Right on Jamie. Your statements echo what we look for. If I see a good resume or hear of a good artist, I will call them and ask if they would like to come in and give our students a demonstration and lecture on what they specialize in. We pay them for their time and this tells us if they have many of the requirements to be teaching in the area of study.
I have been able to quickly eliminate or hire based on the info gathered from this demo and still have good promotion of our school.
Cliff
Cliff that is a fabulous process you have developed because:
1. You get the information you need to make an informed hiring decision.
2. You maintain the goodwill of the individual by paying them.
If possible, I would encourage others to try this.
Thank you for sharing.
My school offers online classes only, so the skills needed are very specific along with the aptitude to teach online courses. My program is Technology Management so the knowledge I look for is IT related, although one of the courses offered is the management of IT staff. So I do look for management methods they know.
The skills I look for are mostly dictated to by our accrediting organization, especially regarding actual months of experience in the technology field. They require more than 48 months of experience managing in a technology field.
The abilities that I look for are is if the instructor has kept up with changing technologies and is aware of new technologies. But the most important ability is to communicate with students through email, phone and online discussions, because we are an online college.
Hi John
Do you think instructors must come with this
skill set or will you accept some skills and
develop others?
I will have to agree with you in that changing the metallity of those who teach in our institucion from their technical field to instructor is somewhat a challenge; however, I must say that we offer them a variety of training that are geared toward being an instructor. ALso, the fact that we are an accelerated bilingual school, we offer them training not only in how to be a successful instructor, but in how to take content and language into consideration when assessing our students. So, far we have heard very successful stories from our students and we are very please with the efforts we have placed on our instructors. We continue to generate more options.
Ricardo Ortolaza, Ed.D.
DIrector of Faculty and Curriculum
The school at which I am employed, offers online courses as well. Therefore, I look for instructors that are competent with online technology. I would prefer to hire someone that is already familiar with a learning management system (LMS). However, these are skills that I am willing to develop.
Along with computer literacy, the courses that I hire for are general education courses. Therefore, I look for a variety of instructors. Years of experience is not mainly an issue. I look to hire instructors that are knowledgeable and educated in their prospective areas.
We seek specific knowledge with the course being taught with a minimum of 48 months using or managing that area of expertise. The skills we seek are good communication that includes verbal and written; discipline to interact with students regularly; good computer access using the Internet and Microsoft products; and personality that works well with students. The aptitude we look for is easily adaptable to constant change and an aptitude to learn new skills quickly. We ask all applicants to take a personality test and that is used to screen potential candidates.
We will accept instructors with basic skills necessary to teach online and we can develop others.
Thanks for your response John.
Have you found personality testing helpful? If so, would you recommend it to other schools? Why?
:-)
John, when looking for instructors for my department we also look for good communication, and computer skills. However, the minimum reqirements are a Masters Degree in Business, 4 years of business management experience, and one year of teaching experience.
At my online institution we have very rigid requirements that are dictated by our accrediting body.
Our requirements include a minimum of four years of on-the-job experience or 15 credit hours depending on the area of study to be managed.
We also prefer a Masters degree but require at least a degree that is equivalent to the level of class being taught.
A high level of computer proficiency and excellent written and verbal communication skills are also essential.
I definitely agree with your comment Shanel regarding computer literacy. It is difficult to explain learning system functions and features to a candidate who is not at least moderately comfortable with computers. Lack of familiarity can slow down the process of preparing a new instructor to teach...especially when conducting the training by telephone.
The initial preparation phase can be enhanced by prior computer literacy and this allows more time to be spent on the schools environment, policies, and procedures.
doing a good psychiatric eval, checking references by always contacting the human resourse dept and not supervisors checking academic backgrounds
Thank you Lori
Would you please explain a little more about the "knowledge, skills, and aptitudes" you are seeking in instructors.
Lori Barnes wrote:
Answer: Knowledge, as far as knowledge is concerned i expect that all instructors working for us have at least 3 years training in a hospital setting, this helps because the nurse has been exposed to many different areas of medicine not just long term care and therfore is able to better guide and explain those who are seeking entry level positions into the medical field. Skills: the three years working in a hospital setting has changed a new grad or long term care nurse into a well established and routine caregiver who has been exposed to so many different problems faced in the patients that they care for that this also helps them to be a better instructor. Aptitude: as far as aptitude most nurses are teachers from the beginning, on a daily basis we are expected to teach competent patient care, train new staff/shadow and precept students who come on the floor so usualy that is not a area that in fear much in, those who are nurses and are not a natral teacher wouldnt make it past my doors those usually are the nurses who do not want to be botherd with and usually have distict nasty tones and attitudes. in all i look for the nurse who can deal with difficult students, keep me engaged with comical attitudes and the experience which is needed to help the new student go futher and suceed.
In hiring a good instructor, I seek people with knowledge in a specific field, as well as practical experience. However, along with education and experience, a good instructor must possess general abilities related to teaching and service, such as: verbal, problem solving, and social skills, organization, sensitivity, patience, friendliness, assertiveness, open-mindedness, and discipline.
When conducting an instructor search, our first priority is to ensure that candidates have the educational and work experience background that matches the program objectives and outcomes. Their knowledge should be broad and current; skills should be exceptional and easily demonstrated; and their aptitude coincides with the program.
if a prospective instructor meets all my requirments then i must see that person in a class room enviroment, typically i set up a seminar of my choice give them one weeks notice. then observe them in that enviroment
I am new to the hiring game and just recently hired a faculty member with 6 degrees! While I understand that most people do not have that many degrees, our new hire's education and work experience certainly help set precedence for additional hires, which we did not really have before.
In addition to knowledge of the subjects being taught, flexibility, dependability, self-control, punctuality and ability to develop rapport with the students are the attributes we seek.
In addition to a thorough grasp of the subject matter -- combined with superior presentation skills -- our instructors must demonstrate patience, diplomacy, punctuality and the flexibility to accommodate frequent last-minute schedule changes. And, since our classes are offered throughout the tri-county area, our instructors must possess excellent driving skills, a good sense of direction, the ability to follow directions and the stamina required for extensive local travel.
