Faculty Peer Review for On-line Courses Implications for Promotion and Tenure

1. Faculty Peer Review for On-line Courses Implications for Promotion and Tenure Dr. Joan D. McMahon Professor of HRD Towson University, Towson, MD 21252 mcmahon@towson.edu Dr. William McKelvie Formerly Professor of Counseling Psychology Bowie State University, Bowie, MD Now at Union Institute, Cincinnati, Ohio

2. Project that began in summer, 1999 with 14 teams of faculty members and Web-savvy associates from all the institutions in the University System of Maryland. • USM Chancellor Donald Langenberg named the 43 faculty members on these teams as Distance Education Fellows.

3. By the end of this session, you should • Examine criteria for faculty review of on-line courses. • Consider the implications of faculty training on these criteria. • Question issues around workload and promotion/ tenure.

4. The Peer Review Project • Peer review coordinator (chair) composed of a WIT member and • Two or more Subject Matter Experts (SME) from outside the USM schools.

5. Course rationale Learning and teaching theories Goals and objectives Learning strategies Instructional design Content Interactivity Assessment and evaluation Internal organization and consistency Instructor’s role Teaching effectiveness continued Peer Review Criteria

6. Use of mediated resources and the Web Accessibility Robustness Technical support Responsiveness to learner needs Navigation More criteria...

7. Course rationale Learning and teaching theories Goals and objectives Learning strategies Instructional design Content Interactivity Each of these elements had to be re-designed for the web. Training was done in f2f workshops, peer mentoring or 1:1 support by in-house ISD personnel How are Peer Reviewers Trained?

8. Assessment and evaluation Internal organization and consistency Instructor’s role Teaching effectiveness. Each of these elements had to be re-designed for the web. Training was done in f2f workshops, peer mentoring or 1:1 support by in-house ISD personnel

9. Use of mediated resources and the Web Accessibility Robustness Technical support Responsiveness to learner needs Navigation Do peers have a checklist to monitor these items? What rubrics have been developed to assure quality? What will peers observe?

10. Design criteria Select SME who can address criteria Select SME who are knowledgeable about teaching online. Provide a chair to coordinate their responses Feedback the responses to the faculty member at Midterm (formative) Final (summative) What are the Protocols for Review?

11. Implications for Promotion and Tenure • A person who puts considerable effort into developing a web site [or course(s)] for a department and receives no recognition for the effort may feel exploited. • This lack of recognition and lack of support has the effect of undermining the scholarly work being done about teaching and learning and in undermining the self-confidence of the person doing the work. • Higher education is in a transition period where different levels of acceptance for newer forms of academic work still cause inequities and confusion. Young, Jeffrey R. "Rethinking the Role of the Professor in an Age of High-Tech Tools," The Chronicle of Higher Education, October 3, 1997.

12. In "anytime, anyplace learning" students and faculty may never meet face to face. This factor immediately eliminates seat time from the workload equation. New forms of electronic "office hours" can substantially increase the contact time between faculty and student. In addition, many report that students often expect and sometimes demand unreasonable access to faculty via e-mail. The question arises as to what is “reasonable” in terms of student access to faculty? Implications for Workload Young, Jeffrey R. "Rethinking the Role of the Professor in an Age of High-Tech Tools," The Chronicle of Higher Education, October 3, 1997.

13. While traditional courses and course materials require periodic review, courses delivered via the WWW require constant monitoring and updating to remain viable. Should this increased "course maintenance" be considered a normal part of the workload or receive special compensation? Implications for Workload

14. How should a faculty member be compensated for these larger sections? What additional support should be provided to assist in managing such large classes? Implications for Workload • Through the use of information technology, class size is no longer limited to seats available in the traditional classroom. Instead of separate sections offered at different times during the instructional week, lectures can be offered once to a greaternumber of students.

15. Implications for Promotion and Tenure • We have to redefine faculty roles • The highly individualistic conception of the faculty member as an autonomous professional needs to be modified to recognize the increasing interdependence of all forms of academic work. • The typical project of the future will often involve a team of faculty (and staff) from different disciplines collaborating on a task that could not be done by any individual alone. • Higher education needs to evolve better models of how faculty can work together and develop better institutional structures for supporting and evaluating such work. • University of Nebraska, Lincoln NN21- Scholarship, Evaluation and Rewards Report. Www.unl.edu/nn21/serdraft.html

16. Reactions about this session

17. Thanks! Dr. Joan D. McMahon http://www.towson.edu/~mcmahon mcmahon@towson.edu Dr. William McKelvie Formerly Professor of Counseling Psychology Bowie State University, Bowie, MD Now at Union Institute, Cincinnati, Ohio