Online Faculty Development in low- and middle-income countries for Health Professions Educators: A rapid realist review

Background Health professions educators require support to develop teaching and learning, research, educational leadership, and administrative skills to strengthen their higher education role through faculty development initiatives. Where administration has pursued face-to-face and online faculty development initiatives, results have positively influenced health professions educators. There is limited evidence demonstrating how online faculty development works for health professions educators in low- and middle-income countries who engage in online health professions education (HPE) faculty development. Methods A Conjecture Map for online HPE faculty development courses identified candidate theories for a rapid realist review. The Conjecture Map and candidate theories, Community of Inquiry and the Conversational Framework guided the development of search terms and analysis for this review. Three searches using EbscoHost databases yielded 1 030 abstracts. A primary and secondary research team participated in a multi-reviewer blinded process in assessing abstracts, selecting full-text articles, and data extraction. The primary research team analysed eight articles for this rapid realist review to answer the research question: How do online HPE faculty development courses work, or not work, in low- and middle-income countries? Data were analysed and mapped to the initial Conjecture Map and the research question. Results The research references US-based organisations forming partnerships with low- and middle-income countries, and who provide funding for online HPE faculty development initiatives. These initiatives design courses that facilitate learning through engagement from which participants report beneficial outcomes of professional and career development. The review does not clarify if the reported outcomes are generalisable for facilitators from low-and middle-income countries. The findings of this review demonstrate the role of a community of practice as the dominant mechanism through which the outcomes are achieved, based on a design that incorporates six triggering events. The design aligns the triggering events with the three categories of the Community of Inquiry—a theory for designing online learning environments. Conclusion Health professions educators in low- and middle-income countries can develop professional and interpersonal skills through a well-designed, specifically constructed online community that prioritises active discussion.

Short versus long video-based lectures as a tool for faculty development during COVID-19 pandemic

With emerge of the COVID-19 pandemic, video-based lectures (VBLs) was widely used as an effective online faculty development tool. VBLs varies from short videos (5-minute) to the long one (1-2 hours). So, the current study aims to evaluate the effectiveness of long VBLs versus short VBLs. A total of 21 short (9) and long (12) VBLs were produced, in 2020, by the authors. The metadata for all of VBLs was downloaded from YouTube [VBLs overview data, audiences’ engagement data, and audience retention (AR) report]. The viewership data included the number of views (4800), watch time by hours (173.6), males to females’ ratio (79/21), the number of the subscribers (157), the video length (2.9±1.2 minutes), number of viewers (241.1±157.8), and the watch time (5.1±3.3 hours). The audience retention is presented as average view duration (1.1±0.4 hours) and average percentage view (42.8±7.9%). Lastly, audience engagement is represented by the number of subscribers (6.4±7.4), likes (9.7±8.0), and dislikes (0.3±0.7). The comparison of the mean audience retention and engagement between short and long VBLs showed that short VBLs had significantly higher number of subscribers and likes as well as the average percentage views in comparison to long VBLs. We could conclude that short VBLs are more effective and efficient as a regard audience retention and engagement. Moreover, the more use of advanced technology for video development makes it more engaging.

Trifecta of Student Engagement

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to describe an online faculty development pilot course on how to engage students online. A framework was used, referred to as the Trifecta of Student Engagement, for the design of the course. The Trifecta of Student Engagement proposes that students, in order to be fully engaged in a course, need to be engaged with their course content, with their peers and with their instructor. The course has three units of content that each correspond to the Trifecta of Student Engagement. This course has gone through one pilot with faculty and has impacted students and faculty positively. Design/methodology/approach An online faculty development course was piloted with eight faculty members across a range of disciplines who participated in the program. After taking the course, they had to apply the Trifecta of Student Engagement framework to a course they taught and share what they did via written report, webinar, or web presentation. This study summarized the faculty participants’ written reports and presentations as well as provided a qualitative evaluation on the impact this course had on students and faculty. Findings After faculty applied the Trifecta of Student Engagement framework to courses taught, faculty saw an improvement in student engagement, satisfaction, learning and achievement. Three faculty surveyed students to determine their engagement and satisfaction and found students to respond positively to the use of tools and activities for student-to-content engagement, student-to-student engagement and student-to-instructor engagement. Two faculty examined student grades to determine if there were changes in student outcomes. One professor saw average grades increase by 11 percent. Another professor saw grades improve by 8 percent. She also found that student assessment of learning increased by 0.57. Both faculty attributed the improvement to the effectiveness of the teaching strategies employed. Research limitations/implications This research is limited to the eight faculty who participated in the pilot. Some faculty used methods to attempt to measure the impacts of their teaching practices by surveying students and looking at student performance data. A second pilot is needed for additional faculty to take the course and apply the Trifecta of Engagement framework to generate more data for impact. Practical implications Institutions looking to create an online teaching professional development course for faculty can utilize the Trifecta of Student Engagement framework for their course design. Additionally, faculty can read about tools and strategies that they can immediately apply to create more student-to-content engagement, student-to-student engagement and student-to-instructor engagement. Social implications Faculty can be more intentional in how they engage students in their online course experience. Originality/value This paper adds to the literature on faculty development regarding student-centered teaching practices. Other institutions looking to create a faculty development course or program that utilizes a student-centered framework may find aspects of this paper useful for their own online teaching professional development initiatives.

E-LearningFacultyModules.org

A team at Kansas State University recently launched the E-Learning Faculty Modules wiki to enhance and support online faculty development. This project is customized for teaching in the Kansas State University distance-learning program but contains a broad set of information that might be useful to others. This site is constructed using wiki technology, which permits access, multimedia expressiveness, remote collaboration, tracking, and reversibility of postings. Other tools on the site are derived from MediaWiki and its open-source capabilities. The wiki includes an overall ontology, templates, categories, completed and seeded entries, input boxes, and menus that ensure users can easily use and join the community. Taken holistically, these attributes create an ideal venue for sharing ideas and encouraging synergistic improvement of teaching practices. This chapter describes the implementation process of E-LearningFacultyModules.org and gives insight into its purpose, features, and uses.