Introduction

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusions

References

Conclusions

Faculty Development—Whose Responsibility Is It?

As survey responses indicate, if eLearning-related faculty development is available through the institution, it is typically delivered in workshop format by instructional technologists or dedicated faculty developers. Some programs feature faculty presenters in addition to support staff. Regardless of who delivers the content, such workshops are typically designed to cover general principles rather than discipline-specific information.

For example, Gary Kidney (2004) reports on a successful program employed by the University of Houston System to introduce future online teachers to "technology, instructional design, Web development, graphic arts, multimedia and new instructional techniques." This comprehensive training is delivered by "Instructional Designers, Graphic and Web Designers, Video Producers, Faculty and Librarians from the four universities of the University of Houston System" ("Faculty/Staff Resources"). There are many similar models out there, as evidenced by the extensive body of faculty development literature.

Larger-scale faculty development efforts are likely to remain the purview of academic support units because of resource allocation and a variety of other factors. This is not necessarily a problem as long as comprehensive training models—such as the program employed by the University of Houston System—are followed. Nonetheless, department and writing program administrators should stay involved in online writing instructor preparation, development, and support. These stakeholders need to listen to what online writing instructors are asking for and consider what might be handled particularly well in-house. Even departments with limited resources can facilitate mentoring programs and provide opportunities for discussion and the sharing of effective practices (through, for example, brown-bag faculty presentations, in-house conferences, a committee on online learning, etc.). Furthermore, department administrators can help online writing instructors by making guidelines and expectations regarding online teaching clear—and by going on the record about evaluation, tenure and promotion, and other issues.

Departments that are growing their online course offerings should consider electing an eLearning coordinator from among the faculty. This coordinator might, for example, lead faculty development efforts, conduct a local study of online writing instruction, address assessment, and communicate with other academic and administrative units on campus. Depending on the number of courses being offered online and nature of the responsibilities given to this coordinator, his or her work might be treated as administration rather than service.