Internet Learning Volume 4, Number 2, Fall 2015 | Page 106

Advanced Faculty Professional Development for Online Course Building: An Action Research Project
reality, university instructors have been
in the crosshairs for over a decade now
as they have had to update their skills in
order to take on the duties associated with
educating students online. This shift in
pedagogy is significant. University-level
instructors have had to adjust to the online
environment, while learning a range of new
technologies in order to ensure their online
courses achieve the same learning outcomes
as face-to-face education. Not surprisingly,
Paulus, Myers, Mixer, Wyatt, Lee, and Lee
(2010) assert that more research must be
done to equip faculty with the means to
teach effectively online. Paulus et al. assert
that faculty development programs are
where this training occurs. Likewise, Roth
(2014) advances that higher education
must understand instructional professional
development because of the vital role faculty
members play in ensuring quality education
for students completing online courses.
With so much at stake, it is
surprising that there is not more research
on faculty training programs designed to
equip instructors to teach online, although
more has emerged in recent years. Still
there is notably little research on faculty
development programs for instructors with
existing experience teaching online but
who desire advanced instructional skills.
Subsequently, this study focuses on the
professional development of universitylevel
faculty with some experience in online
teaching, but who seek greater expertise.
The next section establishes what literature
offers in this area.
Literature Review
A
literature review was conducted to
determine what research currently
indicates about faculty training
for online instruction. Three trends
emerged from this literature: First, training
programs are consistently developed,
conducted, and analyzed based on a distinct
theoretical framework. Second, a range of
case studies on faculty training for online
course development has been conducted.
And third, this line of inquiry has given
considerable attention to best practices of
faculty training for online instruction. A
synopsis of the first trend follows.
The Online Instruction Training Program
Framework
A portion of faculty training
research has identified and tested different
developmental frameworks for online
instruction. Online instruction programs
have employed blended online learning,
design-based research, and problembased
training as frameworks for faculty
development. Nerlich, Soldner, and
Millington (2012), Shattuck and Anderson
(2013), and Cho and Rathbun (2013) offer
examples of these guiding frames.
Nerlich, Soldner, and Millington
(2012) employ Blended Online Learning
(BOL) as their theoretical frame. They choose
BOL for several reasons (e.g., to encourage
collaboration among faculty members
participating in online instructional
training), but most importantly because
BOL promotes a “community of inquiry”
among trainees (p. 323). Based on Nerlich
et al.’s research, BOL is found useful for
building and facilitating faculty training
because it positively impacts those at most,
if not all, levels of higher education (e.g., the
student, the teacher, and the administrator).
Further, BOL is deemed valuable because
it helps facilitate trainee collaboration and
problem-solving abilities during training as
well as after a program has ended.
In contrast, Shattuck and Anderson
(2013) identify design-based research (DBR)
as their framework for training in order to
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