Year: 2007
Type: article
Abstract: As online education grows, universities face the challenge of training faculty members to become online course developers. Park University, a major provider of online credit courses to international and active-duty military students, has been facing this challenge since offering its first online courses in 1996. In this article, we will describe Park's course development process, which relies on an integrated approach guided by evolving standards of quality online instruction. Park's approach to online course development incorporates key elements similar to those outlined in a recent Innovate article describing Lawrence Technological University's (LTU) online training program (McCord 2007). These elements include clearly defining expectations for faculty course development, requiring faculty members to complete an online teaching course, assigning an instructional developer to each faculty member to provide guidance and ongoing support, and supporting the preparation of course materials using various media. Unlike LTU, which offered 11 courses online in Fall 2006 with 24 more expected by Fall 2007, Park University currently offers 311 courses online, some with multiple sections, resulting in over 500 online classes maintained by 144 faculty course developers. The significantly larger scale of Park's online instruction project requires more faculty members to be trained as course developers and online instructors, and it requires more instructional designers to be available to work with course developers. More importantly, an online learning program as large as Park's requires a course development process that encourages
Authors: Evelyn Knowles, Kathleen Kalata
Institution: Nova Southeastern University
Language: English
Topic: Online and Blended Learning
Subfield: Education
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
SDG: Quality education
Open Access status: green
Funder: Nova Southeastern University
OpenAlex ID: W1592788576