Faculty development to design effective online courses: Responding to requirements

Abstract

Since the pandemic, the importance of faculty development has been taken much more attention and has gone from being an ‘expectation’ to a ‘requirement’. Therefore, universities have started to step toward faculty development, which is also necessary. A wide variety of professional learning activities has been used for faculty development purposes in universities, but the research examining its effectiveness is limited. Our goal is to investigate the experiences of faculty from diverse backgrounds regarding technology-based, high-quality professional development programs in terms of their effectiveness. The faculty working at a foundation university participated in high-quality professional development programmes implemented in this study. The data were collected through focus group interviews. Using a qualitative methodology, we have found that faculty improved their knowledge and skills in designing and teaching online courses, with some faculty even reporting active use of what they have learned in their class and finding it valuable and effective. Program features such as feedback, facilitation, and best examples are helpful for having faculty grow pedagogically. The faculty has demonstrated that they can participate in learning activities that are meaningful to them in their daily lives. For the professional development programmes designed for the faculty to be effective in future studies, it is recommended that the programmes should be designed in a meaningful way for the faculty. Received: 3 November 2022 Accepted: 5 February 2024

Keywords

• Faculty development program
• centre of excellence
• online teaching
• online instructional design
• professional development in higher education