6 steps to gain faculty support for online learning

I have the unique privilege of viewing the development of online learning through three different lenses: as former chaired and tenured faculty and program head at the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business, as former dean at Babson College in Mass., and now, as principal learning strategist at ExtensionEngine. I’ve had many conversations with institutional leaders, and too often they are complaining about how their faculty get in the way of plans for online programs.

Recently, a case at Eastern Michigan University came to light in which the administration and faculty had very different experiences with online efforts. Unfortunately, most situations that I’ve encountered are more similar to this than they are different.

Faculty are often seen as barriers to change, the “opposition” of administration in leading a school to greatness. This doesn’t have to be the case. Let me point out a few changes that would make the process more successful.

1. Start with the faculty’s vision of the program.
Faculty are the core resource of any school; their very presence defines the areas of expertise of the school. It is only faculty who can gain lifetime employment security. Given both of these facts, it is counterproductive to start anywhere other than with the faculty’s vision for what a program might become and should be. Certainly, the administration is a vital part of the process, but they need to think of themselves as enablers of, and partners of, the faculty rather than something that is burdened by them.

A faculty team’s vision might entail several dimensions. First, the faculty will have some notion of how much they are willing to be involved in the creation and delivery of a course. You will need to have conversations and presentations about different models and the level to which the school is willing to support various models. Doing this early in the planning phase is vital to keeping these issues from overwhelming the process later.

Also, the faculty will have some insight into typical pedagogies that they might want to employ in the program. Again, you will need to have conversations about different modern online pedagogies and conduct research into learner engagement. Final decisions don’t yet need to be made, but preparing faculty to think about pedagogies appropriate for online learning (and differing from traditional face-to-face learning) is a useful step to take early in the process.

2. Build the course for the individual faculty member.
Faculty typically think of having “ownership” of a course. This is not necessarily right or wrong—it just is. If the new online program is going to change this perceived relationship, that will take many long discussions. The school will have to be clear from the beginning about how individual courses are created and managed as well as who has the right to change the course going forward. It is probably easiest, as a first step, to assign the responsibility to one faculty member with a supporting team of faculty members contributing to its creation and management (just as is usually done with a large, multi-section core course).

While a course is built within a program, and the program has a faculty that has defined appropriate pedagogies and learning approaches, specific faculty members and courses will require additional specializations and additions to the platform over time. It might be the case that these additions are built into the platform and course over time, or that simpler and less expensive substitutions are used to begin with; however, faculty should feel that they can create and teach a course to the best of their abilities (within a budget, of course).

3. Don’t start with credit-bearing programs.
Faculty are most protective of credit-bearing programs. This alone could keep an online program from ever seeing the light of day unless the faculty are fully supportive of it. You can’t just say that it will be a good experience; you need to prove it, most of all with experiences that they themselves go through.

If your school wants to move into online education in a significant way, you need to start small. Think about which faculty group you want to build support with, and then determine how to create a certificate program or an alumni-outreach program or a pre-matriculation-focused program. These are all great areas for the faculty to gain experience with online learning. They provide value to the school while also providing environments in which faculty feel free to experiment with new pedagogies and course-delivery modes.

4. Recognize the work required to create a course.
Creating an innovative, effective, and engaging online course requires a lot of effort on the part of faculty (and instructional designers, among others). Treating this effort as similar to what faculty might do in order to create a new in-person course significantly understates the effort needed. Word travels fast among faculty, so let them know that you understand the workload involved.

Administration should also recognize this initial course creation with pay and time—such as an increase in pay or a reduction in load for that semester. Delivery of a course is another issue altogether; it might take more effort or it might take less, all depending on the pedagogies used, the size of the classes, the support personnel available, etc.

5. Don’t move too fast.
Moving into online learning requires a broad organizational commitment, and doing it well requires expertise and insight within each group. Further, it requires cooperation among the groups and mutual understanding of the point of view and expertise in each of the groups. None of this happens quickly, and it can’t be forced. Also, leadership and faculty time is limited and the demands on their time are significant; therefore, you should plan to implement new programs one at a time.

6. Create something great.
One of the biggest concerns from faculty is that many think that great online learning doesn’t yet exist. It does. Take a look at what Harvard Business School is doing with HBX. They’ve transformed their renowned case-study method into an interactive learning experience through modern online technologies. And, take a look at Notre Dame’s first online master’s program, which, in their words, is “‘authentically online; designed for online, and not simply an upload of existing face-to-face graduate courses in applied statistics, applied and computational mathematics and predictive analytics.”

Unfortunately, most online learning—and by most, I mean like 99 percent—is not great. It’s boring, antiquated, and it doesn’t use the pedagogies we know are effective. Your faculty vision of online learning might be skewed by the limited tell-and-test approach some traditional learning management systems offer. But online learning has evolved significantly, and we’re now at a point where institutions can create effective, engaging, learner-centric, faculty-approved learning experiences. Great online learning exists. Think big and create something great.

About the Author:

Scott Moore, Ph.D., is principal learning strategist at ExtensionEngine, where his role is to help institutions navigate the transition to online and blended learning. Previously, he was a tenured faculty member and led the undergraduate business program at the University of Michigan for 20-plus years and was dean of the undergraduate school at Babson College.