Friday, July 27, 2001

Maryland Colleges Band Together to Train Professors to Teach Online By JEFFREY R. YOUNG Talk about "sink or swim." Professors are often given little or no training before teaching their first online course. But in Maryland, 23 colleges that hope to prepare faculty members better for online education have set up a consortium that runs joint training programs and develops materials to help professors bring their courses into cyberspace. The group, called the Faculty Online Technology Training Consortium, offered its first intensive training program last summer, putting 40 professors through nine days of training in how to teach in a virtual classroom. Those faculty members were then encouraged to go back to their institutions and instruct others in how to teach online. In addition to the training, members of the consortium have developed a library of teaching materials on its World Wide Web site. The consortium is also building a series of online courses for faculty members, which are expected to be available this fall. "They'll be interactive, and a faculty member can go through them at their own pace," says Mary Wells, who is co-director of the consortium and the director of distance learning at Prince George's Community College. The materials and online courses are free, and colleges outside the consortium are encouraged to use them as well. The organization's efforts have sparked several member colleges to begin training programs on their campuses, says Jane Paulson, co-director of the consortium. Ms. Paulson is also interim director for administrative services at Maryland Online, which coordinates distance-education services throughout the state. One institution that has started a training effort is Baltimore City Community College. "Before the [consortium's] training, there was no faculty training program at Baltimore City Community College," says Diana Zilberman, the college's director of distance learning. "Now, professors who will teach online for the first time will be asked to take a training program." She says the training "will be done partly online, partly face-to-face." The consortium is supported by a $700,000 grant from the Maryland Higher Education Commission. The consortium could become a model for other colleges that want to pool their resources in developing training for online teachers, says Christine Dalziel, executive director of the Instructional Telecommunications Council, a nonprofit affiliate of the American Association of Community Colleges that supports distance education efforts among member institutions. "I think it's one of the only programs that I've heard of that is that involved," says Ms. Dalziel. Easy-to-print version E-mail this article

Convicted Chinese scholar is reunited with her family in the U.S. Study questions reliability of review boards on research involving animal subjects Phase 2 of "College Is Possible" campaign focuses on low-income minority students Dating on the American college campus is all but dead, survey finds Professor sues college over removal of Custer poster Freedom Forum announces journalism-teaching awards Reverse auctions can save universities money on big-ticket purchases, users say Maryland colleges band together to train professors to teach online