The Online Course and Faculty Development Program (OCFDP) is a collaborative program between Academic Technologies (AT) in the Center for Teaching and Learning, the Distance Education (DE) Department in the Division of Extended Studies, and the University’s academic departments. This comprehensive program supports the development of online courses and programs as well as the faculty members who develop and teach them. The elements of the program recognize that the development of an online course can take 4-8 months.
When I started the OTT course, I didn’t think it would help me much, but by week 2 I knew it would be valuable. Every online instructor should have to complete it. . . . Experiencing an online course from the student side really gave me insight.
Absolutely the OTT course made a difference. I didn’t expect to get much from it. But quite the opposite resulted. For one thing, I am certain I would have tried to approach this course on the model of my F2F [face-to-face] courses if I hadn’t taken the OTT course. That is, I would have put myself center stage, creating and posting lectures, and centered performance on examinations and writing assignments. Instead I have tried an entirely different pedagogy, that sidelines me and puts students in the spotlight together. That came from the OTT. . . .
I am not suggesting an online utopia has emerged but rather that the model works at least as well as traditional F2F lecture, and much better I think than trying to take my F2F approach online. Indeed I am rethinking my F2F strategy, considering replacing some lectures with online discussions.
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I think it is absolutely fundamental to have faculty preparing to teach online complete an OTT course. . . . I had no idea how to visualize and organize an online course before working through the OTT. It made a tremendous impact on what I have tried to do.
I am ABSOLUTELY sure that my [course] site is 100% better than it would have been without this course. Thanks for your patience and help!
