Incentivizing Adjunct Faculty Participation in Professional Development

Author(s):  
Lori J. Cooper

Without professional development, faculty members may not stay current in their methods and techniques for teaching, which can translate into a less effective learning environment for students. With online education and programs growing in an upward trend, it is imperative that faculty members have access to professional development that support current online teaching methodology and pedagogical/andrological practices. Turning to motivational methods may increase the level of engagement with professional development, where adjunct faculty members feel they are rewarded for their time and participation. This chapter uses motivation theories as a framework to review the existing literature on incentives for online adjunct faculty members who engage in professional development and the best practices for professional development. Colleges and universities can use this information to establish professional development programs and practices that may increase the level of online adjunct faculty members' participation in professional development opportunities.

Author(s):  
Bibi Eshrat Zamani ◽  
Azam Esfijani ◽  
Sayed Majid Abdellahi Damaneh

Although higher education systems in developing countries such as Iran have embraced the online education approach, they are confronted with significant challenges in this transition, one of which is lack of instructors' participation in online teaching. Therefore, this research is aimed at exploring barriers and influential factors for this lack of participation. The researchers developed their theoretical framework based on a thorough review of the existing body of knowledge while considering the cultural features of Iran as a developing country. A tailored questionnaire asking about the existence of three groups of barriers, namely personal, attitudinal and contextual inhibitors, was distributed among all faculty members who were candidates for delivering online courses in one of the top universities in the country. Data was analysed using the descriptive and inferential tests of Friedman, <em>t</em>-Test and ANOVA. The results were in line with research findings in other developing countries in which the contextual barriers had the most inhibition effect against faculty members’ participation in online teaching. Certain cultural barriers also are highlighted by participants, pertaining to the context of Iranian online education systems.


Author(s):  
Alice G. Yick ◽  
Pam Patrick ◽  
Amanda Costin

<P>The academic culture of higher educational institutions is characterized by specific pedagogical philosophies, assumptions about rewards and incentives, and values about how teaching is delivered. In many academic settings, however, the field of distance education has been viewed as holding marginal status. Consequently, the goal of this qualitative study was to explore faculty members&rsquo; experiences in a distance education, online university while simultaneously navigating within a traditional environment of higher education. A total of 28 faculty members participated in a threaded, asynchronous discussion board that resembled a focus group. Participants discussed perceptions about online teaching, working in an institution without a traditional tenure system, and the role of research in distance education. Findings indicated that online teaching is still regarded as less credible; however, participants also noted how this perception is gradually changing. Several benchmarks of legitimacy were identified for online universities to adopt in order to be viewed as credible. The issue of tenure still remains highly debated, although some faculty felt that tenure will be less crucial in the future. Finally, recommendations regarding attitudinal shifts within academic circles are described with particular attention to professional practice, program development, and policy decision-making in academia.</P> <P><B>Key words:</B> distance education, online education, online faculty experiences, academia, tenure</P>


2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (12) ◽  
pp. 88
Author(s):  
Shafi AlDousari

Background: During this coronavirus outbreak, online teaching and learning have become highly common in medical education. The majority of students and professors have transitioned to this comparatively modern online learning model. While faculty members found the transition to online education to be overwhelming, they persevered. Aim: study aims to investigate the Kuwait Medical educational sector&#39;s capacities and obstacles in transitioning the education system to the online form. Method: This study used a close-ended survey questionnaire constructed on Google Forms and distributed to the participants via e-mail. The study used an online Google form for formulating the questionnaire survey, which was later sent to the participants via e-mail. Results: The results showed that most of the faculty members (53%) were satisfied with online learning. The most prominent difficulty emphasized by the faculty members (35%) was network vulnerability n online teaching. The majority of the faculty members (45%) agreed that transitioning to remote teaching is a big challenge and that there is inequality for different technology uses (56%). Conclusion: Online learning has been increasingly relevant in medical education in recent months. It has its own set of benefits for improving students&#39; knowledge and skills, and it may be used as an instructional tool in medical school.


Author(s):  
Maisoun Alzankawi

Teacher professional development is a life-long and continuous process in which teachers are expected to upgrade their knowledge, master new skills, and change their practices since advancement in their teaching career is finally for their students and education reform. Besides, teachers and their professional development must be seen as an investment. This study is designed to investigate the English teachers’ attitude towards professional development in Kuwait and the problems encountered by those teachers, and their need for professional development programs. It intends to devise innovative approaches for English teacher’s development in Kuwait based on teachers’ requirements to provide those teachers with all they need to overcome the obstacles they face in their professional lives. It will also assess teachers’ preferences of the pedagogical tools that enable them to convey the instructional material. The participants in this study were 20 experienced in-service English teachers who were chosen randomly from three different institutes at the Public Authority for Applied Education and Training (PAAET) in Kuwait. Data were gathered from two main sources: Interviews with in-service teachers of English, and questionnaires. Specifically, the study aimed to address questions related to the teachers’ future development and the possible problems facing them or expects that might face them in the future, and their feedback about the challenges and difficulties of teaching English in Kuwait. The findings revealed a lack of teachers’ development in some particular areas that need more skill development of English teachers. Intensive training courses should be applied for the in-service teachers, and professional development programs should promote and enhance teaching effectiveness and support professional growth. Teachers’ professional development should permit the transition to higher status and responsibility roles within the teaching profession. Therefore, teachers need access to new research and acknowledgment in teaching literacy, language development, and an integrated curriculum. Moreover, they need appropriate up-to-date qualifications in both the content area of the subject and teaching methodology. They also need opportunities to share expertise with other experienced teachers and educators, leading to reflection on practice. Furthermore, high-quality teaching should be focused on developing a strong, well informed, and well supported professional body to respond to community and educational concerns. Also, access to professional development is of paramount importance as it enables teachers to improve students’ learning outcomes. Finally, English teachers can actively participate in evaluating teaching practices and programs; and actively participate in the implementation of local state and national curriculum initiatives. 


Author(s):  
Sheila Witherspoon ◽  
Leonis S. Wright

This chapter examines how mentoring pre-tenured and tenured faculty during organizational change of implementing fully online academic programs impacts resistant and/or supportive faculty. By using a case of an experience of some faculty at HBCUs, the authors examine how mentorship is necessary to engender a supportive and successful transition in the face of faculty members' resistance to including online education. Influence on faculty becoming adept experts of online teaching and education, prioritizing online teaching and its impact on how they approach live instruction, and anticipating how a designated mentor(s) affects teaching evaluations and research scholarship necessary to achieve rank and tenure promotion will be delineated.


Author(s):  
Mandy Frake-Mistak ◽  
Heidi L. Marsh ◽  
Geneviève Maheux-Pelletier ◽  
Siobhan Williams

In this chapter, the authors share their reflections on the practice of using a community-based approach to doing SoTL research. They examine two professional development programs at their respective institutions—York University and Humber College in Ontario, Canada—that support faculty members' engagement in SoTL research. EduCATE and the Teaching Innovation Fund are two variations of SoTL programs in which participants come together to engage in and support each other through the process of doing SoTL research and are organized around participants' individual goals rather than a predetermined set of outcomes. The authors provide a fulsome narrative and reflective account of the EduCATE and Teaching Innovation Fund programs with a particular focus on each program's development and relative success. Throughout, the impact of SoTL as a form of professional development is emphasized.


2012 ◽  
pp. 204-226
Author(s):  
Angela Velez-Solic ◽  
Jennifer R. Banas

A professional development program for online faculty members can be difficult to create, implement, and sustain. Its components will vary depending on the location of the online faculty, the institutional budget, and who is administering the program. A professional development program is essential if institutions wish to keep instructors up-to-date on technological advances and pedagogical shifts as online classrooms change. Today’s online faculty members are inundated with “information overload” due to the internet and because information is increasing exponentially, which results in pressure to “keep up” (Sherer, Shea, & Kristensen, 2003). Because of this pressure and the proliferation of learning tools, institutions need to help faculty filter and use the information available to them. This chapter will focus on essential components of professional development programs, issues and potential solutions, examples from successful programs, and future trends in online professional development.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 125
Author(s):  
Osman Ferda Beytekin

The purpose of this qualitative study was to get a better understanding of faculty members&#39; views on the future of higher education by their first-time online teaching experiences during the Fall 2021 academic semester, which was impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Due to the outbreak&#39;s rapid and widespread dissemination, it created a unique phenomenon that had a significant impact on faculty members who had no prior experience teaching courses entirely online. In order to conduct this qualitative research, purposive sampling was used to choose ten faculty members from a variety of disciplines who had at least ten years of experience teaching in a traditional classroom setting at a public university in Izmir, Turkey. Faculty members were asked about the future of higher education in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic. Apart from that, each faculty member was asked to discuss how the mandatory shift to online education altered their teaching style and how institutional help impacted their experiences throughout the pandemic. As a consequence of their observations and statements of their perspectives on events they witnessed and personally experienced, the key issue of &quot;transformation of higher education with hybrid perspective&quot; developed as a central theme. The data analysis revealed the following subthemes: &quot;educators on the internet,&quot; &quot;sustain and evolve,&quot; and &quot;university support&quot;. These findings may be applied in a variety of contexts, including educational leadership and the design of hybrid and online courses, among other applications in higher education.


2021 ◽  
Vol 27 (3) ◽  
pp. 256-264
Author(s):  
Mijong Kim ◽  
Geum Hee Jeong ◽  
Hae Sook Park ◽  
Sukhee Ahn

Purpose: This study investigated the impact of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) on women’s health nursing clinical practicums in undergraduate nursing schools in Korea during the spring 2020 semester. Methods: A cross-sectional online survey on clinical practicum teaching experiences in the spring 2020 semester was distributed to members of the Korean Society of Women Health Nursing (KSWHN) who taught undergraduate nursing. One faculty member from each of 203 institutions was requested to respond and there were no duplicate participants. Seventy-nine participants (38.9%) responded and 74 responses were analyzed. Descriptive statistics were presented for all survey items. Results: Fifty-two faculty members (70.3%) belonged to universities and 22 (29.7%) taught at colleges. Thirty-eight (51.4%) answered that their institutions had affiliated teaching hospitals. More than half (52.7%) conducted hospital-based clinical practicums either entirely (n=20) or partially (n=19), whereas the rest of them (47.3%) conducted clinical practicums at school or home via online teaching. The typical teaching methods for offline or online education were case conferences, tests or quizzes, scenario studies, nursing skill practicums, (virtual) nursing simulations, and simulated patient education. Most of faculties (93.2%) supported the development of an educational platform to share educational materials and resources, such as case scenarios. Conclusion: Nursing faculty members utilized various teaching methods to enhance clinical skills and mitigate limited clinical exposure during the early stage of the COVID-19 pandemic. The KSWHN should move forward to develop an education platform and modalities for members who face many challenges related to the accessibility and quality of nursing education contents.


2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 79
Author(s):  
Tahani I. Aldosemani

The main purpose of this study is to quantitatively identify the most recurrent ethical challenges instructors usually encounter in their online teaching and the most effective strategies to solve and avoid these challenges. Among the faculty members, 52% stated that they encountered certain ethical challenges in their teaching. Although ANOVA tests showed that there is no significant difference between instructors with different academic degrees and different teaching experiences. This shows that that the probability of these challenges could occur in online learning environments regardless instructors&rsquo; academic degree or online teaching experiences.


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