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Melody
Thompson
Director of Planning and Quality for Penn State's World
Campus
Sloan-C Effective Practices Editor, Faculty Satisfaction
A major factor in the success of online higher
education programs is a strong faculty commitment to teaching in this
new environment. A growing body of research and experience
has shown that such commitment is directly related to levels of
personal and professional satisfaction.
Faculty satisfaction results when those teaching
in online programs receive the personal rewards, institutional
support and professional recognition they need to feel positive
about what they do and to do their jobs well. The following factors
are important contributors to faculty satisfaction:
- Opportunities to engage new populations
of students in interactive learning communities
- Opportunities for research and publication
relating to online teaching
- Adequate technical infrastructure
to support interaction between/among students, faculty, and
the institution
- Technical training for online instruction
- Governance/quality assurance of online
programs by senior faculty, including input into institutional
policies particular to online learning and establishment of
appropriate professional performance expectations
- Parity in workload between classroom
and online teaching
- Institutional policies that appropriately
recognize and reward online teaching and scholarly activities
- Institutional commitment to ongoing
study/enhancement of the online teaching experience
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Major
Issues
The satisfaction factors listed above represent
goals to work toward. Currently, institutions vary in the level
of support they offer to faculty members in these areas. Reviews
of faculty attitudes and satisfaction with online teaching have
identified several common concerns:
- Technical support. Faculty members
making the transition to the online environment need 1) up-front
support in designing courses appropriate for the online environment
and student population; 2) training in new skills necessary
to teach successfully on line; and 3) ongoing technical support
during the delivery of their courses. Inadequate support in
any of these areas lowers faculty satisfaction.
- Faculty responsibility/governance.
Individual faculty members and the faculty as a whole view curricular
and instructional quality as their responsibilities. When institutions
circumvent the faculty in decisions related to curriculum, pedagogy,
and/or policies related to online programming, faculty satisfaction
is compromised.
- Workload. Faculty members routinely
report that developing and teaching online is more time intensive
than face-to-face instruction. Failure to compensate faculty
for this extra effort can result in low levels of faculty satisfaction.
- Institutional rewards. Tenure-track faculty
members have multiple demands on their time, particularly research/publication,
teaching, and service. In most institutions, the reward of tenure
depends primarily on research/publication performance. Faculty
members expected to spend the extra time involved in teaching
on line can feel penalized when this responsibility interferes
with the activities more highly valued—and rewarded—by
their institution.
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