Post-secondary educators' professional development: Investigation of an online approach to enhancing teaching and learning

Faculty in post-secondary institutions must continually reassess, refine, and revise their teaching, yet it is a challenge for them to gain this professional development with heavy teaching responsibilities and high demands on their time. Creating Optimum Learning Environments (CREOLE) is a collaborative project between one community college and one university to develop an online training program for post-secondary education faculty on the basic principles of teaching and learning and the development of online courses. Four independent modules were developed and taught in a one semester format for educators throughout the U.S. The goal of this research was to identify the strenghts and challenges of this course; determine the changes in pedagogical practice of the participating faculty members; and to examine the resulting changes in participants' course materials to reflect learning and motivation theories, and appropriate online learning strategies. Methods included pre- and post-surveys of the participants, interviews, document analysis, and instructors' reflections. Results demonstrated high expectations from all participants, difficulty in forming a sustained learning community, continuing challenge in technological aspects, and requirement for intense instructor involvement to maintain morale.     

Peer Ratings Revisited

The present study compares the differences in peer and supervisory judgments of counselor trainees in both guidance institutes and regular program groups. The key conclusion of the study is that institute supervisors and institute members have significantly higher positive agreement (r = .77) on who is a good counselor than that found among supervisors and students in a regular education program, where (r = .46).