2018 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

This work-in-progress paper addresses the development of effective design partnerships as a follow up to the initial success of a faculty development pilot program targeting quality design in online courses. As the university began delivering distance education over thirty years ago and transitioned to web-based, online education sixteen years ago, the faculty have most typically approached course design autonomously with minimal background in pedagogical practices, particularly those geared towards effective online learning. The pilot program allowed for more formal training in online pedagogy, but there is still area for growth in the quality of course design. As the push for online educational opportunities continues to grow and the demand for quality increases, the university has invested in instructional design resources to help develop online courses through a collaborative design model, moving away from instructors developing their courses autonomously and in seclusion. Adopting a collaborative course design model requires a cultural shift for faculty in how they approach their course design and facilitation processes. Instructors who have participated in the quality design in online courses pilot program have been targeted to work one-on-one with an instructional designer to work in collaborative partnerships to make improvements to their existing courses or to design new courses. Data will be collected via surveys and interviews of faculty participants on their experiences, as well as observational data from the instructional designer and from evaluating courses based on a quality assurance rubric both before implementing changes and upon completion of an updated or new design. It is expected that implementing a mechanism for fostering strong partnerships between instructional designers and instructors will lead to higher quality online courses and will help the shift for future design processes to be more collaborative in nature. The added support could also have implications for higher adjunct faculty retention and higher student satisfaction. Ultimately, a more effective course design model will be formally introduced for faculty teaching online to best support the development of quality online courses at the institution.