Northern Illinois University developed competency-based self-paced online workshops to introduce faculty to online teaching technologies as part of their online faculty certification process. The workshops allow faculty to learn about online teaching at their own pace through online modules that cover identified technology competencies. The self-paced model makes the training scalable and flexible and accommodates faculty with different experience levels and availability. The workshops are designed to be mobile-optimized and publicly available without logins so faculty can access just-in-time learning resources.

1. Designing Competency-Based Self-
Paced Online Workshops for
Introducing Faculty to Online Teaching
Technologies
Jason Rhode, PhD @jrhode
October 29, 2014 | OLC Annual Conference, Orlando, FL #ALN14

2. Polling Question
What competencies should faculty demonstrate
before teaching their first online course?
Text 30688 and your
message to 37607
Submit responses at
PollEv.com/jrhode
Tweet @poll 30688
and your response

3. Description
During this session, learn about Northern Illinois
University's innovative faculty development
initiative to offer introductory online technology
training via self-paced online workshops as a
component of comprehensive online faculty
certification. An overview of the process identifying
technology competencies for online teaching will be
shared as well as the design, development, and
implementation phases of the project, highlighting
lessons learned and tips for other institutions
interested in pursuing a similar self-paced model for
scaling their faculty development efforts.

4. Challenge
• Instructors recruited who aren’t in physical
proximity to campus or have full-time job and
can’t attend training
• Newly hired instructors needing access to
training before contract begins
• Instructors hired on short notice
• Increasingly instructors have previous
experience and simply need to demonstrate
proficiency

5. About NIU
5

6. Northern Illinois University

7. About NIU
» Main campus in
DeKalb, IL located 65
miles West of Chicago
» Total enrollment:
20,611 (Fall ‘14)
» 1,135 instructional
faculty
» Student to faculty ratio:
18:1
» 39 academic
departments; 57
undergraduate majors;
80 graduate programs
» 95% of undergrads and
79% of grad students
are from Illinois
» 719 international
students from 122
countries

8. Current Status of Online Teaching
at NIU
8

9. Online Courses Offered
• NIU currently offers less than 100-150 course
sections online per semester
• In fall 2014, 122 online courses offered from 6
colleges

10. Blackboard Usage at NIU
As of Fall 2014:
• 96% of students
• 92% of instructional
Faculty/Staff/TAs
• 63% of course sections
• 4.24 course
sections/student on
Blackboard

11. Previous Support Offered by
Faculty Development and
Instructional Design Center
11

12. Online Teaching 101
• 6-week online
learning experience
for NIU faculty
offered during
summer past 3
years
• 2 f2f sessions,
remainder all
online, 1 module
completed each
week
face-to-face wrap-up session

13. Teaching Engaging
Online Courses
• Interactive 1-day workshop presented by Center staff
providing systematic overview of pedagogical and
pragmatic considerations in creating a quality online
teaching and learning experience

14. Challenges
• Faculty find it difficult to attend training
programs of extended duration during the
semester
• Many units, such as Nursing and Technology,
have considerable student demand for online
courses but rely on adjuncts who often can’t
attend on campus or online programs with
fixed schedules

15. Online Workshops & Archives
Over 110 archived online workshops offered by the Center
to date available on topics related to online teaching and
technology integration

16. “Preparing to Teach Online”
• Self-paced training
modules on online
teaching
• First of 3-step
approach to potential
online teaching
certification process
for NIU faculty
Self-Paced
Online Learning
Experience
One-on-One
Consultations
Face-to-Face
Workshops

17. Online Program Development and
Support

18. New Organizational Structure
Executive Vice President
and Provost
Vice President of Outreach,
Engagement, & Regional Dev.
Assistant Vice President for
Outreach Adult and Non-credit
Programming
Vice Provost for Faculty Affairs
Director, Faculty Development
and Instructional Design Center
Director, eLearning Services

19. Support for Online Teaching
Customized online teaching support services offered to prepare program
faculty to teach online:
Introduction to
Online Teaching
Consultations
on Online
Teaching
Technology
Skill
Development
Workshops &
Resources

20. Readiness Self-Assessment
Previous
Online
Teaching
Experience
Access to
Technology
Technology
Proficiency
Individualized online teaching
professional development plan

21. Online Teaching Concierge
• Individualized plan of
suggested live and
recorded online
workshops, tutorials,
and related resources
• “Online Teaching
Concierge” who you can
contact for guidance
and assistance getting
started teaching online

22. Competency-Based
Self-Paced
Blackboard Workshop
23

23. Why Self-Paced?
• Accommodates full spectrum of previous
experiences
• Training prospective instructors before hired
• Scalable, flexible, mobile
• Growing preferences for just-in-time resources
and training
• Leverage existing on-demand support
resources

24. Teaching with Blackboard
niu.edu/blackboard

25. Just-In-Time Support
Stats shown for 2013-2014 academic year

26. Illinois

27. USA

28. World

29. Repeated Use
11% of traffic visited site
18% of
traffic
visited site
> 25 times

30. Linking Institutions
14.9% of pageviews
from other .edu

31. Tutorial Views
views on YouTube

32. Device Traffic
Desktop,
85.51%
Phone,
10.19%
Tablet,
3.30%

33. Vision for Self-Paced Model
• Publicly available for any user, not requiring
login
• Just-in-time access to information, no
enrollment needed
• Shared via Creative Commons
• Mobile-optimized
• Option for users to demonstrate competencies
to receive “credit” for attending, awarded
badge

34. Benefits to Self-Paced Model
• Those who can’t attend in-person or commit
to specific timeframe can gain introductory
information
• Faculty who want to get started quickly can
accelerate their learning
• Accommodates those with differing teaching
and technology expertise so that they can
begin with the self-paced training and then
receive follow-up assistance for course-specific
needs

35. Competencies
facdev.niu.edu/bbcompetencies

36. Workshop Outline
facdev.niu.edu/bb1outline

37. Production Task Tracker

38. Demo
(Prototype in Development)
39 39

39. Self-Paced Workshops
Redesigning our website at niu.edu/facdev
to include self-paced workshops – set to launch any day!

40. Introduction to Blackboard

41. Sample Tutorial Page

42. Closer Look

43. Mobile Responsive Design

44. YouTube Playlist on Web
facdev.niu.edu/bb1vids

45. YouTube Playlist on Mobile
facdev.niu.edu/bb1vids

46. Videos Captioned & Mobile

47. Videos Easily Repurposed
niu.edu/blackboard/tutorials

48. Quick Guides Incorporated
niu.edu/blackboard/guides

49. Launching Soon!
niu.edu/facdev

50. Questions?
Jason Rhode, Ph.D.
Director, Faculty Development
and Instructional Design Center
Northern Illinois University
jrhode@niu.edu
@jrhode
Slides available at:
jasonrhode.com/aln14