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Some reflections of faculty development in times of pandemic and beyond. Given the lack of a coherent & comprehensive pedagogical education approach in HE, it's important to reflect on the efforts made in the past months and try to build on the resources developed. 1/
From being an often neglected "nice to have", digital ed/ ed tech teams have become overnight the main providers of faculty support & training. In many universities though, this expertise was missing or under-developed - very unequal landscape in terms of resources. 2/
Some of the approaches to engage & support faculty: self-paced online courses (to model student experience); bespoke live sessions at departmental level, drop-in sessions where faculty come with Qs. A mix of general & discipline specific, reactive & proactive. 3/
Some challenges: cognitive overload (too much information, too many tools), balance between theory & practice (things immediately applicable, "silver bullets"), the reflex to do things exclusively synchronous & the greater demand for technical rather than padagogical guidance. 4/
Ways forward: working with faculties to personalise offer & make it relevant, showcasing faculty good practice in coming months, encouraging peer sharing & observation, providing essential info packages. Active listening & empathy training. 5/
Moving beyond this period: we should not waste the resources & social capital already created, but build on it to design coherent faculty development offers, both on online & f2f learning & teaching. More importantly, let's make sure teaching is a valued activity. end/
Thanks for the inspiring presentations & discussion on rapid mass staff development at the M25 Learning Technology Group meeting last week: @moodlepete @Puiyin @LeeLeewis Sarah Ney @CityUniLEaD Evan Dickerson @QMUL. cc @leohavemann @julievoce.
