Faculty Engagement Sub-Committee

Mission

To promote excellence in online teaching and learning, to increase faculty interest in online teaching activities, to pursue collaborative endeavors within and outside the university to continue to build a strong foundation for faculty engagement in online teaching.

View, use, and share many of the resources and tools our teams have created by visiting https://weblearning.psu.edu/resources/penn-state-online-resources/.

Desired outcomes

  • Identify and share best practices for online teaching and learning
  • Identify and share competencies for online teaching success
  • Identify and share benefits of online teaching and learning in order to increase the number of faculty participating in online teaching
  • Identify barriers to faculty engagement in online teaching and suggest ways to eliminate or minimize those barriers
  • Promote and engage in research and creative activities related to online teaching and learning
  • Develop and communicate faculty professional development opportunities to stimulate innovation and effective online teaching and learning

Current Projects

  1. Are You Ready to Be an Online Learner? – This newest site is for learners new to the online learning experience. It outlines the qualities and skills needed to be a successful online learner, and includes a self-evaluation questionnaire and links to relevant resources.
  2. Faculty Manual for Online Teaching at Penn State – This manual for faculty who teach online is intended to serve as a template that academic units across the University can adapt for their own use. Once customized, the resulting manual will provide faculty with important unit-specific information about best practices, policies, and procedures related to online teaching and learning. Included are implementation examples from several units who have adapted this resource for their own needs.
  3. Mentoring Program Template – An effective faculty mentoring program can help faculty members share and acquire the professional skills and attitudes for personal, career, and institutional success. This information is adapted from a resource created by World Campus Faculty Development in 2011 and can be adapted for your local use. One such adaptation is shared.
  4. Ed Tech Advisor (ETA) – This new tool enables you to match pedagogical needs to ed tech resources available at Penn State.
  5. An update of the Faculty Self-Assessment for Online Teaching tool – The current tool has been revised to align with the Faculty Competencies for Online Teaching. The next step is to make the tool accessible to screen readers.
  6. Online Faculty Research Projects – Several research teams have outlined a series of research questions to pursue. The overriding themes of the research are the changing demographics in online faculty and studying the new demographic of online faculty.
  7. Data Collection on Web Learning Tools – This team is using web analytic tools to gauge users’ access and use of the Web Learning site. The data tells us what is happening on the Web Learning site, but not why it’s happening. The team will determine questions we need to ask that the data does not tell us. Then we’ll learn which tools to target for use cases/stories to share.

Committee Members (2019-20)

  • Jennifer Keagy, co-chair (Penn State Harrisburg)
  • Melissa Hicks, co-chair (Eberly College of Science)
  • Brett Bixler (Smeal College of Business)
  • Larry Boggess (World Campus)
  • Lisa Byrnes (College of the Liberal Arts)
  • Qi Dunsworth (Penn State Erie)
  • Renee Ford (Smeal College of Business)
  • Marilyn Goodrich (TLT)
  • Eileen Grodziak (Penn State Lehigh Valley)
  • Deborah Gulick (College of Arts and Architecture)
  • Erin Brennan (Wilkes Barre)
  • Michelle Baker (College of Communications)
  • Amy Kuntz (TLT)
  • Wendy Mahan (College of the Liberal Arts)
  • Cindy Decker-Raynak (Schreyer Institute)
  • Amy Garbrick (College of Information Science & Technology)
  • Jessica Resig (Penn State Erie)
  • Drew Tatusko (World Campus)
  • Ann Taylor (College of Earth and Mineral Sciences)
  • Michael Troyan (Eberly College of Science)
  • Kasha Przyblya (Eberly College of Science)
  • Mary Alyce Nelson (Nursing)
  • Ana Matković (Eberly College of Science)
  • Leslie Womeldorf (Nursing)
  • Joseph Houck (Eberly College of Science)

Page Contacts: Jennifer Keagy and Melissa Hicks