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A SIRIUS Look

at Faculty Development

Jack ChambersExecutive Director Organizational Learning Services

Bill GanzaDirector Professional Development

Patti Levine-BrownProfessor of Communications

• 10th largest Community College in US

•Florida’s 2nd largest community college with 65,000 students

Florida Community College

South Campus

Kent Campus

FCCJ Fall Online Enrollments

Three Critical Questions

• Will faculty reduce lectures?

• Will faculty become facilitators of learning?

• Will faculty adopt interactive learning methods?

The SIRIUS Project

The SIRIUS Project

• Florida Community College

• McGraw Hill Learning Solutions

• The International Academy for the Scholarship of Learning Technology

A Partnership –

Florida Community College Contributions

• Leadership for project

• Initial funding

• Faculty developers

• Beta testing

McGraw Hill Contributions

• Financial support

• Use of Digital Asset Library

• SIRIUS courses marketed nationally

The International Academy for the Scholarship of Learning Technology Contributions

• Higher education consortium supporting SIRIUS

• Provides beta testing

• Provides faculty developers

The International Academy for the Scholarship of Learning Technology Member Benefits

• Reduced costs to students for SIRIUS course materials

• Participation in course development

• Participation in faculty development

• Grants to member institutions

• The (IDA) Instructional Design Assistant

• Course Development -- highly creative, interactive, low cost courses delivered in all modes

• Faculty Development Programs

The SIRIUS Project

Three major initiatives:

Instructional Design Assistant (IDA)

• Online tool providing prompts for faculty course development

• Supports development of creative, interactive courses

• Under continuing development

• Highly creative, interactive, low cost courses and instructional materials

• Can be delivered in all modes— face-to-face, blended and fully online

• Designed to improve student retention and success

SIRIUS Courses

• Developed by 4 member faculty team

• Staff support includes o instructional designerso multimedia specialists o editorso quality assurance staff o external pedagogy and content consultants

SIRIUS Courses

SIRIUS Courses

• Materials Include textbook, CD and online content

• No commercial textbooks used

• All content developed by faculty teams from original published research

SIRIUS Courses

• Teams complete faculty development in pedagogy and instructional technologies

• Teams follow guidelines for development

• Guidelines emphasize interactive learning and motivational strategies

SIRIUS Courses

• Development time is 4 semesters

• Includes beta test and revisions

Benefits to Course Developers

• Major faculty development experience

• Updates knowledge in content area

• Provides laptop and stipends of $4500 for team leader and $3500 for each team member

SIRIUS Faculty Development

• The Online Professor Certificate Program

• Use of Lesson Builder

• Use of Respondus

• Writing and editing SIRIUS Courses

• Monthly interactive workshops

Online Professor Certificate Program

• Developing Interactive Web Based Courses — 15 hours

– Basic orientation to online pedagogy

– Emphasis on learning communities

– Includes uses of mastery, cooperative and constructivist learning

Courses

• Blackboard —12 hours

– Orientation to use of platform in online course development

– Applications of platform to meet specific online course development needs.

Courses

• Multimedia—6 hours

– Basic applications of multimedia (sound and images)

– Emphasis on learning objects and LessonBuilder

Courses

• Capstone--Creative Online Course Development and Teaching—6 hours

– Orientation to the resources available through the College to support online course development and teaching.

– Nationally-known guest speakers present

world-views of online learning.

Courses

• Mentored Online Learning Experience—9 hours

– Mentored online teaching experience

– Mentoring provided by faculty colleagues who have completed the training in the program and have served as a mentee

Mentoring

• Serving as Online Mentor — 9 hours

– Faculty serve as Online Mentor during one term for other faculty who are completing the training leading to the Certificate

Mentoring

Upon Completion…

• Faculty receive a certificate signed by the college president

• Adjunct faculty receive an honorarium of $500

• Full time faculty receive a $500 Credit Award—(to be used for software, books, attendance at professional conferences, etc.)

Online Professor Certificate Program

Formative Evaluation

Online Professor Certificate Program Completers (n=83)

• Completers report an increased use of interactive learning strategies in online courses (87%)

• Completers report an increased use of interactive learning strategies in face-to-face and blended courses (82%)

Online Professor Certificate Program Completers (n=83)

• Students reported to enjoy classes more (83%)

• Increased retention in classes (63%)

• Greater student success (71%)

Evaluation of Pedagogy Training (n=193)

• The module(s) provided an understanding of topics which helped me to improve my teaching

• The module(s) led me to rethink my personal beliefs about teaching and learning

• My self-confidence as a teacher has increased

Evaluation of Pedagogy Training (n=193)

• I have increased the use of interactive strategies in my online classes

• My students seem to enjoy my classes more

• I have seen an increase in student success

For more informationBill GanzaDirector of Professional

Development904.632.3114wganza@fccj.edu

Jack ChambersExecutive DirectorOrganizational Learning Servicesjchamber@fccj.edu 904.632.3231

Patti Levine-BrownProfessor of Communications381-3484 plevine@fccj.edu