Weak link?

I often hear concerns (and complaints) from online instructional designers and distance learning leaders about “getting faculty to do their part while teaching.” That faculty often “do not respond to questions, don’t post appropriate announcements, don’t engage in discussions, and don’t give substantial, personalized feedback to their online students.”

I’ve seen online faculty characterized as the weak link that are viewed as putting the institution at risk.

Criticisms include gross over generalizations such as: Faculty don’t want to work; Faculty don’t like change; Faculty won’t do that; Faculty always do “x”; Faculty are resistant; Faculty complain about everything; Faculty say they have no time; and Faculty won’t innovate, and so on. It is problematic to view any group of individuals as a monolith.
I am often asked what SUNY does to enforce online faculty engagement in online course teaching, best practices around interaction with online learners, and compliance with the regulation on Regular and Substantive Interaction? And, what happens if faculty aren’t doing doing these things?

While it may be a human impulse to lay blame in the picture painted in some circles and at some institutions – faculty are often singled out, often easily and unjustly, as the problem. I would suggest that it is much more complex, and often a symptom of a larger “institutional readiness” (for online education) issue, than a faculty issue.

A single instructional designer or director of online learning cannot possibly ensure quality online course designs or instruction without transparent and articulated institutional strategic value being placed on online teaching and learning; or without institutional policies, procedures, authority, accountability regarding online education; and top down alignment on what it takes to have, maintain and ensure quality in all aspects of online education efforts. – much less expect faculty to systematically and consistently sort this all out.

The experiences with a lack of online faculty interaction and engagement cited, and questions posed about how to address the issues, are common challenges for most institutions – even those who have been “doing” online for a while. You need faculty, departmental, and institutional level buy-in and consensus on what constitutes quality (for that, the institution needs to strategically value the online education enterprise); you need authority and accountability established at various institutional levels to support successful online teaching and learning environments;  policies and procedures are required to document and reinforce accountability; and resources are essential to support, scaffold, and continuously improve good practices. This happens at SUNY with variation from campus to campus. I would say that many of our campuses have been there and improved over time, and have a combination of things in place to address these common concerns. It has taken some of our institutions time (some have been doing online for more than 25 years), effort, and iteration. And, there is always room for improvement. Everyone plays a role – it takes the whole institution, not just the faculty, to support and ensure high quality online teaching and learning environments. The OLC scorecard for the administration of online programs cites 75 standards across 9 categories that are required to ensure high quality in online education:

• Institutional Support
• Technology Support
• Course Development and Instructional Design
• Course Structure
• Teaching and Learning
• Social and Student Engagement
• Faculty Support
• Student Support
• Evaluation and Assessment

We develop tools and resources for our SUNY campuses to implement and adapt (if they choose). We have developed a program to assist in helping campuses realize what is necessary to ensure online quality at an institutional level. Here are some resources to help campuses create larger scale on line course quality initiatives.

I recommend the OLC scorecard for the administration of online programs. We have developed another program, the SUNY Online Institutional Readiness Program, using the OLC scorecard to assist our SUNY Campuses identify gaps and best practices in their overall online education efforts and create an Online Education implementation plan to fill their gaps and sustain their best practices:

If you believe that faculty are the problem, I’d love to learn more about your context and challenges, and to help shift your perspective to envision possible solutions.