Determining Training Needs
The importance of identifying and following through with training necessary to make students, faculty, and staff comfortable with learning management systems, time management, and communication tools cannot be emphasized enough. Many school leaders identify training needs, but don't a) require training; b) provide staff time to manage, audit, or update training; and c) evaluate training to see if it helps.
Anticipate some resistance to training- it represents change. Starting a successful online program is a change. Refresh the leadership team with strategies for managing change. Explore this useful website.
Many learning management systems provide online training tools or on-site training. Often the on-site training is limited to the system administrator, not the faculty and staff who will be using the system.
Requiring faculty and staff to enroll in and work through at least one module of an online course is a good first step. Prior to enrolling, it is often useful to have trainees provide a self-assessment of their computer skills. Determining that a trainee is a novice, intermediate, or skilled personal computer user will help the system administrator and course developer prioritize changes.
The key is to train faculty to be engaged and responsive. This starts with the hire... hire faculty who are naturally wired to communicate and respond.
There has been no training for our instructors on how to teach an online course. The instructors are not experienced teachers, but experts in their field. So not only does our faculty require training on teaching methodologies, theories and practices, but definitely require help and training on how to teach online. This became even more evident with course/instructor evaluations.
As the Director of Online Learning and Instructional Technology, I established standards and guidelines for online course design, development and delivery, and I am in the process of creating training for all faculty. I’m recommending that admissions people complete the course as well so they realize that it’s not just getting bodies into seats, but students who have the necessary skills to successfully complete online courses.
Due to our school being very small everybody had to go through testing the module and then training. Students rely on administrator and teachers to help them with the online courses. The best way to do this is for everybody to know the programs. If a teacher is not available to answer a students questions someone else has to step in. This guarantees that the student gets the best care. If the qestions are specific to course curriculum then the teacher has to take care of the student. Otherwise anybody can help the student.
I am aware this might not work at a large institution, but for us it is working perfectly.
I think every one at the system should be trained on how to mange the online delivery of the course.
The training needs for our long distance were developed based on our in house program outline and experience from the direct contact with the students. I am the instructor and developer of the programs with deep experience in the subjects, school operations and fully aware of the relationship between student proficiency and market requirements.
Currently, there is very little training for our online learning environment. There needs to be more training for all staff members (admissions, faculty, etc)on our LMS. I would be the one responsible for implementing training. Required training for every new staff member will be necessary in the future.
Currently we are in the process of hiring faculty who have experience in delivery of online courses. The university is not utilizing current faculty to teach online courses for retention purposes. The university currently is training prospective University faculty, staff and students for training once an LMS has been chosen.
My training needs will be rather broadbased as the IT that 'supports' the program is the IT responsible for the IT of the 23 Registries in the large corporatino that owns us and we will never be a priority. I sold the program and budget to corporate and will be responsible to make it profitable. The agreement with my request for our starting our online program on an outside server was a relief as it will be well supported. The need will still exist for our IT to train on the system to help provide the appropriate hardware. The teachers will need extensive training as they are not only ignorant of the new software, but of computing in general. The application person will take it to be better able to evaluate the student's likely competency, and know what tech to tell them they will need. I and the students round us out as we will need to function in the environment
Linda asked, "What are the training needs for online delivery of courses and programs at your institution? Discuss how those needs were defined and who is responsible for implementing them."
Everyone needs to be familiar with the online delivery of courses. Thankfully, our system as a "Meeting Room" functionality that is similar to an online course. We had a president who wisely used this for campus-wide trainings. The Dean/Director of Education and faculty coach need to be responsible for faculty training and introductory course faculty orient students.
Mark York
We have a training curve as well, but it starts with communication. The faculty needs to understand that with online we can not look the student in the eyes to gauge understanding, we must evaluate discussion boards and written work. For our blended programs we must pay more attention in the shops and correct misunderstandings there.
We have selected individuals from our existing faculty that have great communication skills and an aptitude for technology. We will slowly be training the remainder - as time and needs allow.
-Chris
We are new in this market--less than a year. We put courses up for others and host them. Since we are not a school our training needs are a little different. The people teaching the course need the initial training and we've been adding a teacher training course for free. Well, you hit the nail on the head here--free does not work! Most don't finish the course and then we have a ton of "help desk" type questions when the course goes live. Next time we offer the course there will be a fee.
We do provide direction for the participants in the course as part of their introduction and that seems to work pretty well unless we get someone who doesn't know what a browser is, then all bets are off!
I admit to being very surprised at the lack of interest in the training for the teachers when they are the ones who have to actually teach the class! It's their material but they don't seem to get that teaching online is quite different than teaching f2f.
Our institution hires qualified and well-trained instructors which makes our online class environment as equally conducive to learning. Our students enjoy the convenience of learning at home but never short-changed with the benefits our regular classroom students get in the campus.
We have a good in-class faculty but they don't have the computer skill necesary for establish the online program. So we gone to begin the process offering Basic Computer Trainings to our Faculty Staff.
I was able to participate in an on-line training of the environment that we use, eCollege. It was an intensive four-week course; we did what the students would be expected to do when they were in a class. There were others that were going to actually teach a class, so they had extra sections they needed to know about and how to use. Having this training help me and the on-line liaison know how to help the students from day one.
The person who conducted the class/course was on staff at the coporate office, experience in this type of training.
Our institution does not have any online programs, however we are reaching space capacity and may need to soon.
When we do start online, most staff should be required to attend at least one module of an online course. An understanding of online education should have a positive effect on sales and student success.
I can envision a growth opportunity by contracting out some of our base courses to release space for onsite labs, and fast-pace our injection into the online market.
Locally our availability of online instructors is lacking so outsourcing online courses would be our only current option. However, some of our instructors are taking their continuing education courses online and are see a growing market for online instructors. A few are even discussing and contemplating the transition.
There are two key things that are crucial:
1) A thorough and complete understanding of the platform;
2) Understanding current trends in teaching methodology and best practices to insure that the "real world" is brought up bear in the classroom..
Training needs are to be dedveloped throughout the institution. This will allow faculty, staff, and students to ber familiar with tht system. Thus cutting back on tech support calls.
Training is crucial if you want an online program to work. It can be harder to stay on track for an online student. Part of the training also needs to consist of how to evaluate students to see if they have what it takes to make it in the online school world. I still need to do more research to figure out what is the best training to give staff, students and educators to ensure the success of an online course for our institution. Online education is not for everyone but, it is the only way for some.
Our instructors are experts in their fields. Some have experience teaching and some do not...However, all undergo various training before teaching for us and throughout the year. Staff also receive training specific to our online programs.
