Internet Learning Volume 4, Number 2, Fall 2015 | Page 110

Advanced Faculty Professional Development for Online Course Building: An Action Research Project
the workshop and build the online or hybrid
course to QM standards receive a $3000
stipend. The workshop began in spring 2010
and by spring 2015, 195 faculty members
had successfully completed the “Build a Web
Course” workshop.
While the mission of CHSS ODE
is to grow online programs and online and
hybrid courses, ODE does not promote that
growth by compensating faculty solely for
course development. Instead, ODE provides
a stipend for professional development
that includes a deliverable (i.e., an online or
hybrid course or component of a course). In
2010, when the workshop first began, CHSS
administrators theorized that if faculty were
taught to build online and hybrid courses
with an incentive for the training, then
faculty would continue to build and teach
more online and hybrid courses.
Statement of the Problem
Although online and hybrid course offerings
have increased in CHSS, the rate of increase
has not been as significant as that anticipated
at the beginning of this study. When faculty
members were informally queried regarding
the reason, three main answers were given
(Terantino, Slinger-Friedman, Thomas,
Randall, Aust, & Powell, 2014; Slinger-
Friedman, Terantino, Randall, Aust, &
Powell, 2014.) First, they wanted updated
online/hybrid teaching skills. While faculty
could take the workshop or any part of it
as many times as they liked, they were only
paid for successful completion the first time.
Second, when faculty who had completed the
workshop were asked why they did not build
more online and hybrid courses after the
workshop, they answered that they wanted
an incentive such as a stipend. And third,
there were faculty who wanted more than a
skills update. They wanted advanced skills
training and pedagogy, and they wanted it in
a convenient and effective format.
In order to stay within the CHSS
policies compensating faculty for high quality
course development while at the same time
responding to faculty requests and fostering
the development of more online and hybrid
courses, 3 directors of distance learning and
10 online coordinators from CHSS designed
and created a pilot training program for
advanced users to develop online courses.
The alpha version of this program was
termed “The Project.” This training consisted
of a series of learning modules developed and
designed to offer participants with existing
teaching experience a program for advanced
instructional development.
At the same time, data was drawn as
part of an action research project to extend
faculty professional development literature.
Torbert’s (2004) developmental action
inquiry was chosen to facilitate participant
self-transformation as well as enhance
instructor creativity, awareness, justness
and sustainability and guide data collection
over the course of the program. Using the
developmental action inquiry framework,
data was collected in two ways: First, at the
end of each learning module, the discussion
board postings were reviewed for insights
regarding the effectiveness of the module.
Second, each participant completed a 15-
item survey related to “The Project” at the
end of the training program (see Appendix
A).
Results
The Project” was initiated by the
Director of Distance Education in
the College of Humanities and Social
Sciences at Kennesaw State. The purpose
of "The Project" was to create advanced
online professional development to provide
faculty within HSS at KSU who already
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