on specific project activities that grew to include a needs assessment, workshop, "Guides to Effective Practice", faculty assistance centers, faculty profiles and showcases, databases of instructional tools, and an ICET Web site (located at http://itc.boisestate.edu/icet/). Their needs assessment task focused on defining infrastructure needs as well as surveys centering on instructional problems and training needs. Among their top training needs was the task of developing a workshop curriculum. This program came to include a curriculum matrix, a training development guide, and workshop instructor guides. The ICET team displayed pictures of an impressive portfolio of workshop instructor guides, on topics ranging from "Creating a CD-ROM" to the use of Photoshop™. Their "Guides to Effective Practice" include handbooks on important subjects such as "General Principles for Instructional Design", "Incorporating the Web into Traditional Teaching Practices", "Creating a Totally Web-Based Course", and "Instructional Design Considerations for Two-Way Video/Audio". The ICET-created print materials partnered with each campus's faculty assistance centers were key in drawing mainstream faculty into the increased use of technology. The four universities had varying faculty development centers ranging from literally nothing to better-established organizations. Most of the grant ICET received went to building and adding to the infrastructures of the facilities, including hardware, software, and hiring students to staff the centers.

Other key ICET projects are housed on ICET's Web site. These include "Faculty Profiles", a database of technology-using faculty. The "Faculty Profiles" database enables professors to see and learn from others' lessons. Information technology professionals, such as those who head and staff the faculty development centers, can match faculty based on technologies and department. However, they often cannot take into account small nuances such as proximity and personal comfort. Having faculty choose their own mentors and degree of mentoring has been very successful. The database currently includes more than 30 professors and can be viewed at http://itc.boisestate.edu/icet/profiles/faculty.htm The ICET site also presents a "Faculty Showcase" comprising presentations by faculty of their projects and ideas. As with mentoring, it allows faculty to learn from technology adopters' experiences. Lastly, ICET hosts a growing database of academic software at http://itc.boisestate.edu/icet/software/software.htm Their goal in creating the software database was not to duplicate the efforts of large review sites, but rather to identify niche software unique to academia, certain disciplines, and even Idahoan professors with similar needs and resources.

ICET's various activities taught them several valuable lessons that they shared with conference attendees. They felt there was a need for faculty incentives, specifically reward structures that would keep faculty actively developing. All campuses found that it was fairly easy to get faculty involved. Later, as faculty realized how much time and work could be needed, they often delegated duties to teaching assistants, part-time help, or did not follow through. Of particular interest was their finding that professors do not want to be lectured on how to teach. ICET found that faculty want to know about the technologies available, and they especially appreciated technical training infused with pedagogy. Equally fascinating was their discovery that rapid prototyping might be a better answer to meeting technology needs, as opposed to long development processes. Harvey Hughett, Director of Information Technology Services at UI, said that it seemed to be best to "put up something quickly and keep it flexible and adaptive".

The ICET presentation was well received by attendees who exhausted every remaining minute of the session with questions. Such last-minute inquiries led to a few additional and excellent suggestions. ICET reported that flyers and e-mail messages, sent often by the respective Provosts' offices, were their primary marketing tools. The support of the Provosts, as with the grant application, was felt to be a key component in the effectiveness of the announcements. Aside from the recurring theme to eat Idaho potatoes, echoed by Randy Gaines, Director of the Instructional Resource Center at ISU, there was the deep feeling that the majority of faculty who had taken part in ICET to date had done so "because they wanted to do a better job ­ teaching". This same dedication to doing a great job certainly emanated from the three ICET members who presented. As attendees left, a few were heard to say, "This was the best session I attended at EDUCAUSE".

Christine Bagwell is Manager of Academic Computing Services' Instructional WWW Development Center, University of California, San Diego, USA. cbagwell@ucsd.edu