First Order: Respecting and Rescuing the Resistant

For many faculty members, the very thought of teaching online raises alarms and defenses. However, even in seated classes in today's world, we can all benefit from learning and instituting the principals of quality online course design. A team consisting of a Director of Online Learning and two faculty members will lead this fun discussion that will help rescue and respect faculty prone to resist. This session is aimed at anyone who can have an impact on faculty members in higher education. Whether you are faculty, administration, or instructional designers, this session will help you design and implement professional development at your institutions with the goal of bringing more faculty into the fold. How do we do this without making faculty feel forced? We will use the Force, but in the good way! Quality design is quality design, and showing faculty members how implementing these principles will help their students learn is sure to accomplishing that First Order of business (educating students) while still making good use of the strengths of even the most resistant faculty members. A key component is forming a strong partnership between those faculty might view as "the Dark Side" and the faculty members themselves. Faculty mentors partnering with administration and instructional design is the answer!