Mentoring Online Faculty

1. Mentoring Online Faculty Dr. Dianna Rust Ms. Layne Bryant Middle Tennessee State University

2. Overview • Mentoring • Peer Observations • Faculty Training • Faculty Evaluations • Communication Plans • Other Resources

3. Department Profile • 3 Full time tenure track • 2 Full time temporary • 17 Adjunct faculty • 1050 University Studies majors Fall 2018 • 35 sections

4. Mentoring Best Practices • Institutions should assign new online faculty members mentors who are not their direct supervisor. • Another good practice is for mentees to have access to mentors’ classes.  • Mentors should review their mentees’ class prior to the start date; offer weekly meetings; review discussion forum participation and reinforce best practices; and review grading and feedback. • Mentoring is categorized into 3 elements emotional, technical and instructional (Wong, H. K., & Wong, R. T. (2009). The first days of school: How to be an effective teacher. Mountain View, CA: Harry K. Wong)

5. Mentoring Online Faculty at MTSU Content Mentoring Online Teaching Mentoring Mentees are new to teaching online Mentors have earned the Certified Online Instructor designation Mentors may be from different academic departments Mentors required to meet three times in the semester Mentors use standard checklist • Mentees are new to teaching course content • Mentors have taught course content multiple semesters • Content is pre-developed and loaded into online sections • Mentors determine frequency of meetings • Mentors use standard checklist

6. Peer Observation Best Practices • New teachers should be observed two or three times in their first term and then once or twice in subsequent terms. • Observation should be followed up with written feedback.  • Feedback should be provided about the faculty member’s leadership of the discussion forum, response to student assignments/grading, response time to emails etc.

7. Peer Observation at MTSU • Faculty observers are from the same academic department • Faculty and adjuncts are observed once per academic year • Faculty observers may meet in person or conduct review in the LMS • Peer observation form includes faculty reviewer feedback and opportunities for instructor self reflection

8. Online Faculty Training Best Practices Institutions should establish goals for: Must haves: Orientation for online faculty  Include information about the University and the student population they will be teaching Include expectations Principles of quality instruction Demonstrate the technology Provide course overview • Orientation and ongoing professional development • Load and compensation • Responsibility for course features, such as creating a syllabus, plagiarism information, introduction, welcome and unit introductions and summaries • Timeliness • Tone and type of interaction with students

9. Online Faculty Training at MTSU Departmental Faculty Training Institutional Faculty Training Optional MTSU LMS boot camp Required best practices in online teaching week-long workshop for faculty new to online teaching • Semi-annual faculty meetings • Report curriculum or course design changes for upcoming term based on student learning outcomes assessment • Discuss faculty feedback and determine next steps • Review departmental and university policies • LMS training specific to courses • Brown bag luncheons

10. Online Faculty Evaluation Best Practices • Institutions should conduct performance reviews at least annually • Performance reviews should include observation feedback and also include student satisfaction, achievement and performance data • If student evaluations of teaching are administered online, implement strategies to increase the response rate: • Explain purpose of evaluation • Explain how evaluation results are used • Provide incentive for completion (extra credit, ungraded requirement)

11. Online Faculty Evaluation at MTSU Written Annual Evaluation includes: • Student Evaluation of Teaching (SET) • Grade distribution and retention reports • Adherence to departmental policies

12. Online Faculty Communication Plans at MTSU • Faculty feedback survey • Start of semester instructions • Bi-weekly emails • Semester wrap-up instructions

13. Other resources for online faculty development • Course delivery rubric available in Clinefelter, D. (2012) Best Practices in Online Faculty Development. The Learning House, Inc. https://www.learninghouse.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/Best-Practices-for-Online-Faculty-Development_Web_Final.pdf • Peer Observation Form Kingsborough Community  College, Peer Review of Online Teaching. http://www.kbcc.cuny.edu/college_council/Documents/AttachmentA310.pdf • Tobin, T., Mandernach, B., & Taylor, A. (2015).  Evaluating online teaching: Implementing best practices. San Francisco, CA: Josey-Bass. https://www.wiley.com/en-us/Evaluating+Online+Teaching%3A+Implementing+Best+Practices-p-9781118910368 • Williams, T., Layne, M., and Ice, P. (2014). Online Faculty Perceptions on Effective Faculty Mentoring: A Qualitative Study. Online Journal of Distance Learning Administration, 17(2).https://www.westga.edu/~distance/ojdla/summer172/Williams_Layne_Ice172.html • Professional organizations